Officals Study Details Of Pot Ordinance

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Thirteen years after California voters legalized medical marijuana, Los Angeles officials on Wednesday began studying an ordinance that could finally regulate the hundreds of dispensaries that have sprouted up in recent years.

But officials had a few simple questions they wanted answered first.

"Why are we getting conflicting information and why has it taken so long?" asked Councilman Dennis Zine. "We need to expedite this and get something in place."

The proposed ordinance drafted by City Attorney Carmen Trutanich would limit the dispensaries' operating hours to 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and allow them to have a maximum of 100 plants and five pounds of marijuana on hand.

It also would ban the for-profit sale of marijuana, a provision that is seen as consistent with Proposition 215 - which officials say was intended to allow medical marijuana collectives

A representative of the pro-medical marijuana group Americans for Safe Access expressed concern that the ordinance would try to restrict all medical marijuana facilities, not just storefronts.

"It seems like the city ordinance is aimed at applying to collectives and cooperatives that are not storefronts," spokesman Kris Hermes said. "If the position of the city is that storefront dispensaries are patently illegal, there is a serious problem."

Hermes also questioned provisions in the proposal that would prohibit the clinics from dispensing edible and liquid forms of marijuana.

"There are some people who cannot smoke and need to ingest it in some other form," Hermes said.

In addition, he said there were concerns about disclosure of patients' medical and financial records.

The city has been engaged in a long-running dispute about regulating the estimated 800 or more clinics that have opened in Los Angeles, and whether to deal with them as a planning issue or a public-safety matter.

A Superior Court judge ruled this week that city's effort to use planning policies to limit the opening of new clinics was illegal.

Trutanich's proposed ordinance was drafted with the purpose of "laying out the do's and don'ts, and spells out what can be done," said Assistant City Attorney David Berger.

Berger said the city would be flexible on those points and willing to amend the provisions if information can be provided on patients' problems.

Zine said his concern is in getting the city to proceed with its efforts and prevent the spread of the clinics.

"We support the compassionate use of marijuana for the people who need it," Zine said. "We want to maintain that. But we don't want to advocate the recreational use of marijuana.

"The issue of making a profit, the issue of the crime and the issue of the cartel from Mexico bringing up this stuff is what we need. We don't want to see the sale of marijuana to just get high. That's not what any of us support."

Councilman Greig Smith, who chairs the council's Public Safety Committee, agreed that he wants to see something in place soon but wants to continue studying the proposal from the City Attorney's Office.

"I don't think we have a lot of time to deal with this," Smith said. "But I want to read this to make sure it is the most stringent law possible. It should not be for profit. It should be marijuana for those people who need it."


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Source: dailynews.com
Author: Rick Orlov
Copyright: 2009 Los Angeles Newspaper Group
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