An initiative that would allow about 100 medical marijuana shops to continue operating under tighter restrictions in Los Angeles is expected to be considered by the City Council later this month.
City Clerk June Lagmay announced on Wednesday that backers of the initiative, dubbed the "Medical Marijuana Collectives Initiative Ordinance," had gathered the required 41,138 signatures on a petition.
The clerk's certification sends the initiative to the City Council, which can adopt the ordinance as is, call a special election, or place the item on the May 21 general municipal election ballot. The City Council is expected to make a decision on the measure this month.
If enacted, the measure would reduce the number of medical marijuana dispensaries from somewhere in the hundreds down to about 100 that would operate under various restrictions, including business hours and location. Key to hitting to that target number is a provision that would require the dispensaries to prove they were operating before Sept. 14, 2007, when the city first tried to place a moratorium on new pot shops.
The group sponsoring the initiative is called the Committee to Protect Patients and Neighborhoods. It is made up of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 770, the Greater Los Angeles Collective Alliance and Americans for Safe Access L.A.
UFCW Local 770 President Rick Icaza said the initiative would "guarantee safe access to medical cannabis for those suffering from debilitating and painful diseases and conditions, while at the same time enforcing the rule of law and protecting neighborhoods."
Icaza urged the City Council to adopt the ordinance instead of placing it on the ballot.
"It's time to stop playing politics with people's health and the safety of our communities," Icaza said, referring to the city's years of attempts to regulate medical marijuana.
The latest attempt came in July, when the City Council voted to ban all storefront dispensaries. That effort was reversed in October when medical marijuana supporters gathered enough signatures to repeal the ban.
Meanwhile, a group backing a separate medical marijuana initiative last month submitted more than 73,500 petition signatures to qualify a measure that would place similar time and place restrictions on dispensaries, but would not limit the number to those that opened prior to the Sept. 14, 2007 cutoff.
That initiative, backed by a group called Angelenos for Safe Access, would allow storefront medical cannabis collectives to operate if they are at least 500 to 1,000 feet from schools, parks, libraries, childcare centers and religious institutions. It would also impose a business tax of $60 on every $1,000 of marijuana sold at the dispensaries.
Barry, perhaps you don't want to answer the question. I'm not trying to control you. Quite the opposite. I'm saying you are allowed all the pot you can afford to buy, provided you have a prescription. You can buy it at a pharmacy, which is there to fill prescriptions. This is the same courtesy I have for someone purchasing oxicontin or vicodin. I'm not discriminating at all. You are asking for the right to put a dedicated marijuana dispensary in my neighborhood. I am asking why? Why do you need this specialty store in my neighborhood which sells a federally illegal substance? What does it offer that a pharmacy does not?
Why do you keep saying that Walgreens (the store at Ventura & Vineland) carries medical marijuana in their pharmacy? You've said it in several posts here, and it is simply NOT true. Who told you they sell it? Did you actually call them? (No, you didn't.) You seem to think there's no reason why a pharmacy couldn't stock and sell this in California. There are several reasons, one of them being Federal law. Read my previous post above, or others' posts, for more of an explanation.
Marijuana has never been 'the primary cause of death'...unlike alcohol consumption which can lead to alcohol poisoning...a literal anesthetizing of the body's motor mechanisms until they cease functioning.... Marijuana, in and of itself, has never been found to be 'the direct cause' of a single death throughout recorded history...look it up...I could post hundreds of links but your own research will be more enlightening. The closest I have ever seen marijuana come to harming anyone was during an air drop. We brought in 1100 pounds from Jamaica and dropped it in a peanut field in middle Georgia. The bales were dropped from a small plane at 125 feet altitude. One of the bales, about 80 pounds, missed my compadre by only a few feet... but it surely messed up his truck. You can read about it in: Shoulda Robbed a Bank That is my contribution to helping point out just how ludicrous our pot laws truly are. AFG, I wish you a very safe, happy, and prosperous New Year, Hugh Yonn
I am not trying to 'convince' you that pot is good. That is your decision alone. However, the concept most overlooked in 'the war on drugs.'...freedom of the individual. We are Americans..we live in a free country...this is what we have been told since birth. The prohibition of marijuana is a farce. We are a free people. It is time to start living the way our forefathers intended. Law enforcement needs to re-direct its focus on crime...to those that are REAL crimes. The Libertarian philosophy is that "We all have the intrinsic right to live in any way we wish as long as our actions have no adverse or detrimental effect on any other human or inhibit their rights to free life." This is a good and sound credo for life, and it applies well to the use of marijuana.
Re: the war on drugs - from law enforcements standpoint the personal choices of others often do impact the rest of society which is perhaps why they are reluctant to let it all go. If you make marijuana a personal choice what are you going to do when someone else wants cocaine or heroin as their choice? Drugs and degeneration of society are a case study years in the making. I'm not sure I was even saying that you were trying to convince me that pot is good; more so just that hardcore pot advocates rarely seem to want to acknowledge the downside of the issue or even admit that pot also has a serious downside.
Marijuana is a red herring. It should be no more regulated than alcohol or tobacco, or tomatoes or ginseng or brownies or big macs. As Cheech and Chong said 40 years ago, "The only problem with marijuana is that I'm out right now." Let the market decide how to make it available, and let individuals decide for themselves whether to use it or not. God Bless America! Land of the Free! Home of the Brave! Let Freedom Ring!
Michael: 1st off, these aren't dispensaries, they are Collectives. What I can't get from Walgreen's is a say in how the operation is run. As a member of my Collective, I get to vote on what non-profit to donate proceeds to, what services are offered to patients, what events my Collective takes part in, what types of strains they will get in, what community events we volunteer for, etc. This is the same reason I belong to a Credit Union and not a big bank. Should I not have that choice either because Credit Unions are an eye sore to some individuals? It isn't always about getting stoned. Get with the program.
It also gives full power back to the city council to ammend the ordnance by a majority vote. Now I don't know any other voters initiative that has sought to take the power away from the legislature only to hand it right back to them on a platter. It goes against the point of a voters initiatve. Just read section 5 of the initiative, the last paragraph, which most never bother reading. Both initiatives are self serving, one serving the interests of the small group of owners, the other serving the devious nature of David Welch's plan to do the dirty work of the city attorney and feds. If they wanted to really make a difference they would have decriminalized marijuana in this city and taken a step forward like washington and Colorado have done, not create more of an impedement to freeing the most useful plant on the earth. Both of these seek more prohibitions through what they say are better rules for the "patients" and "communities", when they should just admit they are playing Milton Bradley games and trying to get the get out of jail free card and Boardwalk and park Place.
Michael, dear.. you just answered your own question. It needs to be legalized like alcohol and tobacco, because I never see people standing outside of shops trying to re-sell packs of cigarettes or bottles of beer.