Pot Shops Doomed in Los Angeles?

The Los Angeles City Council is considering two options for eliminating marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles. PLUM, the L.A. City Council’s Planning and Land Use Management, has a “gentle ban” approach before it as well as a more hard-line approach.

The “gentle ban” that was offered by City Councilman Paul Koretz has language that is designed to palliate the sensitivities of the pot-smoking crowd:

“… more reasonable approach to compliance could include a limited immunity approach whereby the City proceeds forward with a ban on dispensaries but uses its prosecutorial discretion to abstain from any enforcement action against the limited number of dispensaries that do not violate a set of City Council imposed restrictions. This approach would protect neighborhoods while still assuring limited safe access for patients within the confines of ever evolving case law.”

It is unclear what “protect neighborhoods” means; does Koretz mean that by allowing dispensaries that follow the Council’s guidelines, the neighborhoods won’t riot?

The second proposal under consideration is more severe: to ban all dispensaries until a case before the California Supreme Court, Pack v. City of Long Beach, is decided. The case revolves around Long Beach’s attempt to regulate its marijuana dispensaries the same way Los Angeles does.

 

Proponents of medical marijuana are prepared to show up en masse to protest the proposals.