L.A. marijuana dispensary shutdown going smoothly -- so far

Officials with the city attorney's office said they believe there will be "substantial compliance" with the ordinance that went into effect Monday shutting down more than 400 medical marijuana dispensaries that opened in Los Angeles over the last 2 1/2 years.

But despite those expectations, Assistant City Atty. Asha Greenberg said her office wouldn't rule out taking "enforcement action" against possible holdouts.

“I don’t think anyone should assume they can remain open and that the city is not going to take any action anytime soon," Greenberg said. "It's a definite possibility. Anyone who is not living in a cave [knows about the ordinance] because it's been so widely publicized."

City prosecutors have declined to detail specifics of their enforcement strategy, which will include reports from police officers, building inspectors and residents to identify possible violators. City prosecutors have set up an e-mail address for the public to report scofflaws: atty.medicalmarijuana@lacity.org.

Offenders face civil penalties of $2,500 a day and six months in jail. Dispensaries that registered with the city in 2007 will have until June 14 to file intent to comply with new location restrictions.

Signs posted on the doors of the city clerk's office Monday made it known that staff members were prepared for an onslaught of medical marijuana operators filing a notice of intent to register on the first available day.

But things seemed to run smoothly with only a handful of people in line by mid-morning and the entire process taking about 20 minutes. By noon Monday, about 50 people had been through the city clerk's office to submit paperwork of their intent to register.

"I thought it was going to be a little crazy," James Catipay, 33, said as he exited the office with his business partner Peter Tejera. The two operate Herbalcure in Los Angeles and although they have a week to file their paperwork, they wanted to do it as soon as possible.

"It demonstrates responsibility," said Tejera, a 41-year-old real estate consultant. 

Catipay and Tejera opened Herbalcure in 2007, wanting others to benefit from what they had used to relieve their own pain left by illnesses. Tejera found that cannabis relieved the pounding headaches that came after an aneurysm. Catipay, an attorney, used marijuana to address the breathing problems left by sarcoidosis.  

Both believe the city's regulation of marijuana collectives is a wise move.  

"There need to be guidelines," Tejera said. "The city has to get control of what's going on from a safety standpoint."

-- Corina Knoll, reporting from City Hall, and Andrew Blankstein

Photo: Mark Boster / L.A. Times

Map: Interactive map of medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles notified by the city to close/LA Times

Comments

[My Truth Hurts]

Meanwhile guns, tobacco, alcohol and corporate created drugs flow freely into the hands of our children. Now too shall more pot because street dealers don't ask for age or ID or a prescription like the dispensaries do.

Way to go "Drug Warriors"! You sure showed them!

[Thom1]

Great to see that these businesses will be back on the street in the shadows of society, not paying taxes and causing additional crime. Good job city attorney!

[Patricia]

They're throwing over 4,000 people out of work. Way to go, city council!

This will make Los Angeles such a better place to live.

Another 4,000 unemployed citizens is just what we needed for the long hot summer.

[Fred]

What a ridiculous waste of time and money. This city is dying!!! And this is what they worry about.

[Smokey Da Weedy]

great way to spend tax payers money!! Now patients have to go back to the underground and get there MMJ from the gangsters on the corner...gresat job LA! way to think it through.

[NoPotHeads]

BRAVO!!!! it is about time. Good bye pot heads!!

[Travis]

Yo Yo Yo.. can I get score a dime bag, that's what's going to happen, it's soo sad, taking medicine from patients is liking taking the Aids cocktail from a patient there is just no sense of proper judgement at all on the part of the City.. Obama, can you over turn this??

[Mike]

Catipay and Tejera aren't happy about the ordinance because it demonstrates city regulation. One's a real-estate consultant and the other is an attorney. They're smart guys. This ordinance largely eliminates their competition and will generate tremendous personal revenue for them. I don't really have a problem with them making money, but I just don't like it when people try to hide behind 'altruistic motives'.

[deartoni70]

Thank you City Council. Now we can have an increase in illegal drug sales and crime. Oh joy. You are doing such a good job. Idiots. How much did the MM pay you? You sell outs.

[elissa]

It's a sad, sad day, when officials take 4000+ jobs away, and put thousands of dollars of tax revenue back into the hands of the Mexican drug cartels.

[PMA]

Listen to what responsible dispensary owners say:

"Both believe the city's regulation of marijuana collectives is a wise move. 'There need to be guidelines,' Tejera said. 'The city has to get control of what's going on from a safety standpoint.'"

All of this whining and moaning from pot-apologists is really just shilling for the extremely profitable drug trade of rogue pot dealers, who couldn't care less about jobs, neighborhoods, public safety, or the future of our city. They should be ignored - and their drug dealer friends should be put in jail.

[shmee]

seriously- wayta go guys!!! Bring the weed trafficking back to the streets so we can have more violent crime and pointless arrests and parole rapists to make room for pot smokers!!! WAKE UP!!!!!!! Legalize, tax, create jobs, save our economy. Quit wasting money fighting a pointless fight!

[ladyofargonne]

400 empty store fronts and the business goes back underground where you can't regulate or tax it.

[LA guy]

What a misguided measure! Jobs are so hard to come by. (And so is quality marijuana!) I don't understand why any government would chose to reduce the amount of revenue in their city in the midst of a recession. I thought the point of capitalism was to let the market decide who succeeds. If 1,000 dispensaries can stay in business in LA, that shows a clear demand. The citizens are voting with their dollars, saying, "We want all of these places open and available." I understand the need to think about crime and safety, but unless people are getting shot outside of dispensaries on every corner, the economic impact is more important here.

[Josh]

I'm about to move back to L.A. and stories like this frustrate the hell out of me. I think the clinics should follow the same guidelines any pharmacy would. It's a medical drug sanctioned by "We the People" of California. This process should not be a witch hunt.

[august]

As Director of Poly Pharmaceutical Development at Greenway University we are all naturally saddened by the closure of so many places of access to medicine for Patients, but as an Institution of Learning we preach compliance and standardization in an industry where small changes can mean big differences in quality. We have to support California's right to make sure the rules are taken seriously as our 'compliance' is an indication of assured quality control accepted by a provider and other quality considerations are likely evident at their establishment. This Industry should have, at the very least compliance, and more, psychoactive and synertistic compound CB1 and CB2 receptor site stimulators labeling. There is much ahead of us, but we are optimistic.

We are at a crossroads to some degree with a grace period by Mr. Obama and Mr. Holder to prove we can work with the states to raise awareness of new treatments. But moreover, to partner with the counties in all the states in this unusual opportunity to bring Cannabis back into commerce at a time when our country needs more work. Thats why we are here. We make jobs, and for jobs to be created in this industry they require compliance.

By showing the city that the rules were not respected, the result should have been expected. Patient Centers that have complied with the rules are in operation as I write this. But as such, remarkably, there can be a better system that will evolve from this where the above mentioned considerations for medicine can be expected by the patients. We hope to work with our friends on the City Council to perhaps mitigate some cases, but going forward...play by the rules and remember: Compliance is not Obediance, its a handshake, and the City has extended theirs.

[lionofparadise]

I wholeheartedly agree with closing down these addiction outposts. They would have made it easier for mind-wasting marijuana smoking leading to destroyed lives and short-circuited destinies. Public policy that supports healthy upbringing of children and young people includes establishing constructive boundaries for lawful behavior. Marijuana is a habit-forming drug that promotes indifference to education, apathy to productive work, and escape from reality. Marijuana addiction is not benign but sabotages a child's formative years during which good moral habits are learned. Addicts crave "getting high" as opposed to engaging in productive activities yielding responsible adulthood for take-charge accountability. Decriminalization is nothing but an excuse to swing the door wide open for naive experimentation that will result in deadly addiction.

[stuart hipkins]

what a wast of government resources ,,its only going to be legal after its voted in on the november ballot,,,hey everyone vote to legalize in nov.

[MICHAEL WHITE]

I have to support this effort to shut down drug dealing operations. Come on people, get real!! You know for a fact there aren't that many ill people in Los Angeles. And, in fact, most of these people probably can be treated with legitimate methods, not marijuana. I have never heard the FDA, the American Medical Association, American Lung Association, the American Diabetes Foundation, MADD or any other legitimate organization actually make a claim to some kind of medical benefit of using marijuana. I just think what happens is they get drugged up by smoking marijuana and naturally, a person becomes numb to whatever ailment they suffer from during that timeframe. Just like a dream, when you wake up, it's back in the saddle, again.

[CofeeDrinker]

It's about time, way too many
Remove the green crosses, put Starbucks or Peets instead.

[charleyWalker]

Yeah they like the regulations because it turns thousands of patients to there doors. Greed disguised as lawfulness.

[Tony Arguelles]

What a joke. Marijuana is proven to be safer than alcohol, and actually makes you feel healthier, happier, and more productive, and these people are wasting all this time and tax money on shutting down something that law-abiding citizens want.

But, look on the bright side - we can still go to any liquor store all around the city and buy as much alcohol as we want (no limit! no need for a medical card!), and store it in the same refrigerator with the soft drinks our children drink.

And alcohol is the drug that you can die from by overdose - and alcohol is the drug that causes people to act violently.

So sad.

[rk]

Thank god.

[seen it done it]

We've got mcdonalds on every street corner across the globe with people free to clog up their arteries, thousands of drunk drivers with freely accessable alcohol, tens of thousand homeless people in LA county, and now less access to a simple and humble plant for the sick and dying.

Perfect. Great Job!

I guess it's to much to ask for government officials to serve the people and their voted will, and not themselves and a small constituency that has nothing to do with and cares not for what sick and dying people actually need.

[dadi]

How many liqour stores in LA county? Anyone know?