ANTONOVICH CALLS FOR BAN OF MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES IN UNINCORPORATED
COUNTY AREAS

MONROVIA - Spurred by two fatal shootings last week at separate
medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles, Supervisor Michael
Antonovich will call Tuesday for a ban on pot clinics in
unincorporated areas, his office said.

Dispensary robberies, in which one man was gunned down and another
wounded in Echo Park, and another man was fatally shot in Hollywood
on Thursday, convinced Antonovich to call for an outright ban of
medical marijuana outlets, said Paul Novak, his planning deputy.

"The supervisor has had a concern about these for years," Novak said.
"The recent events ... only heighten that concern."

Marijuana dispensaries are currently free to open in unincorporated
parts of the county, which requires only that owners obtain a
conditional-use permit to operate.

The county's Regional Planning Commission, which issues the
conditional-use permits, was closed Friday and unavailable to provide
the number of medical marijuana dispensaries operating in the county.

Antonovich plans to introduce a motion at the supervisors' meeting
Tuesday asking staff to draft an ordinance that would prohibit
dispensaries from opening anywhere in unincorporated areas, Novak said.

This month, Los Angeles city officials began enforcing a new
ordinance that restricts dispensaries from being near schools and
parks, forcing more than 400 clinics to close. About 130 dispensaries
that opened before the city imposed a moratorium in 2007 can stay open.

At one point, city prosecutors estimated that at least 700 marijuana
dispensaries were operating in Los Angeles.

County officials worry that, without a moratorium and restrictions on
where they can open, many of those closed L.A. shops will find new
homes in unincorporated areas, Novak said.

Like Los Angeles, a growing number of cities in the county have
banned or have imposed zoning restrictions on marijuana dispensaries, he noted.

"It should be consistent (from) one jurisdiction to the next.
Otherwise, we will get flooded in our county unincorporated areas," he said.

Officials in La Puente, which has more marijuana dispensaries than
any other city in the San Gabriel Valley, have been wrangling over
the issue since February. Recently, officials put plans to ban
dispensaries on hold.