Results tagged “dispensary”

The people of Los Angeles and L.A. County have elected themselves a hot mess. District Attorney Steve Cooley and City Attorney Carmen Trutanich--both elected by the public--believe most all medical marijuana dispensaries are illegal. That's because their interpretation of state law is that marijuana cannot be just sold to those with licenses, but distributed to members of a nonprofit collective of people who carry licenses.

City Attorney Carmen Trutanich wants the City Council to pass the latest proposed ordinance aimed at regulating medical marijuana dispensaries (you can read that ordinance in full, embedded below).

The newly proposed ordinance--the fourth to be considered--is reported to be the most strict version yet. "Under the measure, the shops will be open only from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., will be allowed to have only five pounds of marijuana on hand and no more than 100 plants," says the Daily News. "Also, all the marijuana provided must have been grown by the collective." Additionally, locations not following city rules will be forced to shut down immediately. But the proposal is not without potential controversy and lawsuit fodder. Dispensaries would be required to hand over the names of members and providers to police, owners of new locations will have to notify neighborhood councils and the city council, the sale or manufacture of edible marijuana treats will be banned...

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.

Despite what many people think, the police are not always against medical marijuana dispensaries. A legal institution is a legal institution and when said institution happens to have lots of drugs and money inside their business, it's a prime target for robbery. Not many details are out now, but LAPD tomorrow will be asking the press and public's help "to inform the public about medical marijuana dispensary robberies and suspects who are to be considered armed and dangerous," an advisory says. "Police are also asking for the public’s help to identify and locate the suspects." Apparently, some incidents have happened in the West Valley.

A collective of enforcement agencies including the FBI, DEA, local police departments and the IRS raided at least two dispensaries on the Westside for unknown reasons this afternoon. Warrants were also served on the private homes of the owners. Organica Collective on Washington Blvd. in Culver City was raided followed by the Overland Gardens Collective in West Los Angeles were raided around 11 a.m. and authorities were still searching for unknown things hours later. A dog believed to be a pit bull was shot at one of the locations.

The City Council is slowly but surely making their way through hundreds of applications for medical marijuana dispensaries that applied for permits and set up shot during a moratorium from 2007. 42 of the 779 applications have been denied so far and yesterday, 18 of them were recommended for denial by a City Council committee, according to the LA Times. The moratorium, which has not been lifted, let 186 already-existing dispensaries to continue operations.

No matter how legal a marijuana dispensary is, drugs and money make them popular targets for crime. One of those such incidents last year on an October afternoon left Noe Gonzalez, a security guard, dead when a robbery attempt by four men went wrong at La Brea Collective on the 800 block of La Brea. And although two of the suspects were immediately caught, two others were on the loose and put on L.A.'s Most Wanted list.

The hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries that cropped up all over town in the past few years are now facing uncertain futures, as City officials mull the next step in the process to close them down, reports the LA Times. They are working on a short list of pot shops "targeted for extinction by a City Council chagrined that it allowed hundreds to open in Los Angeles despite a 21-month-old moratorium."

The storefronts denied today had all applied for hardship exemptions before it was removed from the city's marijuana dispensary moratorium earlier this afternoon. Only owners from two stores appeared to speak during public comment, noting they were unprepared because notices of today's hearing were only sent out last Friday.

Since a moratorium went into effect on new dispensaries, the exact opposite happened--more than 500 opened because of a hardship exemption loophole in the ordinance. Today, a few months shy of the moratorium being lifted, the City Council will vote on to whether or not close that loophole, as recommended by its planning and land use committee, and will look at 16 (of the many hundreds) hardship applications, either passing them or denying them.

A motion to fill a loophole in Los Angeles' moratorium on new medical marijuana dispensaries was approved by a City Council committee today. In 2007 when the ban was set, routine ordinance language provided dispensaries a chance to apply for "hardship exemptions," demonstrating why they should not be included in the ban, even if they had not fulfilled basic requirements like showing proof of insurance, a business tax license and other documents. Around 500 applications have been submitted, according to the city's Council File Management System (search "marijuana") and none of have acted upon, but dispensaries continue to open around the city. The moratorium will expire in September. A copy of today's motion, which should move to the full City Council soon, is below:

If you've got 11 minutes this lunch hour, this investigative report on city hall politics and marijuana dispensaries is excellent. "Almost every city has gotten its act together and put regulations in place for marijuana dispensaries except Los Angeles," said Paul Lerner, a Melrose area neighborhood activist who voted for Prop 215, but doesn't like the proliferation of dispensaries on every street corner.

As the federal policing agencies back off from raiding medical marijuana dispensaries in California, the Los Angeles City Council today will vote to extend a 2007 moratorium banning new herb storefronts until a they come up with a plan that will better regulate them. From today's council agenda (.pdf):

       

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced yesterday that "federal authorities will stop raiding dispensaries in states where medical marijuana is legal," reports the Daily News.

At about noon yesterday Drug Enforcement Administration agents showed up at Organica Collective at 13456 Washington Boulveard in Venice and conducted a raid that yielded no arrests, but left a tremendous amount of disarray in their wake.

Just because the federal government can legally rob a medical marijuana dispensary in Los Angeles, it doesn't mean you can too. On Friday, in two separate incidents in the Valley, a dispensary on Cahuenga Boulevard in North Hollywood and Golden State Collective, 10369 Balboa Blvd., in Granada Hills, both got robbed in takeovers. On Sunday, the Granada Hills robbers were caught, according to the Daily News:

During the heist, one shot was fired, ricocheting off the floor and breaking a window. No one was injured.

Continue reading "Citizens Not Allowed to Rob Medical Marijuana Dispensaries"

Late in 2007 LAist began weed reviews, a sporadic column featuring a different variety of marijuana while presenting it as though it were a wine review, and of those different kinds of pot 3 stood out as superior to the rest.