LOS ANGELES, CA - Patient advocates in Los Angeles presented a resolution this week to the Los Angeles City Council to regulate the area’s medical cannabis dispensaries in hopes of halting a potential ban on the businesses that the Council ha scheduled for its June 22, 2012, meeting. (Resolution text - http://panorg.blogspot.com/2012/06/resolution-by-people-of-los-angeles-to.html)For several weeks Los Angeles City Council members have held hearings to determine if the City should ban the over 800 existing medical cannabis collectives instead of regulating them like the cities of West Hollywood and San Francisco. The City of Los Angeles passed a restrictive ordinance in 2010 that sparked dozens of lawsuits costing the City untold hundreds of thousands of dollars. The dispensaries have won numerous challenges to the City’s law and scores of dispensaries continue to open because of unenforceability issues.
Patient advocates argue that Los Angeles city officials are just playing politics. “The Council can provide no reason for a ban other than lawsuits and some falsified crime statistics. It’s as if they’ve lost the game, so they’re going to take their ordinance and go home, no matter what a ban costs the City and its residents,” states Degé Coutee, president of Patient Advocacy Network, an education and advocacy organization for medical cannabis patients based in Los Angeles.
During that days leading up the Council’s vote this Friday, patients and dispensary operators have spoken at City Hall voicing concerns about the ban. Many stated to the Council that a ban will only create more lawsuits and regulating the businesses appropriately is the safest alternative for patients and the City. Patients spoke about fears of having to go to the black market. In response to local patients, advocates drafted a resolution with guidelines for the City’s dispensaries and presented to the Council this week.
“It’s frustrating to hear council members say on the record that they don’t know what to do or how to manage the situation. They DO but they just WON’T,” states Coutee. “So, we presented a resolution to the Council on record so they cannot deny that a solution was indeed presented to them by patients and concerned community members.”
The Los Angeles City Council will meet Friday, June 22, 2012, at 10 a.m. at Los Angeles City Hall in Room 340 at 200 N. Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012. (Link to agenda - http://ens.lacity.org/clk/councilagendas/clkcouncilagendas377672_06222012.pdf)