Pubdate: Thu, 30 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

VOTERS MAY GET REPEAL OF POT SHOP BAN

A referendum to repeal a ban on medical marijuana dispensaries in Los 
Angeles appears to be headed for the ballot, with pot shop supporters 
saying Wednesday that they have collected nearly twice the signatures 
required to force a citywide vote and key City Council members 
signaling that they won't try to stop it.

On Thursday, medical cannabis supporters plan to turn in the names of 
50,000 voters who want the referendum included on the March ballot. 
If the signatures prove valid, officials will be required to 
temporarily suspend the ban, which was approved with much fanfare 
last month and was due to go into effect Sept. 6.

If that happens, the city will be back where it was before the ban, 
without any law regulating the distribution of the drug.

The referendum effort is being backed by patients and several groups, 
including the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local 770, 
which started unionizing dispensary workers earlier this year, and 
the Greater Los Angeles Collective Alliance, an association of 
dispensary operators who registered with the city before a moratorium 
on new pot shops was enacted in 2007.

Members of both groups admit that they are using the referendum as a 
political tactic to force lawmakers to overturn the ban and adopt a 
more lenient ordinance that would allow the pre-moratorium 
dispensaries to remain open.

Rick Icaza, president of the union, said at a news conference 
Wednesday that he wants to avoid a ballot measure.

"We hope the City Council will come back to us now and say, 'Let's 
sit down at the table,' " Icaza said. He noted that if the referendum 
goes forward, it would share a ballot with the mayoral primary 
contest, the city attorney's race and eight council elections, 
forcing candidates to pick sides on what has been a polarizing issue.

If the referendum signatures are certified by election officials, the 
council will have 20 days to repeal the ban or put the issue on a ballot.

Councilman Paul Koretz, who is pushing the ordinance that would allow 
the city's oldest dispensaries to continue operating, said he hopes 
the council will overturn the ban, saying that the city needs a small 
number of "well-regulated and patient-centered dispensaries."

But Councilman Jose Huizar disagreed, saying that the council's 
decision last month to ban all storefront dispensaries marked a shift 
in the city's approach to medical marijuana. Like Council President 
Herb Wesson, who said through a spokesman Wednesday that "there are 
no plans to revisit the ordinance," he believes the issue should go 
on the ballot.

"We voted," Huizar said. "We sent a clear message about the direction 
we want to go in."

He asked why dispensary supporters aren't trying to push state 
lawmakers to clarify the rules governing the distribution of the 
drug. Confusion over exactly what regulations cities are allowed has 
resulted in a flurry of lawsuits across California and sometimes 
contradictory court rulings.

"Are they really about providing access to patients who need it, or 
are they about profit?" Huizar asked of the activists.

Don Duncan, whose group, Americans for Safe Access, is also part of 
the referendum effort, said "it is the interest of the patients we're 
looking at, not the collective owners." He noted that under Koretz's 
proposal to allow the city's original dispensaries to stay open, the 
several hundred shops that opened after the moratorium would be 
forced to shut down.

At the news conference, he shared a stage with several patients who 
said medical marijuana had changed their lives, including Freddie 
Metcalf, 58, a retired city of Los Angeles plumber who has a disease 
that causes inflammation of his body tissue.

Metcalf took issue with a provision of the ban, which prohibits the 
sale of cannabis but allows groups of three people or fewer to 
cultivate and share the drug. He said that he had tried to grow it 
behind his South L.A. home, but that the plant was stolen from his 
yard. Besides, he said, "I can't afford the water bill, I can't 
afford the electric bill."

Earlier this month, the city cited the ordinance in letters to the 
owners and landlords of 762 registered dispensaries, ordering them to 
shut down. The move was hailed by some neighborhood groups which have 
complained that dispensaries attract crime and loitering.

If the ban is suspended, it's unclear what the city will be able to 
do to close dispensaries.

Jane Usher, special assistant to City Atty. Carmen Trutanich, said a 
now-expired city ordinance regulating pot dispensaries included a 
clause saying that after expiration, medical marijuana collectives of 
four or more people would be required to shut down. She said that 
gives the city the legal authority to close dispensaries.

Dispensary supporters say they don't think so. They say they are 
prepared to fight on that issue too if it comes to it.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom