West Hollywood passed an urgency ordinance criminalizing the opening of a medical marijuana collective or dispensary within city limits and without a business license this week.
The catalyzing event, Los Angeles' crack down on illegally operating medical marijuana dispensaries and one club's determination to move its operations into the city without permits of any sort, highlighted behind the scenes moves meant to bring city pot club law into alignment with evolving state law.
According to Jeffrey Aubel, city code compliance manager, C.A.R.E Collective in Van Nuys, forced to shut its doors due to LA's clampdown on illegal dispensaries, attempted to open a shop on the 7700 block of Santa Monica Boulevard (at Stanley) in WeHo.
Code compliance found illegal construction on the site and issued a work stop order, but according to Mr. Aubel, "they said they would open as a dispensary anyway, even their lawyers said they would open as a pot club."
Upon investigation, the city discovered it had no enforcement mechanism available to prevent the club from opening, as a violation for dispensing medical marijuana without a business license under current law is governed by the City's administrative remedies program.
The urgency ordinance, moved to the Consent Calendar and passed unanimously, makes the violation a misdemeanor. It goes into effect immediately.
The city has one alleged rogue medical marijuana dispensary operating inside its boundaries that falls outside this remedy, although the city has undertaken civil action to close it.
The Sunset Super Shop at 8921 Sunset Boulevard allegedly continues to operate illegally, as the previous owners/operators of the dispensary that started at that address closed announced their closure to the city a year ago.
According to a law suit filed in Superior Court on May 20, the landlords of the building allegedly opened a dispensary in the location after the original business shout down.
Now operating as Compassionate Healing Center of West Hollywood LLC and The Sunset Shoppe and owned by Nansee Lanning, the Lanning Family Trust, George Lanning and Justin Lanning, the lawsuit seeks to abate a public nuisance through injunctive relief and fines of $2,500 per code violation.
A call for comment to Justin Lanning, the managing partner, was not returned before publication.
The former operator of the West Hollywood Center for Compassionate Healing (WHCCH), Andrew Kramer, would not comment on the lawsuit because of litigation, but confirmed closing his dispensary there in April of 2009.
On another front, the city recently requested WeHo pot clubs to come into complete compliance with state and county law.
The city's code compliance department sent a letter to the four of the legally operating West Hollywood dispensaries in early June asking them to make various changes to their business models.
The requested changes came from a need to comply with the two basic legal pillars on which medical marijuana is regulated, Prop 215 and AB 42o, said Mr. Aubel, "and we're all dealing with this together, trying to make the city's and the dispensaries' position a defensible one."
After the regular monthly meeting of the West Hollywood Medical Marijuana Task Force, founder of one of the original medical marijuana dispensaries in West Hollywood, The Los Angeles Patients & Caregivers Group (LAPCG), Don Duncan, told WeHo News that the requests being made by the city reflect, "the evolution of state law on the subject, and that's changing all the time," he said, noting several recently decided cases that make some of the city's requested changes moot.
Although the four letters' contents differed depending on the precise business model, Mr. Aubel said, "the shared component was asking them to replace the over the counter sale of medicine with some other form of reimbursement."
Mr. Duncan told WeHo News that He also noted that it remained unclear whether some clubs functioned under the letter of the law, which calls for California non-profit status, certain documentation and "more meaningful participation" by members of the collectives.
Both men, after the meeting, expressed hope that the issues at hand could be resolved.
"It was a very productive meeting," said Mr. Duncan, who characterized the city as "eager to work... out," whatever inconsistencies exist between dispensary operations and state and county law.
Mr. Aubel took pains to characterize the re-evaluation as cooperative, saying, "the Attorney General and DA says you can't have over the counter sales. [In order to] comply with that, [the City of West Hollywood hasn't] said what they have to do yet."
Lauding the four WeHo dispensaries' past actions and motives, he said the city entrusted them to write the legislation.
"They're going to work on a way together to comply... so [the City] can say, 'here's how we're operating in cooperation and within the parameters of Prop 215 and AB 420,'" if called upon to do so, he told WeHo News.
"We've got four very good operators in the city, and I'm confidant they can accomplish what they need to."
Active as Southern California chapter head of Americans for Safe Access, (ASA), Mr. Duncan also expressed optimism that the WeHo dispensaries could educate city officials on recent legal rulings that support members' "cash and carry" participation in medical marijuana collectives, as well as help to clarify and hone business practices and models.
"There's not a lot of clarity out there," he said, although he cited both a Butte County case and in "People V Newcomb" [before the Appellate Court] in which courts "determined that members can participate simply financially in their collective."
Calling that participation 'incremental reimbursement for the product of the collective's efforts," he speculated that once the proposal is made, "the city attorney will have one position, the County DA, we know, already has a strong position, the dispensaries will have another position and we'll meet somewhere in the middle."
NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: WeHoNews.com
Author: WeHo News Staff
Contact: WeHoNews.com
Copyright: 2010 WeHoNews.com
Website: West Hollywood passes medical marijuana urgency ordinance
* Thanks to MedicalNeed for submitting this article
The catalyzing event, Los Angeles' crack down on illegally operating medical marijuana dispensaries and one club's determination to move its operations into the city without permits of any sort, highlighted behind the scenes moves meant to bring city pot club law into alignment with evolving state law.
According to Jeffrey Aubel, city code compliance manager, C.A.R.E Collective in Van Nuys, forced to shut its doors due to LA's clampdown on illegal dispensaries, attempted to open a shop on the 7700 block of Santa Monica Boulevard (at Stanley) in WeHo.
Code compliance found illegal construction on the site and issued a work stop order, but according to Mr. Aubel, "they said they would open as a dispensary anyway, even their lawyers said they would open as a pot club."
Upon investigation, the city discovered it had no enforcement mechanism available to prevent the club from opening, as a violation for dispensing medical marijuana without a business license under current law is governed by the City's administrative remedies program.
The urgency ordinance, moved to the Consent Calendar and passed unanimously, makes the violation a misdemeanor. It goes into effect immediately.
The city has one alleged rogue medical marijuana dispensary operating inside its boundaries that falls outside this remedy, although the city has undertaken civil action to close it.
The Sunset Super Shop at 8921 Sunset Boulevard allegedly continues to operate illegally, as the previous owners/operators of the dispensary that started at that address closed announced their closure to the city a year ago.
According to a law suit filed in Superior Court on May 20, the landlords of the building allegedly opened a dispensary in the location after the original business shout down.
Now operating as Compassionate Healing Center of West Hollywood LLC and The Sunset Shoppe and owned by Nansee Lanning, the Lanning Family Trust, George Lanning and Justin Lanning, the lawsuit seeks to abate a public nuisance through injunctive relief and fines of $2,500 per code violation.
A call for comment to Justin Lanning, the managing partner, was not returned before publication.
The former operator of the West Hollywood Center for Compassionate Healing (WHCCH), Andrew Kramer, would not comment on the lawsuit because of litigation, but confirmed closing his dispensary there in April of 2009.
On another front, the city recently requested WeHo pot clubs to come into complete compliance with state and county law.
The city's code compliance department sent a letter to the four of the legally operating West Hollywood dispensaries in early June asking them to make various changes to their business models.
The requested changes came from a need to comply with the two basic legal pillars on which medical marijuana is regulated, Prop 215 and AB 42o, said Mr. Aubel, "and we're all dealing with this together, trying to make the city's and the dispensaries' position a defensible one."
After the regular monthly meeting of the West Hollywood Medical Marijuana Task Force, founder of one of the original medical marijuana dispensaries in West Hollywood, The Los Angeles Patients & Caregivers Group (LAPCG), Don Duncan, told WeHo News that the requests being made by the city reflect, "the evolution of state law on the subject, and that's changing all the time," he said, noting several recently decided cases that make some of the city's requested changes moot.
Although the four letters' contents differed depending on the precise business model, Mr. Aubel said, "the shared component was asking them to replace the over the counter sale of medicine with some other form of reimbursement."
Mr. Duncan told WeHo News that He also noted that it remained unclear whether some clubs functioned under the letter of the law, which calls for California non-profit status, certain documentation and "more meaningful participation" by members of the collectives.
Both men, after the meeting, expressed hope that the issues at hand could be resolved.
"It was a very productive meeting," said Mr. Duncan, who characterized the city as "eager to work... out," whatever inconsistencies exist between dispensary operations and state and county law.
Mr. Aubel took pains to characterize the re-evaluation as cooperative, saying, "the Attorney General and DA says you can't have over the counter sales. [In order to] comply with that, [the City of West Hollywood hasn't] said what they have to do yet."
Lauding the four WeHo dispensaries' past actions and motives, he said the city entrusted them to write the legislation.
"They're going to work on a way together to comply... so [the City] can say, 'here's how we're operating in cooperation and within the parameters of Prop 215 and AB 420,'" if called upon to do so, he told WeHo News.
"We've got four very good operators in the city, and I'm confidant they can accomplish what they need to."
Active as Southern California chapter head of Americans for Safe Access, (ASA), Mr. Duncan also expressed optimism that the WeHo dispensaries could educate city officials on recent legal rulings that support members' "cash and carry" participation in medical marijuana collectives, as well as help to clarify and hone business practices and models.
"There's not a lot of clarity out there," he said, although he cited both a Butte County case and in "People V Newcomb" [before the Appellate Court] in which courts "determined that members can participate simply financially in their collective."
Calling that participation 'incremental reimbursement for the product of the collective's efforts," he speculated that once the proposal is made, "the city attorney will have one position, the County DA, we know, already has a strong position, the dispensaries will have another position and we'll meet somewhere in the middle."
NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: WeHoNews.com
Author: WeHo News Staff
Contact: WeHoNews.com
Copyright: 2010 WeHoNews.com
Website: West Hollywood passes medical marijuana urgency ordinance
* Thanks to MedicalNeed for submitting this article
