Council backs medical marijuana sales, might adopt cap on dispensaries

Dispensaries will be allowed to continue selling medical marijuana, the Los Angeles City Council decided today as it considered a draft ordinance that may also cap the number of shops in the city between 70 and 200.

City Atty. Carmen Trutanich and L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley had pressed the council to explicitly ban the sale of marijuana, saying that the state's medical marijuana laws do not allow it and citing several recent court decisions to back up their argument.

The contentious issue snarled the council's efforts to develop an ordinance, with members caught for months between their desire to provide access to marijuana for patients who need it and their reluctance to reject the advice of their own attorney.

But the council stripped out language that would bar sales and replaced it with a provision that would allow "cash contributions, reimbursements and compensations" for actual expenses, as long as they comply with state law. The law has been interpreted differently by medical marijuana advocates and law enforcement officials.

"We have some very elegant and flexible language that will adjust as state law is defined," council President Eric Garcetti said, explaining how the council decided to finesse the complicated legal issue.

Dispensaries throughout the state sell marijuana, though law enforcement officials, particularly in Southern California, have stepped up their efforts to ban sales. Dispensary operators said a ban would have made it difficult to run their stores, requiring them to find a different, and probably more difficult, way to recover their costs for buying marijuana and maintaining stores.

The council had an extensive discussion on Councilman Jose Huizar's proposal for a cap and asked city officials to report back on details of how that might work.

Garcetti said he believed the council would adopt a cap, calling it the right approach.

The council is scheduled to take up the ordinance again Dec. 2.

-- John Hoeffel at Los Angeles City Hall

Comments

[Carli Nunya]

Most def. Keep the one's that here NOW, and start a CAP. As a patient, even I am sick of seeing Los Angeles pregnant w/these, growing everywhere..like a
Cancer. Which, btw, I must have my Cannbis for Pain, as pills do make me throw up. Kinda like seeing my Country change...

peacE!

[BLW]

You think the council is going to the right thing if it means not collecting taxes? It was a matter of time before the council would give in. All in the name of $$$$!

[john]

So much for Mr. Cooley's ridiculous position.

[MATT TODD]

The question is who gets the final say after the ordnance is passed on which shops stays open for business and which shops will be forced to close. Who gets to make that call? The shops that have been around pre 2006? We need to "weed" out the "bad guys" pun intended, but a few shops that have been in LA since 2006 have changed ownership/management; and in some cases to characters who looked like they came straight from HBO OZ'S. It's a big mess and the sad truth is with DVD sales affecting San Fernando Valley's adult film industry, TV & Movie production down in California...MARIJUANA IS LOS ANGELES BIGGEST ECONOMIC GROWTH BUSINESS at the moment. 1,000 pot shops. How many pinkberry's?

[Anon]

really? no comments?

[Chet R Biggerstaff]

Bout freakin time

[chin]

Finally, there is some adult thinking going on regarding marijuana sales. It appears that The City Council has decided not to yiled to City Atty. Carmen Trutanich and L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley's infantile quest to set marijuana litigation back to the 1950's.

[Amazing]

If cash sales are allowed, no meaningful enforcement can exist. If the supply side isn't regulated, then L.A. will end up seeing turf wars among organized crime elements to supply the drug.

How the city council can not see this is amazing. It is especially amazing since EVERY law enforcement official from the CA to the DA to the AG has said cash sales are not legal.

[gibert gonzalez]

these politicians make me sick this is all about greed and i for one am tired of these politicians just remember just like we voted you in we can boot you out of office leave us medical patients alone the law is the law this passed 13 years ago now you want to regulate you politicians make me sick.

[RevRayGreen]

just don't require supplier/patients records to be provided........

[Beverly Hills NORML90210]

Great News!

[Michael Barnes]

Good for the City Counsel, thank you for some sanity. I think they should pay attention to the amount of people who are in need of Medical Marijuana and prefer it to Pharmeceudicals. LA COUNTY IS A BIG PLACE, we're talking Ventura to Long Beach. Don't let the dopes tell you different.

