LOS ANGELES: City Council Bans Medical Marijuana Outlets

LOS ANGELES: City Council Bans Medical Marijuana Outlets


(CBS) LOS ANGELES Anyone wanting to open a new medical marijuana
dispensary in Los Angeles within the next year might see their plans
go up in smoke, under a plan approved Tuesday by a City Council
committee.


The council's Planning and Land Use Management Committee asked the
Planning Department, the LAPD and the City Attorney's Office to draft
an ordinance calling for a one-year ban on building new medical
marijuana dispensaries.


The proposed ordinance is expected to go before the full City Council
by the start of next year, when authorities will begin to weed out
illegal dealers from legitimate dispensaries.


Councilman Dennis Zine introduced the moratorium idea last month,
saying that too many of the dispensaries were operating in the city,
oftentimes illegally selling pot to those without prescriptions.


About 80 medical marijuana dispensaries currently operate in Los
Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.


Don Duncan, Southern California coordinator for Americans for Safe
Access, said his medical marijuana advocacy group supported the
moratorium "as long as this is a step toward proper regulation."


"Our reports have shown that regulations protect patients and that
they protect communities from abuses," Duncan told the three-member
panel.


"Rather than have a controversial situation in the city of Los
Angeles, our constituents would prefer that there be an interim
control ordinance and good regulations on the books."


Medical marijuana dispensaries are defined as "facilities that provide
marijuana for medical purposes to patients or primary caregivers who
have a related recommendation from a physician."


Ten years ago, 56 percent of California's voters approved Proposition
215, which says marijuana should be made available to people with
medical problems, including nausea from cancer and AIDS treatments.


Federal law still band marijuana use in all cases. AIDS activist
Richard Kearns of Hollywood, who was diagnosed with the disease in
1987, asked the committee to adopt the motion without further
stigmatizing those who would benefit from medical cannabis.


"Their chance of survival would improve because their quality of lives
would improve," Kearns said. "Like me, for instance, they would be
less likely to heave their pills first thing in the morning."

In May, the Board of Supervisors approved an ordinance regulating
medical marijuana dispensaries in unincorporated areas of Los Angeles
County, including provisions on where the drug can be consumed.


The previous Los Angeles Police Commission, appointed by former Mayor
James Hahn, approved a measure in July 2005 limiting the dispensaries
to commercial areas.


That plan is expected to finally go before the council's Public Safety
Committee next month, when the panel will also listen to a report on
how such businesses impact surrounding neighborhoods.


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Associated Press contributed to this report.)


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