STUCK WITH POT DISPENSARIES

City Councilman Jose Huizar is asking his colleagues to ban medical
marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles. It's a great idea. Or rather,
it would have been a great idea three or four years ago - before the
city purported to regulate the storefront cannabis-selling shops. The
idea would not be to ban dispensaries forever but to track court
rulings, determine what regulations are and are not allowable, and
then construct a smart and enforceable ordinance.

But it's too late for that now. L.A. city government took its seat on
a legal roller coaster when it first signaled that it couldn't or
wouldn't block dispensaries from opening, then stayed for a second
ride when it adopted and tried to enforce ordinances regulating where
and when purveyors could operate. There's no getting off now. This
city is in the front car for the duration.

At issue is whether Los Angeles has the power to regulate
dispensaries. There are two basic and inescapable facts: Marijuana is
a Schedule I drug under the federal Controlled Substances Act of
1970, which means Congress in its wisdom has determined that the
plant has no accepted medical use and is a dangerous drug that must
be suppressed; and Californians, in their wisdom, determined in 1996
by adopting Proposition 215 that it does indeed have medical value
and that patients should be able to acquire it and use it without
fear of punishment.

Courts have ruled that because the state decriminalization laws don't
actually attempt to authorize possession or use - they only bar state
punishment - they don't conflict with federal drug laws.

Long Beach and Los Angeles adopted similar dispensary ordinances,
charging applicants a fee and issuing permits. But in October, an
appeals court threw out the Long Beach ordinance. By saying when and
where dispensaries could operate, the justices said, the city was
affirmatively allowing something that, under federal law, it could
not allow. That goes beyond the scope of Proposition 215, which
merely eliminates state penalties for using medical marijuana.

Studying the Long Beach experience, and noting the proliferation of
hundreds of pirate dispensaries in Los Angeles as well as those the
city claims to have authorized, Huizar wants to go back to square one
and wait for higher courts to rule, the state attorney general to
opine and/or Sacramento lawmakers to re-craft state law. But the city
lacks the resources to close every dispensary; even if it could,
doing so would take so long it would hardly be worth it; and another
state court has issued contrary rulings. It would be unjust to treat
dispensaries that followed city laws the same as pirate operations.

Los Angeles has opted to secure access to medical marijuana for
legitimate patients who need it. It's too late to pretend it never
got on the roller coaster. It must take its ups and downs through the
courts, and stay on board until the ride is over.