California Marijuana Dispensaries

July 9, 2011

Robbie Waters – From Sacramento City Council to Political Consultant for Marijuana

The tables have turned. Cops and City Council members are joining the industry of Robbie Waters Pocket-Greenhaven Library was named after him and his name appears on a number of plaques affixed to many other buildings around town. No one thought he’d take this route next, a career in the medical marijuana industry. Waters had opposed the industry for years. no_smoking

Robbie Waters is a legacy in Sacramento. The Robbie Waters Pocket-Greenhaven Library was named after him and his name appears on a number of plaques affixed to many other buildings around town. No one thought he’d take this route next, a career in the medical marijuana industry. Waters had opposed the industry for years.

Our Los Angeles medical marijuana attorneys welcome the news. If you remember, it was Waters that lead the raid on the medical-pot dispensary on 16th Street a few years back and seized 22 pounds of marijuana and nearly $50,000 in cash.

“I was 100 percent opposed to medical marijuana in the city of Sacramento,” said Waters, the former lone Republican on the Sacramento City Council.

Waters and his council members often felt it difficult to find a middle ground between the rights of patients and the rights of other citizens who opposed the industry. Through the political negotiations, Waters eventually developed a friendship with a medical-marijuana activist, Ryan Landers, and grew more familiar with some of the clinics around town. After time, Waters started to view dispensaries as legitimate businesses.

“Little by little, I started to lose my prejudice that everybody out there is a criminal,” said Waters.

Remember Sacramento’s medical-pot ordinance? It was this ordinance that eventually led to city’s taxation of the product. It was this ordinance that brought about the tax that brings in nearly $2 million in revenue every year. Waters was a major force behind that ordinance.

After failing to make it to the runoff election against two well-funded challengers, pot lobbyist Max Del Real brought him on as a paid consultant. Since then, the two of them have been traveling throughout the state trying to export what they call Sacramento’s “model ordinance.”

Waters still claims to be against the legalization of marijuana for recreational use.

The two men reports that it was the testimony of Waters’ that ended up breaking the tie on the Chico City Council. It was Waters’ that influenced the approval of two medical-marijuana dispensaries in that area.

Waters didn’t stop there. He also testified to the Planning Commission in Stockton on behalf of a similar ordinance there.

Del Real thinks Waters has even more to offer the industry. He’s hoping that he can get Waters to help persuade the more conservative Sacramento County Board of Supervisors to adopt an ordinance similar to Sacramento’s. Previously, the Sacramento board was considering adopting an urgency ordinance that would ban the sale of “edibles” and only allow dispensaries in areas zoned for industrial use, or areas that are often not well-served by public transit.

Many advocates view Waters as an effective tool for the industry, saying that if he can change his mind on the issue of medical marijuana then maybe he can get others to change their minds as well.

“Robbie Waters is standing up saying medical cannabis is good for the community,” Del Real said. “This is the same guy who four years ago was calling the feds.”

July 5, 2011

Business Owners of Medical Marijuana Dispensaries in Los Angeles Not Treated Fairly

By Cannabis Law Group

While medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles aren’t completely banned from applying for bank credit, they’re probably not going to get approved for it when they do. This is because anti-money laundering statutes are set up to stop illegal drug dealers. It is these statutes that are making banks hesitant to do business with legal dealers. Ironically, businesses that create and distribute products that have been proven to kill Americans are able to gain credit.

Late last month, Democratic congressmen, Jared Polis of Colorado and Pete Stark of California, introduced bills to remedy the federal government’s bias against the owners of medical marijuana dispensaries, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.

Representative Polis’s bill would permit medical marijuana sellers to borrow from banks. Congressman Stark’s bill would allow them to deduct business expenses from their taxes.

Our Orange County medical marijuana attorneys believe that no small business owner should be denied access to financing. They shouldn’t be held to unfair tax rules either just because they run a kind business that some in government may not like. We must join together to fight for equal rights for our medical marijuana industry.

“It is simply wrong for the federal government to intrude and threaten banks that are involved in legal transactions,” said Polis.

The government needs to create a level playing field for business owners of all kinds. This is why Polis has decided to introduce his bill.

It’s not fair to the operators of medical marijuana dispensaries. They are up against a law that is designed to root out illegal drug dealers, terrorists, fraudsters, and money launderers. The government only uses this as a back-door way to make life difficult for company owners in the pot industry.

It’s simple. If Congress disagrees with state medical marijuana laws, it needs to challenge the legality of these laws directly rather than throw rules and impossible obstacles at them.

Consumers are not the concern of the government. For example, we have two business owners. One sells a product that researchers have concluded to be a major cause of health problems, from cancer to heart disease. The other business provides a medical treatment that doctors prescribe for glaucoma, pain, the side effects of chemotherapy and a number of other conditions. Surprisingly it is the first company, or the seller of cigarettes, that can apply to borrow from a bank and deduct expenses on income tax returns. The medical marijuana operator is shunned.

Ironically, the federal government continues to support the sale of cigarettes, a product that kills Americans. These are the same products that cause cancer, yet they continue to discourage the sale of medical marijuana, a product used to manage the side effects of a number of conditions.

Medical marijuana laws, from the state and the federal government, have created a fuzzy area for the public and law enforcement as the two rulings have left some citizens free to use the drug as they wish and others are left facing prosecution.

“It used to be black and white: Pot’s illegal. Period,” said Kelso Police Chief Andy Hamilto. Now, he says, it’s “maybe” OK to grow and smoke pot.

The medical marijuana industry is currently estimated as a $2 billion industry. It is expected to reach nearly $9 billion in the next five years. That’s just about the same size as the dry cleaning industry and laundry service industry. Ed Orcutt, an 18th District State Representative, says that pot is slowly becoming more accepted by the public.

By opposing the medical marijuana industry, the federal government is passing up a chance raise taxes in one of the few areas where such actions would face little opposition by business owners.

A 2005 study by Jeffrey Miron, then a visiting economics professor at Harvard, concluded that government spending could be cut by nearly $8 billion and tax revenue increased by more than $6 billion if marijuana sales were legalized and taxed at the same rate as tobacco and alcohol. This would equal a $14 billion improvement in the government budget.

This surely seems like objectives that government officials should be striving for when introducing bills into Congress.

A number of marijuana advocates say that the public is starting to see eye to eye with the industry, saying that pot can provide more benefits to patients with fewer side effects than some of the highly addictive opiate pain killers that are currently available and legal. Now all that’s left is to get the government to join our perspective.

“You’re starting to see a generation or two of folks who may have at one point in their lives experimented with marijuana and so they have direct experience with it,” said 19th District Rep. Brian Blake, D-Raymond, who voted for the Legislature’s medical marijuana dispensary bill. “It’s almost become mainstream.”
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July 1, 2011

Medical Marijuana Dispensaries in Los Angeles and Elsewhere Rejected by Banks Everywhere

By Cannabis Law Group

Operators and supporters of medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles and elsewhere are having a difficult time doing business with their local banks. A number of banks have turned away these companies because they risk falling afoul of anti-money-laundering and drug-trafficking laws, according to International Business Times.

The co-owner of Denver-based dispensary Alpine Herbal Wellness, Sue Harank, says that a number of her accounts have been closed at two separate banks and at credit union. Her shop has been open for business since March of 2010.

Our Los Angeles medical marijuana attorneys understand that owners and operators of these medical marijuana dispensaries have faced a number of obstacles and regulations from both the state and federal government. Now, with banks turning away their business, they’re forced to jump through even more hoops to provide their services to patients that rely on them for treatments.

“Both banks and the credit union pursued our business initially and said they had talked to the corporate office and run it through legal, but a month or two later they all reversed themselves,” said Harank.

The largest bank in the United States, Bank of America Corp, said that they started to withdraw their services from dispensaries after they received a warning from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in late 2007 or early 2008.

