Video of the Day: Your East Side Moment of Zen
Sobriety Checkpoint in Sherman Oaks Tonight
If You've Got the Time: Sunday Brunch @ Casa del Mar
Nearly $10 Million Owed to LAUSD by Teachers Who Were Mistakenly Overpaid
The Great L.A. Walk Treks Adams & Washington Today
A superior court judge today told Los Angeles city officials in a preliminary injunction that they were the ones breaking the law, not a medical marijuana dispensary that was told it could not operate under a 2007 moratorium--since extended twice--banning new medical marijuana facilities.
"The city cannot rely on an expired ordinance," said Judge James C. Chalfant, citing a state law about extending moratoriums, according to the Los Angeles Times. The law puts limitations on extending moratoriums that deal with zoning. City attorneys say the moratorium is not a zoning issue, but rather a public safety one, therefore should be exempt. Chalfant did not concur.
The court case and injunction is only in relation to one marijuana dispensary, but the ruling could set the city back as it faces hundreds of facilities that opened during the moratorium.
Today's ruling echoes sentiments expressed earlier this year when KCET's SoCal Connected investigated the issue. While Los Angeles had no or limited regulations on dispensaries prior to the moratorium, other cities like San Francisco and Oakland had laws set in stone and were collecting large annual permit fees.
"In Los Angeles we have the highest paid city council members in the country," vented Paul Lerner, a Melrose area neighborhood activist who agrees with medical marijuana, but not the proliferation of dispensaries on every corner. "What are they doing? Why can't they get their act together and put some basic reasonable sound regulations in place?"
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
I totally agree with Paul Lerner that the City Council has completely failed in their capacity to regulate the number of cannabis clubs in the city. But I also think that the Cooley/Trutanich approach, (as stated in the L.A. Timesa week ago), is a purely political reaction that will come back to bite them in the ass.
The Feds and DEA didn't manage shut the clubs down more than just temporarily during the Bush years. What makes Cooley and Trutanich think they can do better than the Feds or the DEA with all their resources?
The Cooley/Trutanich approach is such an opportunistic grab at California conservatives for an upcoming reelection campaign, I'm surprised the LA Times even thought of legitimately covering it as a "DA takes ideological stance" piece.
That's my take on all the big talk too.
I know three people who ran cannabis clubs in L.A. and got shut down during the worst of the Bush/Ashcroft DEA raids. None of them did a day in jail. The juries wouldn't convict once they found out it was a medical mj bust.
i agree, Trutanich has come out to be a major failure in terms of upholding real laws. The city council has had 13 years to write these regulations but they continue to put this off to run yet another "study." What are they being paid for? Everybody always attacks the mayor for our issues (sometimes deservedly), but our council is notorious for their inaction.