Sacramento Urged to Resolve Confusion Surrounding Marijuana Laws

Back in December, California Attorney General Kamala Harris created something of a political earthquake by urging state legislators to address what she described as "the exploitation of California's medical marijuana laws by gangs, criminal enterprises and others." (See attached PDF for details of the attorney general's letter.)

Her appeal, as we reported in a January 18 story, is synchronous with the views of , who helped craft a 2009 marijuana ordinance to regulate L.A.’s cannabis facilities. Huizar's hands have been tied, however, by a legal challenge to the flawed ordinance as well as by the verdict of an appeals court that prohibits local authorities from regulating marijuana facilities—but not from banning them. (A motion by Huizar to rescind L.A. medical marijuana ordinance and ban dispensaries outright is working its way through the City Council. See attached PDF copy of the motion.)

The urgency for Sacramento to enact some sort of laws to resolve California’s highly confused medical marijuana landscape has taken on a new urgency lately: On Monday, federal agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Marshals Service raided an Oakland-based medical marijuana training school as well as the home of its founder, Richard Lee.

Eagle Rock hasn’t been immune to the shock waves from the raid. On March 22, American Eagle Collective, a prominent marijuana dispensary located on 2501 Colorado Blvd., shut down abruptly, without any explanation, leaving many to wonder about possible uncertainties facing other cannabis facilities in the neighborhood. (Patch’s repeated calls to the City Attorney’s office, which last year sued AEC and two other Eagle Rock cannabis facilities, have so far not been returned.)

In its leading editorial on Thursday, the Los Angeles Times urged state legislators to resolve the confusion created by court battles pertaining to marijuana dispensaries.

“State lawmakers appear to be waiting for the California Supreme Court to resolve the disagreements in the lower courts, which would clear away some of the haze,” the Times argued. “But regardless of what the justices decide, there will still be major issues to resolve,” the paper said, adding: “The Legislature should stop waiting and fill in the many blanks in medical marijuana laws.”

Read the full Times editorial here.