Marijuana dispensaries in states that have legalized medical pot are all having a tough time getting assistance from banks and credit card companies. This issue will continue as federal authorities declare the medical marijuana business illegal.

It’s not just banks that are closing their doors on dispensaries. Credit card companies are also refusing service to the industry, even in states where medical marijuana is legal. These financial institutions report to just be operating in compliance with federal authority orders.

This pot business is estimated at $1.7 billion annually. In our state alone, the medical pot market size is estimated to be more than $1 billion.

“People have gotten their credit card accounts shut down without them even knowing it,” Harank says.

It’s not just operators in California that are experiencing this discrimination. A number of dispensary owners in various states, where marijuana has been legalized, have been hit by account shutdowns from a number of banks.

“They just summarily close accounts. Banks are very unsure if it’s OK to do business with medical cannabis organizations. It ripples out to credit card and merchant services accounts,” says Don Duncan, California director of the advocacy group Americans for Safe Access and a member of the board of the medical marijuana collective Los Angeles Patients and Caregivers Group in West Hollywood.
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June 30, 2011

U.S. Officials Propose Bill to Legalize Medical Marijuana Nationwide

By Cannabis Law Group

“Criminally prosecuting adults for making the choice to smoke marijuana is a waste of law enforcement resources and an intrusion on personal freedom,” said Democratic Congressman Barney Frank.

U.S. lawmakers recently introduced a new bill that would legalize medical marijuana in Los Angeles and in every other U.S. city. The bill states that each state would have the ability to regulate, tax and control the drug itself. The bill is the first attempt to legalize production and consumption of marijuana nationwide, according to Reuters.

Our Orange Country medical marijuana attorneys understand that this new law could prove helpful as more than a dozen states now have medical marijuana laws on the books. It’s time for the federal government to step back from this industry and stop trying to strike down state laws. With one set of laws in a state, medical marijuana production and consumption may finally be able to function properly, effectively and legally.

“Since 1932, marijuana has been a federally-prohibited substance, and this would undo that,” says Sam Kamin, a law professor at the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law.

Currently, there are sixteen states and the District of Colombia that have made the production and consumption of marijuana legal for medical purposes. Fourteen states have decriminalized small amounts for consumption.

“I don’t expect to pass it in this Congress,” added Frank. “But I think we’re making progress. This is an educational process.”

It is estimated that roughly 850,000 Americans were arrested for marijuana-related offenses in 2009 alone. Roughly 90 percent of these cases were for possession, according to the FBI.

“The drug war has not worked, clearly,” said Representative Jared Polis, a Democrat from Colorado.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon, whose country is the main supplier of marijuana to the United States, recently stated that legalizing cannabis throughout the entire country would make it tougher for countries like Mexico to prosecute farmers for growing a product that is legal in their neighboring country, according to the Edmonton Journal.

“I would say to President Calderon that he does what he thinks is right in Mexico and I’ll do what I think is right in the United States,” said Frank, who said the bill would not allow the importation of the drug.

Earlier this year, a number of medical-marijuana dispensaries in California were raided by the Drug Enforcement Administration, despite being legal in their area and despite promises from the Obama administration claiming that it would lay off dispensaries that operate within the laws of their particular state.

“I do not advocate urging people to smoke marijuana, neither do I urge them to drink alcoholic beverages or smoke tobacco, but in none of these cases do I think prohibition enforced by criminal sanctions is good public policy,” said Congressman Frank.
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June 29, 2011

Medical Marijuana Dispensary in Oakland – City Says Yes, Feds Say No

By Cannabis Law Group

Local officials are finally welcoming medical marijuana in California — if only because they now see it as a way to increase collected taxes for the city. Cities and states are looking to license commercial growing as the demand for medical marijuana is increasing around the country, but the Federal Government isn’t having it.

