The Los Angeles Times reports on the frustration of medical marijuana dispensaries in Orange County when it comes to attempting to get permits through the county.
With the anti-marijuana crowd screaming about the likelihood of Proposition 19 passing, the reasons are obvious: Having spent years throwing up bureaucratic roadblocks to hinder the availability of medical marijuana, they face the very real possibility of a fed-up public voting to straight-up legalize it.
Our Orange County marijuana defense attorneys reported this week on our Marijuana Lawyer Blog that Orange County supervisors failed to pass a marijuana dispensary moratorium. The move would have banned new dispensaries or those dispensaries operating without a permit — which, as it turns out, is all 11 of them, according to the Orange County Register. Only 1 dispensary is attempting to comply with the permit process.
The West County Patient Collective Assn. packed up and moved, it had been strung along by the county permitting process in a case of selective discrimination. The anti-marijuana crowd claim the businesses are taking advantage of the lack of laws governing marijuana dispensaries in the county.
This process simply should not be left to a patchwork of local legislation passed by part-time politicians. Perhaps if we could pass a rule that the issue can be taken up only by politicians who have passed a balanced budget that includes a tax cut to voters. By those with nothing better to do, in other words. Instead, we get amateur laws passed by city councils who get media publicity on a controversial topic while city finances are a mess and important issues languish without attention.
The Times reports many of the 34 cities have restricted collectives, which have moved into small unincorporated areas of the county for survival. If marijuana becomes legal in November, we are willing to bet it will be these same politicians that are eventually screaming that they are not getting their fare share of the tax revenue … having spent the better part of the last term screaming about pot smokers instead of focusing on the important issues facing their communities.
The CANNABIS LAW GROUP is a law firm dedicated to the rights of medical marijuana patients, collectives and growers and has built a reputation for high-powered, aggressive legal representation of the medical marijuana industry in Southern California. Call 949-375-4734 for a confidential consultation to discuss your rights.