Pubdate: Sat, 29 Aug 2009
Source: Los Angeles Daily News (CA)
Copyright: 2009 Los Angeles Newspaper Group
Contact: http://www.dailynews.com/writealetter
Website: http://www.dailynews.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/246
Author: Tony Castro
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/topic/Dispensaries

THE CITY'S CRACKDOWN ON POT SHOPS

Los Angeles' booming cottage industry of medical marijuana vendors is 
mobilizing to fight the city's three-month crackdown that threatens 
to shutter hundreds of dispensaries.

Vendors say they're prepared to take their battle to court to fulfill 
the promise of Proposition 215 -- the 1996 voter-approved measure 
that legalized marijuana for medicinal use. Attorney Stewart Richlin, 
who represents more than 100 dispensaries, said he believes 
dispensaries that have been or are about to be closed are entitled to 
monetary damages. An alternative would be a court injunction allowing 
them to reopen or stay open.

"State law (permits), without equivocation, the cultivation, 
transportation and distribution of medical marijuana," Richlin said, 
"and these cities now need to be forced by a judge and court to 
comply with the law.

"These are not criminals. They are patients and centers treating patients."

But city officials say they are pressing ahead with the crackdown 
launched in June, when regulators began reviewing applications for 
permits to operate the dispensaries.

They say a majority of the dispensaries are lucrative cash businesses 
that require customers to provide little or no proof of medical need. 
And because the dispensaries have mushroomed throughout the city, 
they are now attracting crime and violence. 'A cash cow' City 
Councilman Dennis Zine noted that armed robbers are targeting the 
dispensaries, including a heist this month at a Woodland Hills 
clinic, where an operator was shot during a holdup.

"Police have now connected suspects to three robberies at (Valley) 
dispensaries," Zine said. "These have become attractive to robbers 
because there's a lot of cash transactions, and robbers figure 
they're easy hits."

Zine is on the council's Planning, Land Use and Management committee 
that has been overseeing the permit review. The committee has so far 
denied all of the three dozen or so applications.

"What was designed as a compassionate use act has been turned into a 
cash cow," he said. "The law has been abused by the greed of people 
there to make a quick buck."

Zine said officials intend to close down the hundreds of dispensaries 
that have sprung up -- often several within a few blocks -- and to 
leave in place only enough to serve the legitimate needs of patients.

Marc Kent, director of a clinic in Woodland Hills and a spokesman for 
a citywide coalition of dispensaries, said the clinics whose 
applications have been denied have simply followed the advice of city 
officials who informed them that filing an application would allow 
them to remain open.

According to Kent, the coalition intends to seek an injunction 
against the city to keep it from closing the medical marijuana 
clinics whose applications have been rejected.

Kent said his coalition is hiring a law firm to represent them. He 
said dispensary operators believe their due process rights were 
violated because they received short notice of the hearings and were 
given only a few minutes to make their case -- with city officials 
virtually spending no time weighing the testimony.

City Councilman Ed Reyes, who chairs the council's Planning, Land Use 
and Management committee, denied accusations that the dispensary 
applicants were railroaded.

State law requires only 72 hours notice to place items on an agenda, 
Reyes said, and officials carefully considered each application. No 
approvals since June Most of the requests were denied because the 
dispensaries did not register with the city by the deadline in 2007. 
Once the requests are denied, the city can take legal steps to force 
the clinics to close.

Reyes said he intends to whittle away at the hardship exemption 
applications, holding hearings in the council on a dozen or more at a time.

In 2003, the state established legal protections for 
medical-marijuana users who were issued a doctor's prescription. By 
2007, when Los Angeles had almost 200 dispensaries permitted under 
state law, the City Attorney's Office issued a moratorium to block 
new establishments until the city adopted a new ordinance.

Since then, 533 other dispensaries have opened without getting full 
authorization from the city by using a "hardship exemption" loophole. 
In all, according to industry and city estimates, the number of 
dispensaries in Los Angeles total about 800. By comparison, San 
Francisco has only about 30 dispensaries.

Among the San Fernando Valley dispensaries whose applications were 
denied were Aloha Spirit Organic Consumables in Reseda, West Coast 
Holistic Institute in Canoga Park, The Grasshopper 215 in Woodland 
Hills, and Hope Collective in Winnetka.

None of the applications considered since June have been approved.

JJ Popowich, president of the Winnetka Neighborhood Council, 
applauded the rejection of the Hope Collective in Winnetka, which had 
worked to shut it down.

"It's closed and boarded up," Popowich said. "The kicker was 
location. It was next to a liquor store and right around the corner 
from a topless bar and less than two blocks away from a school."

Officials said it is unknown how many of the dispensaries are 
considered to be operating legitimately but added most operate in 
violation of the moratorium.

Amy Weiss of Sherman Oaks, owner of the Buds on Melrose clinic in Los 
Angeles, disagrees.

"We are going to fight back because we've followed all the 
guidelines, everything (we're) supposed to do, but the city has 
failed to give us due process," Weiss said. Good intentions Weiss, 
who belongs to the coalition of dispensaries seeking to sue the city, 
said she believes her business typifies the clinics that have opened 
with good intentions.

"We started because my mom had breast cancer," Weiss said. "She's a 
survivor and when she went through her ordeal we couldn't find a 
(clinic) that catered to women and was sensitive to their needs.

"So we decided to open a collective that would be a safe haven for 
breast cancer patients, though we also cater to other patients."

Dispensary operators and advocates of medical marijuana clinics argue 
that the city's crackdown runs counter to the Obama administration's 
position on the issue.

In February, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Justice 
Department would no longer raid medical marijuana dispensaries that 
are established legally under state law.

It was a fulfillment of a campaign promise by President Barack Obama, 
and marked a major shift from the previous administration.

City officials hope a new medical marijuana ordinance will help 
establish clear rules for everyone and make it much easier to monitor 
the industry. But no one is certain when they'll get around to creating one.

"We're working on an ordinance to comply with Proposition 215 
Compassionate Use Act to allow marijuana for medical use," Zine said. 
"But we're not going to have three or four (marijuana) dispensaries 
on the same block."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom