L.A. MOVES TOWARD BAN OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES

After years of struggling with the issue, the city of Los Angeles
headed down the road Friday to a total ban on medical marijuana shops.

The City Council's Public Safety Committee sent to the Planning
Commission a series of recommendations to ban the estimated 300
dispensaries now open until the state Supreme Court decides if the
city can regulate pot shops.

Councilman Jose Huizar, whose Eastside district has 47 dispensaries,
called for the ban even as he said he supports the right of people to
have access to medical marijuana.

"But if there are no tools to control the dispensaries, we have no
choice but to ban them until we see what happens in the Supreme
Court," Huizar said.

A state appellate court, in what is known as the Pack decision, ruled
that federal law banning marijuana pre-empted state and local
measures allowing dispensaries to provide medical marijuana. It also
banned the lottery system being considered by the city to allow some
dispensaries to open.

As a result, city officials said Los Angeles basically has no way to
regulate dispensaries, even as it is fighting some 60 lawsuits from
pot shop operators against the city's previous attempts to create
rules on where pot shops can open.

City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, in a rare appearance before a
committee, said the lawsuits have tied up his office staff.

"We have people working nights and weekends to prepare for these
cases and we have no choice," Trutanich said. "If we aren't prepared
to be in court, we will lose these cases. That's why we decided the
best course of action is to ban all the dispensaries."

Special Assistant City Attorney Jane Usher said they are proposing a
"gentle ban."

"We will continue to allow patients and caregivers to cultivate and
have access to marijuana," Usher said.

Kris Hermes, spokesman for the pro-medical marijuana group American
for Safe Access, however, said dispensaries aren't giving patients
anything that state law doesn't allow.

"The fact is many patients are unable to cultivate their own
marijuana and need access to a safe supply," Hermes said.

"The city is being pretty devious in what it is trying to do and they
are ignoring other court cases that do allow dispensaries to operate."

Hermes said an organized campaign is being launched with emails
asking city officials to find ways to keep dispensaries operating.

"The issue here is whether the vast majority of patients in Los
Angeles who need marijuana will have access to it," Hermes said.

Also, he said, the marketplace is helping to determine the number of
clinics in operation.

At one point, the city had an estimated 700 to 1,000 dispensaries in operation.

That has fallen in recent years because there was not enough demand
to support the operations, he said.

Councilman Mitch Englander, who chairs the Public Safety Committee,
said the problem he has seen is the effect dispensaries have on
neighboring businesses and residents.

"We all know of people who benefit from this, but we also need to
look at what it has done to communities," Englander said.

"One of the things they do to communities - not necessarily the
operators, but their patrons - is to create problems."

LAPD Capt. Bill Murphy of the Northeast Division, said he has
received a number of complaints over the years from residents and others.

"We get complaints about the smells, about teens hanging around to
buy the marijuana like they used to do outside liquor stores," Murphy
said. "Residents see a problems with people drinking and smoking. We
have congestion type issues."

If the measure is approved, Huizar said he would envision the city
sending out letters, similar to eviction notices, telling the
operators they will need to shut down.