At the same time that California has become the poster child for states with budget deficits, the Los Angeles City Council is moving to shut down one of the bright spots in the local economy — medical marijuana dispensaries.
In 2004, there were just four clinics filling pot prescriptions in the city. Today, there are over 700. The problem is that this boomlet has occured despite a moratorium imposed by the city in 2007 that would have limited the number of pot shops to 186.
Now the city council is signaling it will begin closing down the shops, despite the fact that they provide employment and generate tax revenue at a time when over 1 million Los Angeles County residents are unemployed and schools are cutting programs because of budget deficits:
The city clerk has notified 14 dispensaries that their requests for exemptions from the moratorium will be considered by the City Council on Tuesday.
Most, if not all, are likely to be denied on the grounds that they were not registered with the city by the moratorium’s deadline in 2007. A denial would allow the city’s code enforcement bureau and the city attorney to take legal steps to force them to shut down.
The issue is NIMBY, not morality or a drug warrior mentality, per se:
“The city of L.A. has failed us on this issue,” said Michael Larsen, public safety director with the neighborhood council in Eagle Rock, a neighborhood with a heavy concentration of dispensaries. “There’s a huge loophole. L.A. city’s not watching. L.A. city’s not enforcing.”
On Tuesday the City Council’s planning committee sent a motion to the council to get rid of the hardship provision, but it could be weeks before the motion becomes law.
Committee chairman Ed Reyes said he had not brought up the hardship applications for review because he expected that the city would soon pass a permanent medical marijuana ordinance.
The City Council, which approved the moratorium in order to give it time to write a comprehensive ordinance, has been working on a draft for over a year.
“I don’t think anyone could have predicted how that clause was going to be used,” Reyes told the Times. “We’ve got abusive
The law of supply and demand ought to be accommodated in this instance. Rather than shuttering the dispensaries, the council should streamline the regulatory process so that shops can open in neighborhoods where they are welcome.
- Topic: News & Comment
- Topics: California
They will sign the act and someone will write a proposition. There will be an election and, of course, a visit to the Supreme Court, etc. etc. There will be thousands of lawsuits and sick people will stay sick. Lawyers will get rich. Then there will an election and the results will be confusing. Did I mention that lawyers will get rich, the city will charge the expenses, and it will all be done with smoke and mirrors because “up is down and down is up” in Los Angeles.