Pubdate: Wed, 03 Oct 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

L.A. REPEALS ITS BAN ON POT STORES

The 11-2 Vote Leaves the City With No Law Regulating About 1,000 
Medical Marijuana Dispensaries.

After struggling for years to regulate storefront pot shops, the Los 
Angeles City Council retreated Tuesday, voting to repeal the 
carefully crafted ban on medical marijuana dispensaries it approved a 
few months ago.

The move shows the political savvy of the increasingly organized and 
wellfunded network of marijuana activists who sought to place a 
referendum overturning the ban on the March ballot, when the mayor 
and eight council seats will be up for grabs.

It also leaves Los Angeles, once again, without any law regulating an 
estimated 1,000 pot shops, which some describe as magnets for crime 
and others call a source of relief for those who are desperately ill.

The council's 11-2 vote came after an impassioned plea from 
Councilman Bill Rosendahl, a medical marijuana patient who is 
fighting a rare form of cancer. Looking gaunt and speaking in a faint 
voice, Rosendahl asked his colleagues how sick patients like him 
would be able to acquire the drug if the ban remained in place.

"Where does anybody go, even a councilman go, to get his medical 
marijuana?" he said.

Like other cities in California, Los Angeles has strained to find a 
way to balance the state law that permits medical marijuana against 
federal statutes that continue to make its sale and use a crime. 
Federal officials recently launched a crackdown on pot dispensaries 
in the city, leading one council member to suggest that any 
regulation is beyond L.A.'s control.

"That is our relief," Councilman Jose Huizar said of the federal 
crackdown, which included raids on several dispensaries last week in 
Eagle Rock, Boyle Heights and other neighborhoods. Dozens of other 
pot shops received letters ordering them to close within two weeks.

But council opponents of dispensaries said they would try to find 
other ways to shut down marijuana shops by using laws that are 
already on the books. Immediately after the vote, Councilman Mitchell 
Englander called on the city to prosecute medical marijuana 
businesses for violating zoning laws because they are not on the 
city's list of approved land uses.

In another motion Tuesday, exasperated council members called on the 
Legislature "to address the inadequacies of state law." Council 
members asked for clarity on what municipalities can do to regulate 
dispensaries and called for stricter regulations of physicians who 
provide medical marijuana recommendations. They also said patients 
should be required to demonstrate six months of medical history to 
obtain recommendations.

The city's ban was enacted in July by council members who complained 
that neighborhoods were being overrun by dispensaries. It called for 
storefront marijuana sales to be outlawed, but allowed small groups 
of patients to cultivate and share the drug on their own.

The ban was the last in a string of ordinances the council has 
adopted since 2007, when the city imposed a moratorium on 
dispensaries. A loophole in the first law allowed hundreds of new pot 
shops to proliferate.

Subsequent ordinances have generated more than 100 lawsuits from 
dispensary operators and others, according to the office of City 
Atty. Carmen Trutanich.

Many medical marijuana activists say they agree that there are too 
many dispensaries, and have asked for regulation. They have called on 
the city to enact an ordinance supported by Rosendahl and Councilman 
Paul Koretz that would allow pot shops that opened before the 2007 
moratorium to remain.

Tuesday's repeal of the ban marked a major victory for the coalition 
of marijuana activists who came together to put the referendum on the 
ballot. The effort was led by an advocacy group called Americans for 
Safe Access, a group of dispensaries called the Greater Los Angeles 
Collective Alliance and the United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 
770, which has organized workers at more than 50 dispensaries.

By collecting thousands of signatures to qualify the referendum, the 
activists forced council members to decide whether to rescind the 
ordinance or put the matter on the March ballot.

Huizar said he believes medical marijuana proponents would have put 
up a lot of money to fund the referendum to "protect their profits."

"They have attorneys, they have lobbyists, they have unions," he said.

Huizar accused opponents of the ban of using patients "as a 
pretense," and said most people who obtain medical marijuana from 
stores are recreational users.

The council heard from several people during Tuesday's meeting who 
insisted that medical marijuana had been invaluable in helping them 
cope with their medical problems. None was more effective than Rosendahl.

The 67-year-old councilman began taking medical marijuana a decade 
ago to manage neuropathy, a stinging pain in his feet. He told 
council members that he used the drug "occasionally at night" until 
he was diagnosed with ureteral cancer three months ago. The drug has 
helped him during chemotherapy, he said.

He criticized President Obama's handling of the medical marijuana 
issue and spoke against some of the recent federal raids of 
dispensaries. "If I can't get marijuana, and it's medically 
prescribed, what do I do?" he said.

Because the vote was not unanimous, the repeal will come back for a 
second vote next week.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom