LA Loophole Within Moratorium to Be Plugged
June 4th, 2009 by Rick
Back in 2005 there were only four medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles, one each in the areas of Hancock Park, Van Nuys, Rancho Park and Cheviot Hills. Police say now 600 have popped up, with more perhaps out there that they don’t know about.
The rise came about after a moratorium was passed in 2007, that was actually supposed to stop future dispensaries from opening. The 186 that were already registered with the city and operating were allowed to remain open for business.
The moratorium contains a standard provision of a hardship exemption that allows City Council to listen to appeals from the dispensaries to legally operate. Because of typical red tape and city officials not having a clue on how to regulate the dispensaries, none of the 508 hardships applications have been processed (or let alone looked at) but by the dispensaries filing for a hardship application it prevented the city attorney’s office from engaging in prosecution.
Next Tuesday, the City Council’s planning committee intends to send a motion to the council designed to take the hardship exemption clause out of the moratorium, that will essentially close the loophole.
Ed Reyes, Chairman of the committee, said:
I don’t think anyone could have predicted how that clause was going to be used. [...] We’ve got abusive folks who are just gaming the system.
After the motion becomes a law, it is planned to have the city attorney shut down any dispensaries that attempt to open afterwards, allowing the hundreds of dispensaries already operating to be exempt. After the motion is filed it may still take a couple of weeks for it to become a law.
Frank Bush, assistant chief for the Code Enforcement Bureau noted:
Technically, they are not open legally. [...] Before we can take any further enforcement action, the City Council has to review them and take any action.
The concern apparently comes from the 200 complaints filed by citizens to the Department of Building and Safety who in turn sent out 80 orders to those dispensaries citizens complained about to comply with the moratorium. Obviously there is a much bigger agenda at a local city level trying to stifle the medical marijuana community, more than likely taking secret directives from the state, while they in turn are discreetly influenced at a federal level.
