About Medical Marijuana

LADBS Bulletin

The Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety (LABDS) published a bulletin to help the medical cannabis collective operators understand the implementation of the city’s complicated new ordinance. The 32-page document outlines the Byzantine registration process and includes the time-sensitive paperwork needed to comply. Applicants should be careful to understand the process. Any violation or missed deadline will disqualify a collective from registration – leaving them no option but to join a series of lotteries to select candidates at random for vacancies in any of the city’s thirty five Community Plan Areas.

That it takes 32-pages of text, charts, and forms to explain the ordinance should be evidence that the regulatory process went astray. Unlike other cities, Los Angeles decided not to issue business licenses or Conditional Use Permits to collectives. This is due to the persistent opinion of the City Attorney and some Councilmembers that these facilities are essentially illegal, and therefore, cannot be licensed or permitted. That is an unfortunate position. A more typical regulatory strategy would have been implemented already. Citizens of Los Angeles are still waiting for the proven benefits of regulation – reduced crime, fewer complaints, and increased tax revenue. What they have instead confusion and litigation.

It did not have to be this way. City Councilmembers could have looked to sensible regulatory models in Los Angeles County, the City of West Hollywood, Oakland, Berkeley, Sebastopol, or others to see how effective regulation looks. Instead, the City Council waffled for almost two years before adopting a poorly conceived ordinance – including dozens of un-vetted amendments – in a rushed response to sensational media reports and understandable community concern. The result is the toughest and least workable ordinance in the country.

What the immediate future holds for medical cannabis collectives in the city is uncertain. We are still waiting for the City Clerk to publish the Priority List, a list of collectives qualified to continue on the complicated path to registration. Some observers speculate that as few as forty of the almost 200 that applied will be on this list. The few who make it through the registration process cannot relax for long. Language never approved by a committee or discussed by the full City Council stipulates that the entire ordinance will sunset in April of 2012 – and every collective must close.

Tags: Los Angeles, medical cannabis, ordiannce, regulations