Backlash growing in LA over proliferation
March 24th, 2009 | by Don Duncan |Angelinos are concerned about the growing number of medical cannabis collectives opening in the city lately, despite the eighteen-month old moratorium on new facilities. Concern is greatest in those neighborhoods where storefront collectives are clustering. In an op-ed published today, the LA Daily News says North Hollywood has “more than its fair share of dispensaries;” and neighborhood activists in the Melrose-Fairfax area are actively lobbying the City Attorney and City Council to close facilities that opened after Councilmembers adopted a moratorium on new storefronts in August 2007. The proliferation of new facilities has escalated since US Attorney General Holder made comments on February 25 and March 18 indicating federal policy opposing medical cannabis may be changing, giving many would-be collective operators what is likely a false sense of security.
The medical cannabis community in Los Angeles would do well to take notice of this growing backlash, and vocally support implementation and enforcement of local ordinances. Community complaints may undermine the goodwill that led Coucilmembers to opt for regulations, instead of a ban on facilities; and to endorse the Hinchey- Rohrabacher amendment in the US House of Representatives and support a California Senate Joint Resolution calling for an end to federal interference in state medical cannabis programs.
The moratorium adopted in 2007 contains a boiler late hardship exemption, which allows collectives and cooperatives to ask the City Council for an exemption from the terms of the ordinance. The City Council intended that this provision be used by those facilities that registered by the original deadline of November 12, 2007, but subsequently relocated for reasons beyond their control. Some of the original collectives made legitimate use of this provision, after their landlords were intimidated into evicting the collectives by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Other collectives are using the hardship application as a free pass to open new collectives in defiance of the moratorium. Inconsistent information from city staff and opportunistic legal advice fuel this trend. Over 200 collectives have filed hardship applications since the effective date ordinance. This unchecked proliferation of new storefronts leads to ambivalence towards medical cannabis in Los Angeles. If left unchecked, the growing neighborhood opposition could reverse our progress and result in onerous regulations for every collective in Los Angeles – or renewed calls for an outright ban. At the City Council meeting in Van Nuys on March 6, 2009, Councilmember Dennis Zine, a champion of regulations for collectives, promised the city would start reviewing hardship applications and closing illegitimate collectives.
Medical cannabis patients and providers should stand in solidarity calling for enforcement of the existing moratorium, and ask the City Council to move quickly in processing the hardship applications. We must also keep pressure on Councilmembers and city staff to craft sensible permanent regulations for storefronts in Los Angeles. Research and experience shows this reduces crime and neighborhood complaints, making patients and collectives safer in the long run.
Get more information about the Los Angeles moratorium from Americans For Safe Access (ASA).
Tags: cannabis community, city attorney, collectives, community complaints, eric holder, federal interference, hardship exemption, moratorium, neighborhood activists
