Almost a year ago, Los Angeles
residents approved Measure D, a ballot initiative to cap the number
of medical marijuana dispensaries within the city and introduce a
whole host of regulations. The cap was based on a cutoff date
several years ago, so hundreds of dispensaries that opened after
that date were retroactively made illegal and told to shut down. As
I’ve
pointed out, though the measure was sold as a way to halt an
alleged glut of dispensaries, it’s clearly a tactic to protected
older, more established shops.
A year later, the city is now trying to enforce the ordinance
and shut down dispensaries. City Attorney Mark Feuer announced this
week that the city has managed to shut down more than 100 shops.
How they’re approaching the “problem” is likely to make your skin
crawl. From the
Los Angeles Times:
Feuer said he was now stepping up that work, hiring two new
attorneys who would exclusively tackle prosecutions under
Proposition D, the measure passed by voters last spring. Staffers
are also focusing more attention on real estate professionals and
landlords renting space to marijuana dispensaries, providing them
with a new brochure that warns of steep fines and jail time for
breaking the rules.
Wondering how the hell they can get away with that, I went back
and looked through the
full text (pdf) for Measure D. Sure enough, in the section
outlawing the establishment of new medical marijuana dispensaries,
it also includes a ban on “renting, leasing, or otherwise
permitting a medical marijuana business to occupy or use a
location, vehicle, or other mode of transportation.”
Even with the closures, Feuer is still trying to stand against
the tide. The Times notes that even after the passage of
Proposition D, “more than 300 medical marijuana collectives have
registered to pay business taxes, including nearly 200 with no
previous record in the tax system, according to city finance
officials.”
To add to the absurdity of the city’s attempt to manage this
situation it has created, the city finance department is sending
out registration certificates to these illegal businesses anyway if
they apply.
However, the city attorney said there were no plans to ask the
finance department to stop issuing those certificates to new
dispensaries. Attorney David Welch, who represents a marijuana
dispensary that is challenging its prosecution under the measure,
argues that the city is “creating confusion.”The city “should take charge, determine who qualifies” and only
allow those who do to get certificates, Welch said.
It’s not clear in the story whether the city is collecting fees
from these pot dispensaries applying for registration and then
being told they cannot operate. The city’s finance department has
an online
registration process that warns that some applying businesses
may have to pay a registration fee, but it doesn’t state which
ones.
Los Angeles put together a list of the pot dispensaries that it
believes qualify to remain under the new rules, but they’re not
even sure about that. The Times notes, “Officials
previously released a list of more than 100 shops believed to have
met some of the requirements, but Feuer has stressed that being on
that list does not afford any legal protection.”
To recap: The city of Los Angeles has a list of medical
marijuana dispensaries it thinks may legally remain open but it’s
not sure, and it’s accepting registration applications from medical
marijuana dispensaries that it pretty much knows aren’t legal to
open. Thank heavens the city stepped in to “organize” the medical
marijuana marketplace.
from Hit & Run http://ift.tt/O1QJWz
via IFTTT