Pubdate: Sat, 18 Aug 2012
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2012 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Kate Linthicum

POT DISPENSARY BAN IS TARGETED

Foes Hoping to Repeal L.A.'S Prohibition Are Gathering Signatures to 
Put a Referendum on the March Ballot.

Outside a Trader Joe's in Silver Lake, a man in sunglasses and 
flip-flops called out questions to bag-toting shoppers.

"Do you support medical marijuana?" he asked. "Well did you hear what 
City Hall just did?"

An army of signature gatherers has hit Los Angeles streets in recent 
weeks in a drive to repeal a recent ban on marijuana dispensaries. If 
activists can collect the roughly 27,400 names required within the 
next three weeks, a referendum to overturn the ban would go before 
voters in March.

The pot shop vote would share the ballot with the mayoral primary 
contest - an addition that could spice up the mayor's race and test 
the clout of the medical marijuana community.

Seeking to increase their influence in recent months, dispensary 
owners have coordinated contributions of thousands of dollars to the 
campaigns of some council members, and a labor union made up of 
dispensary workers has held boisterous rallies outside City Hall.

If the measure gets on the ballot, the immediate effect would be the 
temporary suspension of the ordinance outlawing dispensaries, 
officials said. That would leave the City Council back where it was a 
month ago, before it approved the ban in a lastditch effort to impose 
its will on an unconventional industry that has so far eluded 
regulatory control.

Officials celebrated the ordinance when it was passed, saying it gave 
the city a long-sought legal instrument to shut down dispensaries, 
especially those that have brought repeated complaints from 
neighbors. "Relief is on its way," City Councilman Jose Huizar 
promised residents.

But some defiant dispensary owners have vowed to keep their doors 
open, even as the city has begun notifying them that they must shut 
down by Sept. 6. In a letter mailed this week, city lawyers warned 
dispensary operators that they risk jail time and fines of up to 
$2,500 a day if they fail to comply with the ban.

The new law prohibits storefront sales of marijuana but allows groups 
of three or fewer to cultivate and share the drug.

Marijuana activists say that the new restrictions won't work and that 
growing medical-grade pot is an expensive science most patients can't 
afford. They argue that the ordinance violates a state law 
guaranteeing safe access to the drug for those who need it.

That claim was the basis of a lawsuit filed against the city Friday 
by a medical marijuana trade association that represents patients, 
dispensaries and growers.

Marc O'Hara, director of the Patient Care Alliance, said the 
dispensary ban is "heartless" and denies patients their right to assemble.

Jane Usher, special assistant to City Atty. Carmen Trutanich, said 
she had not seen the lawsuit. A similar challenge to a previous city 
ordinance that attempted to regulate dispensaries was rejected by a 
judge, she said.

Los Angeles officials have struggled for years to come up with a 
workable policy, partly because of contradictory court rulings on 
what cities can do to regulate distribution of medical marijuana. The 
city is battling more than 100 lawsuits over its earlier attempts to 
regulate dispensaries, Usher said.

Outside the Trader Joe's, Web developer Adam Zadikiansigned the 
petition, saying medical marijuana is a part of the city's culture 
and is here to stay. "People are not going to stop smoking," he said. 
"I don't think prohibition works."

Some other petitionsigners acknowledged that they had reservations 
about the rapid growth in the number of pot shops in Los Angeles, and 
about lax restrictions on who qualifies to be a medical marijuana patient.

"Sometimes I think it's too easy," Alberto Lopez said. "I see them 
every four blocks. It's crazy, but I guess it's safer than getting it 
on the corner."

Supporters of the dispensary ban said repealing it would be a step backward.

"It just puts us back in the status quo where there is no 
regulation," said Michael Larsen, president of the Eagle Rock 
Neighborhood Council. His neighborhood has attracted a large number 
of dispensaries in part because of its proximity to other cities, 
including Burbank and Glendale, that don't allow them.

"It's a no man's land. It's a crazy free-for-all for pot stores," he 
said. "I cross my fingers they won't be able to pull it off."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom