LA City Council to hear first hardships and close the Hardship loophole in the ICO

Beverly Hills, California attorney (http://www.420attorney.com) William Kroger released the following information to the medical marijuana (medical cannabis) community Thursday evening. Mr. Kroger, is a member of the Working Group that has been working to help draft an ordinance to regulate the medical marijuana collectives/dispensaries in Los Angeles and represents many of the Los Angeles collective/dispensaries. He is a member of the NORML Legal Committee.

Brett Stone who publishes the Medical Marijuana News from Brett (http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/mmjnews/) commented "it's going to be a nervous weekend for those operators facing the city council next Tuesday. I have spoken to a few of the operators and all seemed unaware of the seriousness of these hearings."

Mr. Stone also added that none of the operators he had contacted about their upcoming hardship hearings had received any notice as of this date from the city about their hearings just a few days away.

Here is the message that Mr. William Kroger sent out Thursday evening:

from: William S. Kroger, Jr.
reply-to: "William S. Kroger, Jr."

date: Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 6:40 PM
subject: LA City Council to hear first hardships and close the Hardship loophole in the ICO


The City of Los Angeles Council has scheduled its first Medical Marijuana Hardship Hearings starting next Tuesday June 9th. I have attached the City Council Agenda, look for items no 32-45. There has been a lot of controversy regarding the loophole that allowed dispensaries to open after the ICO. The City is going to take some action by holding these hearings. It seems that they are focusing on the Highland Park and Eagle Rock areas.

This along with the recent LAPD raids on several clubs in the Valley area suggest that they are starting enforcement of the clubs.

William S. Kroger
KROGER LAW GROUP
8888 West Olympic Boulevard
Beverly Hills, CA 90211
(323) 655-5700
(323) 655-7446 Fax
http://www.krogerlawgroup.com

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Also on the agenda for the June 9, 2009 Los Angeles City Council meeting is the motion by councilmember Huizar to direct the city attorney to draft an amended ordinance that strikes the hardship exemption clause from the cities ICO (Interim Control Ordinance, also referred to as the moratorium). This will not stop the hardship exemptions from being filed immediately, the process will take a few weeks.

"I will happily answer any questions if people contact my office" Mr. Kroger said, "there is a lot of mis-information out there" he added.

An interesting and what might be a historical day in the medical marijuana movement is happening next Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at Los Angeles City Hall. Meeting starts at 10 am.