Our Los Angeles medical marijuana attorneys recognize that as companies continue to try to operate under a number of regulations, they’re always facing new ones that aim to put them out of business. As a matter of fact, growers in Oakland recently celebrated their plans to open four industrial-scale medical pot farms under a new city ordinance. Those celebrations were short lived.

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan was even in on the action. He spoke with these companies and welcomed their operations, but also welcomed the potential tax windfall.

“When these cultivation facilities come online, we’re estimating in the first few years five to eight million dollars. Now that’s a sizeable chunk of change and it’s going to be an important part of this city’s economy,” said Quan.

Eight months after the exciting news, the plans seemingly disintegrated right in front of the city after the U.S. Justice Department sternly warned the city that licensing of commercial marijuana growing, even for medical use, violates federal law.

The large industrial park, located just off Oakland’s 880 Freeway, was once the home to one of the four planned industrial-scale medical pot farms. It now just sits empty.

“This building was dubbed the football field of cannabis during our heyday. We were going to have 380 employees, and the average pay was about $52,000 [a year] per person,” said developer Jeff Wilcox.

Wilcox had it all planned out. They thought they would remain safe from the feds as long as they were to comply with the city’s regulations and the state’s laws. That wasn’t the case.

“The industry is scared that there’s a big push back coming against us,” said Wilcox.

Oakland wasn’t the only city to get the smack down from the feds. The Justice Department warned officials in eight other cities about their intentions of violating federal law if they allowed commercial production of medical cannabis.

“That, in very simple terms, is what drug traffickers do. That is drug trafficking period,” said Tommy LaNier, director of the National Marijuana Initiative, a program funded by the White House Office on Drug Control Policy.

The Justice Department isn’t just focusing in on the operators of the facilities. They report that even local officials could face criminal charges for allowing these companies to operate.

A number of advocates are furious that the government is going back on their word. Through a Justice Department memo, they made a promise in 2009 that essentially stated: “comply with state law and the feds won’t prosecute you.”

City officials in Oakland aren’t giving up just yet on their plans to license marijuana cultivation. Unfortunately, this recent scare has turned away potential investors of the legitimately regulated business.

“You want to try to start an industry and then you have the IRS working against you, the federal government working against you — you’ve got a real problem,” said Wilcox. “So the problem is if you don’t grow this industry what happens is that it remains a black-market industry, and it’s always going to be that way.”
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June 28, 2011

Glendale City Council Forces Outright Ban on Medical Marijuana Dispensaries in City Limits

By Cannabis Law Group

Another city is one step closer to keeping medical marijuana dispensaries out of its city limits. The Glendale City Council considered the permanent ban after it spent close to two years examining and studying their legal standing to do so.

Cities have continued attempts to shut down medical marijuana dispensaries, including five recent closures in Frenso that we reported on our Marijuana Lawyer Blog.
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Our Los Angeles medical marijuana attorneys recognize the battle that these shops are up against.

Dispensaries are prohibited under a number of city zoning codes. In areas where they are permitted, they’re to follow strict guidelines. Other areas have proposed unfair taxes on these companies. Many of these businesses are physically unable to operate under these strict regulations, and that’s exactly the idea behind many city plans.

In Glendale, medical marijuana dispensaries are indeed prohibited under the city zoning code, according to Glendale News-Press. Back in 2009, the City Council decided to adopt a new moratorium that completely closed the city’s borders to marijuana shops so that the city’s attorneys could comb through the legal issues associated with a complete ban.

The 2009 moratorium is set to expire in September and no longer has the ability to be extended. This is exactly why police and city attorneys are recommending that the city enact a full-out ban. After all, they wouldn’t be the first city in California to do so.

Currently, there are zero dispensaries open in the Glendale city limits, but interest in the area for future operations has increased over the past few years. Glendale has been considered a virtual island in the Greater Los Angeles area. There were 187 dispensary shops that registered to continue operations when the Los Angeles City Council approved a moratorium back in 2007.

“I’m against dispensaries in Glendale,” Councilman Ara Najarian said. “I wish we could go outside our buffers and create a buffer zone as well.”

City officials are anticipating a decision by a state appellate court regarding Anaheim’s ban on marijuana dispensaries to provide firm legal precedent with the motion.

“We know that the legal landscape is continuing to evolve; however, review of the cases to date help support the recommendation that we are making,” said Carmen Merino, general counsel for the Police Department.

Many anti-cannabis groups continue to read through faulty facts that claim dispensaries come with an increase in illegal drug sales, vandalism, burglaries and other criminal behaviors. In fact, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department or the San Diego Police Department have produced official documented reports on medical marijuana facilities and their correlation with crime. They have both shown that there has been absolutely no correlation between the two, according to the Imperial Beach Patch.

“It’s illegal under state law to ban outright this kind of activity,” said Kris Hermes, a spokesman for the medical marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access. “Local governments should feel an obligation to address the needs of patients in their community and be able to regulate activity that is shown to be lawful under state law.”

As a matter of fact, Hermes cites interviews with public safety officials in cities where the dispensaries are allowed regulated that concluded that crime has absolutely nothing to do with these shops. If fact, they help to lower crime rates.

“These are public officials that are talking to us on the record. They’ve found that crime actually decreases around these facilities,” he said.
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June 24, 2011

Retirement Community Says NO to Medical Marijuana in Los Angeles and their Communities

By Cannabis Law Group

The Golden Rain Foundation, a group of volunteers that govern a local residential retirement community, is putting their foot down on medical marijuana grow efforts of their community’s residents, according to TIME News Feed. There are approximately 150 residents in the community of 18,000 that have been recommended the use of medical marijuana in California. Laguna Woods Village, the retirement community, says it’s not happening in their neighborhoods.

The neighborhood enforcement squad of resident volunteers disallowed the cultivation of marijuana in their neighborhood’s gardens. Under their state-mandated legal right, any one senior who possesses a medical marijuana card is allowed to grow up to six mature plants in their private residences. Laguna Woods Village is trying to stop the growing on their properties.

Our Los Angeles medical marijuana attorneys understand that medical marijuana patients have a number of rights that many oppose. First it was the federal government fighting against them, then the state government and now residents in their very own neighborhoods. The use of marijuana, medical or not, has not been universally accepted in Laguna Woods Village and patients are fighting back.

“This did stir up a lot of feelings,” says Laguna Woods Village resident Susan Margolis. “There are a lot of people that have never used marijuana and there are younger people who have used marijuana who say, ‘Come on now, this is just ridiculous.'”

Right off the bat, the resident’s growing plan was quickly shot down by the community’s governing board. They moved on to the next plan, which was the attempt to run their own greenhouse in a rented spot located away from the neighborhood. That plan backfired when they reportedly lost thousands of dollars worth of their product when a light was plugged into the wrong outlet.

It was on to the third plan. They offered seedlings to a grower that operated a greenhouse in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, the police shut down this facility and destroyed the plants in the process.

In a final attempt, a collective member started up two greenhouses outside of the neighborhood. The marijuana grown at these facilities is reportedly sold to collective members. They use a sliding scale to price the product. This scale is predicated on the need and the ability to pay. Prices at this operation range from $35 an ounce to about $200 an ounce.

Many of these residents are suffering from some serious health problems, including osteoarthritis, debilitating nausea and the after-effects of a stroke.

“Look, whether it’s a legal thing or not a legal thing, it helps you. I am 90 years old and I don’t mind talking about it,” collective member Joe Schwartz.

Many of these residents believe that with the growing population of elderly residents in the United States, the use of this product will grow as well hopefully one day providing more normalcy from the perspective of others. As of now, it’s not looking too promising.

“We’ve got people who don’t like it here, they don’t like marijuana and they still have that ‘communism’ and ‘perversion’ and ‘killer weed’ attitude,” says Lonnie Painter, director of a group known as Laguna Woods for Medical Cannabis.

According to Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration the number of people that are aged 50 and older that reported marijuana use during the previous year went up from 1.9 percent in 2002 to 2.9 percent in 2008.
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June 22, 2011

Montel Williams to Open Medical Marijuana Dispensary in Sacramento, California

By Cannabis Law Group

A new medical marijuana dispensary in California is about to open and you’ll never guess by who — the host of the Montel Williams Show, Montel Williams himself. Williams is a sufferer of multiple sclerosis and has been a medical marijuana advocate for years now, according to OC Weekly. He recently took his supporting role one step further by opening his new shop, the Abatin Wellness Cooperative, in Sacramento.

His new shop is generating a cloud of controversy in Sacramento, which currently has a moratorium on new marijuana clubs. There are a number of clubs that have been grandfathered into the city’s collective ordinance and are not happy about the arrival of their new, high-profile competition.

Our Los Angeles medical marijuana lawyers recognize that all owners and operators of these dispensaries are held in a bad light, at least by law enforcement and government officials. Many of these shops aim to do nothing more than serve patients who need this treatment for their medical conditions. They look to hurt no one, break any laws or cause any other problems, yet they’re always being harassed by law enforcement for merely existing.

“It’s absurd. I can go get morphine pumped into my system and nobody’s got a problem. But all of a sudden they’re really worried if I smoked a joint,” says Williams.

So, how did Williams get around the moratorium? The location of the new shop, 2100 29th St., used to be the home of the Capitol Wellness Collective. The previous owner of this club is now Williams’ executive director.

Williams’ already has a handful of critics, including a contractor who claims the previous dispensary owes him a grand total of $20,000. Some of his other critics accuse him of just trying to cash in on a local movement that they’ve created. Either way, Williams says that he’s not in it for the money.

“I’ve been doing this for the last 10 years,” he said. “It’s not like I’m doing this make a buck.”

As you know, California allows anyone with a doctor’s recommendation to use medical marijuana for proper treatment for whatever their health condition may be. Critics still claim that these dispensaries are nothing more than a front for drug traffickers.

“We’ve been caught up in culture surrounding medical marijuana that’s 20 years old,” Williams said. “While adhering to every single state law, we want to provide safe access for patients and really medicalize this. Patients should be put first.”

Williams says that he wants his shop to be a place that patients could go to and feel comfortable bringing their parents. For this reason, his parents were guests during the unveiling of his shop last week.

This dispensary is different from all of the others, according to Williams, because it’s high-end. The operations here won’t have the patients sticking their nose in jars and jars of weed.

“You see people standing around, sticking their nose into things,” Williams complained. “I don’t go to CVS to pick up an individual Vicodin.”

Sticking your nose in a jar may be the best way to figure out which weed is best for your conditions, state Toke of the Town’s Steve Ellliot. There are all different types of marijuana strains that are available to treat different ailments and customers oftentimes use their noses to inspect the weed and make sure it’s fresh.
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June 18, 2011

Battle Continues Between Government Officials and Medical Marijuana Dispensaries in Los Angeles

By Cannabis Law Group

Medical marijuana was legalized by California fifteen years ago. Still, to this day, lawmakers are trying to regulate and tax the billion-dollar industry as medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles and elsewhere throughout the state continue to fight for survival.

Recently, lawmakers made a number of attempts to regulate the locations of these pot shops. They banned them from being located with residential neighborhoods and school zones and gave local officials the authority to bust in and shut them down. Proposals to reduce the penalties for illegal pot cultivation and to protect medical marijuana users from workplace discrimination were also rejected, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Our Los Angeles medical marijuana attorneys understand that the government is using every bit of its energy to regulate and ultimately shut down this industry. They’re regulating the locations of these stores, throwing unjust taxes at them and violently raiding their shops for minor code violations. It seems we’ve reached the point of no return in the battle of medical marijuana against the government. It is only with the proper knowledge and a tactical approach that medical marijuana can prevail in this battle.

“You have medical marijuana dispensaries in residential areas where you have children exposed to secondhand smoke from pot smoking,” said Sen. Louis Correa (D-Santa Ana). He has proposed legislation, SB 847, that would ban dispensaries within 600 feet of homes and apartments. It recently passed the state Senate.

City leaders, law enforcement and lawmakers continue to justify these “necessary” crackdowns saying that they’re needed because of the hundreds of newly-opened medical marijuana dispensaries that turned on their open-sign with little to no oversight. These recent shop openings, officials believe, are a direct result of a moratorium that was imposed in 2007. Now, shops across the state are suing cities that step up their enforcement efforts saying that they have no right to regulate an activity that was approved by voters.

“As usual, legislators feel like they’ve gotta get tough,” said Dale Gieringer, state coordinator for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. “If there’s a problem, we have to pass more laws for people to break. It’s classic legislative syndrome.”

There are somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 dispensaries that are open for business across the state, according to Americans for Safe Access, a medical marijuana advocacy group.

Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield (D-Woodland Hills) isn’t too thrilled about these statistics as he was reported saying that there are now “more marijuana dispensaries than Starbucks.”

“The inadequacy of medical marijuana laws has created a Wild West lawlessness,” said Blumenfield.

Blumenfield recently proposed a bill, AB 1300, that would clarify the rights of a city to regulate dispensaries. It easily passed the Assembly and is waiting on an action in the Senate.

A separate bill, SB 676, that aims to allow farmers to grow industrial hemp, a non-psychoactive variety of marijuana was barely made it through. Senate. Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) proposed the law and had to reassure his lawmakers that the hemp was not a drug.

“Even with 80% of Californians supporting medical cannabis use, the Legislature traditionally has been very frightened by it, which is nonsensical to me,” Leno said.
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June 16, 2011

New Bill to Hold Down Medical Marijuana Dispensaries in Los Angeles

By Cannabis Law Group

It’s no secret that cities are having a tough time regulating dispensaries, especially our medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles. It’s also no surprise that after a number of lawsuits challenging these city crackdowns, a new state law has turned up aiming to allow municipalities to put their foot down on these shops.

California’s AB 1300 that does just that, and the proposal recently passed the state Assembly. It was originally introduced by local Democratic Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield, according to LA Weekly. He says that the ambiguity over who has authority over these marijuana collectives has only led to higher crime and illegal sales.

Our Los Angeles medical marijuana attorneys recognize that this is the last thing we need in our area. If the last two years have been any indication of what is to come, our medical marijuana dispensaries have quite the fight against unnecessary and frivolous laws aimed at regulating the industry. Previous attempts at regulation clearly indicate that cities are incapable of passing rational, logical laws that don’t violate patient rights under the state’s medical marijuana law. The industry must continue to fight back in hopes of one day operating on a fair and level playing field.

This new bill says that your locality can adopt “local ordinances that regulate the location, operation, or establishment of a medical marijuana cooperative or collective …” Basically, it would give the cities power over location, hours, licensing, possession, cultivation, transportation, processing, or use of limited amounts of marijuana, as specified of collective operations. Ironically, these proposed regulations were one of the complaints opponents of Prop. 19 made last fall. They concluded that it would establish too much local control over cannabis.

In addition, it clearly states that cities have the right to put local shops out of business, which is nothing new for our shops here in Los Angeles as the city continues to go after dispensaries for “out-of-compliance” charges.

The new bill was approved 53-1 last week and will now go to the Senate. The dissenting vote came from San Francisco’s Tom Ammiano, a pro-pot advocate. He objected to the lack of the word “dispensary” in the language, which he said would further recognize the legitimacy of the storefronts.

This is a continuous battle with no end in sight. The industry is continually fighting to retain what little rights medical marijuana patients and dispensaries have left.

If you disagree with this law as much as our local medical marijuana shops do, you are urged speak out and change it. It’s important to remember that your chances of being heard are much better in your town than in the state capital. Oftentimes, it is our state governments that continue to run our shops out of town. We need to keep fighting for our rights before officials yank them away.
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