LA City Council: Marijuana Dispensary Ban, King Hospital & Smoking Bans

After a two week break, the Los Angeles City Council is back to business. Today, they passed two motions of note. They extended the the year long moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries for another six months (remember last year when the DEA raided a dispensary in Hollywood as council voted on this?). The city is looking to draft regulations covering the facilities and the city attorney's office needs more time to create a policy "that would prevent abuses while still ensuring that such facilities are available to legitimate medical patients," according to the LA Times.

Also, at the request of Councilman Bernard Parks, the council voted to "urge county supervisors to redouble their efforts to reopen all medical services at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital in Willowbrook." Parks is campaigning for one of those county supervisor seats on the November ballot.

As for tomorrow, Eric Richardson at blogdowntown spots some interesting agenda items for a committee meeting: "In Arts, Parks, Health and Aging, it could be a rough day for smokers. Item 1 would prohibit smoking in farmers markets (CF 07-1790). Item 2 would prohibit smoking in outdoor dining areas (and within five feet of them), much like a similar ordinance which was passed recently in Burbank (CF 08-1544)."

Photo from within the City Council Chambers by Mr. Littlehand via Flickr