The DA will be the one who is irrelevant soon enough....let's see, people who have worked for him SAY HE'S CORRUPT and CALCULATING, THE PROSECUTE'S UNION SUED HIM RECENTLY for blacklisting prosecutors who join the Union.

THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY HATES HIM because he tried to use Roman Polanski to make a name for himself, imprisoning the old sick 73 year old man for something 30 years ago, which he already paid for. The girl involved in the case wants it dropped...but Cooley forges ahead with his idiotic pathetic agenda, how much money did he waste on that one?

TRUTANICH PEEVED OFF THE OWNERS OF THE STAPLES CENTER, OR NOKIA CENTER, one of them, all of them, by saying they couldn't put up digital signs on their building, when it was already established and they were told they could. Then he told the City Council if they allowed AEG, the company who owns the mega-plexes, to put up the signs, THAT HE WOULD PROSECUTE THEM. They are um, above him in decision making.

These two guys are loaded canons, liabilities to Los Angeles and need to go.
Can you imagine the lawsuits against this city if they start raiding places who thought, and were told they were doing everything legal?

2 RECALLS ARE IN ORDER. We need about 250,000 EACH of registered voters to sign. With the amount of people they have peeved off, if they all work together with their connections and money, I'm sure we could be rid of them toot suite. =)

[Richard Steeb]

So that means the end of sales tax on such "transactions", eh?

Finally!

[Richard Steeb]

This "elegant and flexible language" sounds a lot like part of the 60th anniversary of Maoism celebration.

Except that China is moving AWAY from communism...

[Robin Farrow]

The LA City Council has sold out the citizens of our city. Shame, shame!

[Pro-pot]

The city council is acting with wisdom instead of being pressured by emotional scare tactics from the pretend to be anti-big government right... or more like, "self-righteous."

[tarheelchief]

It's fairly easy to license marijuana users.They can go to the dispensaries and get the forms.Then the usage may be regulated and controlled.
Amazingly enough I have not heard about how the insurance industry will react to marijuana use.One would suppose they will put in provisions for workers who must use marijuana on the job,or prohibit marijuana users from being in certain positions.It will be interesting to see how much coverage they will give and what premiums the users will pay.

[Relaxed]

Nice to see sensible representatives of the cities citizens work to provide a solution that accommodates reason and sensibility to what is often a complex issue dominated by two varying extremes.

[Trevor]

Thank you! So, back off Cooley!!

[TYC]

"City Atty. Carmen Trutanich and L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley had pressed the council to explicitly ban the sale of marijuana, saying that the state's medical marijuana laws do not allow it and citing several recent court decisions to back up their argument."

Translation:
City Atty. Carmen Trutanich and L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley sell cannabis from the raids on dispensaries to supplement their income. In other news, local drug dealers announced that this years recipient for the top distributors in the cannabis catagory are City Atty. Carmen Trutanich and L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley. In accepting the award, both expressed hope that the prohibition on cannabis will continue and should provide an increase in profits in the coming years.

[AnonLA]

So nice to see that more mature and thoughtful heads prevailed over the vile and self-promoting Cooley and Trutanich. Thank you LA City Council!!!

[RFWoodstock]

Valid medicinal value, it’s a victimless crime, the War on Drugs WAY too costly, too many arrests for simple possession, tax it and use the money to pay for health insurance and to reduce the deficit…Need I say more?

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[Warren]

Supply and Demand--Econ 101

Cap the Dispensaries means membership fees and the cost of MJ could increase.

Cap the Dispensaries means fewer would earn a lot more money.

Let the free market determine the number of Dispensaries.

[Warren]

The Dispensaries should be part of a larger Collective so the supply line can operate within the current laws.

[Warren]

The Dispensaries and Growers should be part of a larger Collective so the supply line can operate within the current laws.