the battle for medical marijuana continues

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Ns1

No Lifer
Jun 17, 2001
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124701451791309199.html

LOS ANGELES -- Daniel Halbert moved here from Phoenix this year to invest his life savings in what he hoped was a golden opportunity: the medical-marijuana business.

But on Tuesday, the Los Angeles City Council told him to shut down his dispensary, part of a broad crackdown against a growing and unregulated marijuana industry. More than 600 dispensaries have taken advantage of a loophole in city regulations to open shop here in the past two years.

The unchecked growth has alarmed some city leaders.
video
LA's Pot Entrepreneurs May Go Up in Smoke
1:24

The Rainforest Collective, a small Los Angeles shop, dispenses medical marijuana but it's facing possible closure from the city council. Sabrina Shankman reports.

"They were like a rash," said City Councilman Ed Reyes, who is leading the effort to shut down many of the dispensaries. He said a colleague told him that at one dispensary near a high school, the student crowds outside made the pot store look "like an ice cream shop from the 1950s."

The planning committee has begun hearings to close the loophole used by dispensaries to set up shop with scarcely any paperwork or permits.

At the committee's first hearings last week, it told 28 dispensaries to close or face a fine. This week, it was Mr. Halbert's turn.

California legalized marijuana consumption for medicinal use in 1996.

In 2003, the state established legal protections for medical-marijuana users who were issued a doctor's prescription. The law also created more solid legal footing for the cooperatives that distribute marijuana for medical purposes.

Dispensaries, which had numbered just a handful until 2003, began to grow statewide. By 2007, Los Angeles had 183 dispensaries.

That same year, the city attorney's office issued a moratorium intended to block new establishments until the City Council created regulations, such as a ban on operating near schools.

But the City Council never got around to setting any rules on the dispensaries. Meantime, word begin to spread that dispensary owners could open new outlets, despite the moratorium, by filing paperwork claiming a so-called hardship exemption.

Some applications cited the raids by federal authorities targeting marijuana dispensaries as hardships. In other hardship applications, owners simply claimed they weren't aware they needed permits.

The hardship applications went unchallenged by the City Council, and the number of dispensaries soared to its current level of about 800. San Francisco, by comparison, has about 30 dispensaries.

Mr. Halbert joined the rush in March. He was running a dating service in Phoenix when a friend pointed out an ad on Craigslist from Marc Kent, a former attorney, offering to help people apply for the hardship exemption for a $3,500 fee. He said he has helped people open up more than 100 dispensaries.

"It was pretty much a turn-key operation," said Mr. Kent.

Mr. Halbert made three trips to Los Angeles and toured several facilities that had opened under the hardship clause. "I did my due diligence," he said.

He settled on a storefront on Venice Boulevard in West Los Angeles.

He registered the business as Best Buds, but later changed the outlet's name to Rainforest Collective. He placed a clapboard sign out front and advertised his services with a flashing neon sign in the window.

He decorated his shop with rainforest-themed murals. Clients could select from an assortment of marijuana strains for smoking, as well as "edibles" -- pretzels and cookies with the marijuana baked inside. Total investment: close to $100,000, he said.

Mr. Halbert encourages customers to consume their marijuana on the premises and lures them with such offers as movie nights. "We don't want them to just come here and get their medicine," he said. "We want them to come here and maybe make some friends, have some fellowship."

He said he now has about 1,000 customers, but declined to discuss how much the shop makes. Mr. Halbert said he might try to fight the city order to close and planned to stay open as long as possible. In his hearing before the planning committee Tuesday, Mr. Halbert produced letters of support from residents and local businesses.

Other neighborhood activists, however, have campaigned to shut down the dispensaries.

Cindy Cleghorn, a member of a neighborhood council in a another part of the city, complained her area is overrun.

"It's out of control," she said. Ms. Cleghorn said the new dispensaries violate neighborhood-improvement guidelines and operate in storefronts that are zoned for other uses. "It's not about the marijuana, it's about the land-use issues," says Ms. Cleghorn, who brought her complaints to the City Council.

But because so many dispensaries had opened up without resistance from the city, Mr. Halbert said, "Any business person would assume that the city's fine" with them.

- IT was pretty stupid to do prop215/sb420 w/o any sort of plan as to how patients were actually going to get marijuana

- I agree that there are shady ass dispensaries and then there are CVS like dispensaries, and that the industry SHOULD be regulated

- Of course, regulation would probably be by douchers who don't know WTF they're doing and we'd end up with brick schwag marijuana @500/ounce

- I actually went to a city council meeting. Their entire conversation re: MMJ lasted all of 2 minutes, and nobody was allowed to speak. Not only that, but the bias against MMJ was fucking clear ("I can see by the crowd that there probably aren't any medical marijuana users here"")

"It's out of control," she said. Ms. Cleghorn said the new dispensaries violate neighborhood-improvement guidelines and operate in storefronts that are zoned for other uses. "It's not about the marijuana, it's about the land-use issues," says Ms. Cleghorn, who brought her complaints to the City Council.

No arguments here...
 

OCGuy

Lifer
Jul 12, 2000
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Exactly, this isnt about the MJ. This is about how unregulated the shops are.
 

Moonbeam

Elite Member
Nov 24, 1999
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Originally posted by: OCguy
Exactly, this isnt about the MJ. This is about how unregulated the shops are.

It's about the fact that some people are making money in businesses the politicians would be afraid to open themselves.
 

Dr. Detroit

Diamond Member
Sep 25, 2004
8,345
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800 of these shops in LA while SF only has 30.

Yeah - I'd say the unregualtion of them in LA is a major problem as LA should have 3-4X the amount in SF based on the population of LA.


 

ebaycj

Diamond Member
Mar 9, 2002
5,418
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Originally posted by: Moonbeam
Originally posted by: OCguy
Exactly, this isnt about the MJ. This is about how unregulated the shops are.

It's about the fact that some people are making money in businesses the politicians would be afraid to open themselves.

What's really sad is that the same politicians would likely be more than happy to market and sell cigarettes to kids, if they didn't have their next election to think about.
 

Moonbeam

Elite Member
Nov 24, 1999
73,803
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Originally posted by: ebaycj
Originally posted by: Moonbeam
Originally posted by: OCguy
Exactly, this isnt about the MJ. This is about how unregulated the shops are.

It's about the fact that some people are making money in businesses the politicians would be afraid to open themselves.

What's really sad is that the same politicians would likely be more than happy to market and sell cigarettes to kids, if they didn't have their next election to think about.

It was that way for years.
 

Jiggz

Diamond Member
Mar 10, 2001
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Let's face it, this is the only way the CA deficit can be resolve! Legalize and tax MJ and get it over with. As soon as the deficit is fixed, then CA can start spending $$ on MJ rehabilitation!
 

scott916

Platinum Member
Mar 2, 2005
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Originally posted by: Ns1
I can see by the crowd that there probably aren't any medical marijuana users here

It's too bad that MJ is amongst the issues that are primarily argued with a stance of ignorance, often from both sides. Intelligent people with their facts straight such as DerekWilson and yourself are the ones who will make a difference.

 
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