Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
Ed Reyes
The Los Angeles City Council will not be voting this week on a medical cannabis ordinance approved by the Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee. The LA Times reports that City Councilmember Ed Reyes wants more time to resolve the complicated issues surrounding the ordinance, and staff at City Hall tell me that more committee hearings may proceed a vote by the full City Council. It is possible that a joint committee meeting between the PLUM and Public Safety Committees will address the necessary changes.
At this point, delay may be beneficial for patients. The City Attorney’s latest draft version has some big flaws – including lack of protection for patient privacy, a ban on edible preparations, and unreasonable restrictions on where collectives can be located. Americans for Safe Access (ASA) recommends substantial changes to the draft. It will be easier to make improvements like these at the committee level than it will be before fourteen or fifteen City Councilmembers.
City Councilmembers are right not to be bullied into adopting a bad ordinance. This issue is too complicated and important to rush.
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Friday, September 4th, 2009
The City of Los Angles may be moving into the final stages of the four-year-old debate about permanent regulations for medical cannabis facilities in the city. Americans for Safe Access (ASA) expects the City Attorney’s office will send recommendations for the final ordinance to the Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee later this month. The draft ordinance was prepared by city staff after Councilmember Zine joined advocates in rejecting an ordinance submitted by former City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo in February. That measure regarded all sales of cannabis as illegal, and would have required every collective in the city to close.
Patients and advocates worry that newly-elected City Attorney Carmen Trutanich has yet to make any public comment repudiating his processor’s anti-medical cannabis position. In fact, Trutanich’s Senior Advisor Jane Usher told the Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Committee on August 1 that staff in her office could find no legal protection for sales of cannabis, even inside the membership of a legally organized and operated patients’ association.
On August 10, ASA Chief Counsel Joe Elford and I joined representatives of the Greater Los Angeles Collective Alliance (GLACA) in an unprecedented meeting with Ms. Usher and two of the other top eight managers in Trutanich’s office to discuss regulatory solutions for the city. We presented the staff with a new White Paper published by ASA and GLACA and a draft ordinance based on input from the city’s defunct medical cannabis working group. The White Paper explains the justification for storefront collectives and sales of medicine within their membership. It also makes policy recommendations for the city’s final ordinance. Trutanich’s staff listened attentively and asked hard questions – both good signs, but the outcome is uncertain.
It is possible that Carmen Trutanich will disappoint the medical cannabis community, which rallied around his campaign earlier this year, when he returns recommendations to the PLUM Committee this month. If so, patients and advocates will have to work hard persuade committee members to reject his advice and stay the course on developing sensible regulations for Los Angeles. This is important not just because regulations are proven to reduce crime and complaints in communities, but also because they will finally set some standards in a city that has grappled for too long with how best to regulate access to medicine.
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Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
Angelinos got some indication about what direction city staff will take in developing an ordinance regulating collectives and cooperatives in Los Angeles when the Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee heard status updates at this afternoon’s meeting. Input from city staff is encouraging, but it is clear there is still significant work to do in crafting policies that protect access and patient privacy, while addressing community concerns.
The Planning Department has assembled a project team to craft a land use ordinance that specifies in which zoning districts collectives and cooperatives can establish storefront facilities and how far they must be from other medical cannabis facilities, sensitive uses, and businesses prone to nuisance activity (liquor stores, adult entertainment, etc.). The Building and Safety Department is coordinating on separate operational protocols, which are likely to include regulations concerning hours of operation, required security, and other measures.
Observers were surprised by a proposal from the Planning Department for a more lenient permit process than the Conditional Use Permit (CUP) proposed by advocates. City Planner Alan Bell told the committee that permits may be available to any collective or cooperative that meets the land use and operational requirements without a public hearing, while other facilities can request an exception to some requirements through an administrative hearing process. We can anticipate some controversy on this topic. Neighborhood groups want more input in the permit process, and even some advocates want a tougher process to allay community concerns.
The City Council’s legislative analyst has already circulated language for the ordinance to various departments for review, but has not yet discussed the matter in detail with newly elected City Attorney Carmen Trutanich. City staff is doing technical analysis on the draft ordinance now. Part of this process includes developing maps showing what territory would be off limits given differing requirements for distances between collectives and sensitive uses. PLUM Committee Chairman Reyes asked staff to report back on their timeline in two weeks.
A representative from the Code Enforcement said that his department is already enforcing hardship application denials, saying that five facilities have already closed and six have been referred to the City Attorney’s office for further enforcement. Newly elected City Councilmember and PLUM Committee member Paul Koretz was the first member to sound a cautionary note regarding hardship applications. Koretz questioned the wisdom of closing facilities that might ultimately qualify under the new ordinance. It remains to be seen whether this represents a softening of the committee’s hard line approach to hardship applications.
I encouraged committee members to be careful about recommending any regulations containing a laundry list of sensitive uses, pointing out that the well-regulated facilities anticipated by this ordinance would not be problematic for neighbors. Councilmember Huizar echoed this sentiment. He related his positive experience visiting Cornerstone Research in Eagle Rock. The Councilmember said there was no reason that facility could not be near a sensitive use, adding he was rethinking a proposed 1,000-foot requirement in the current draft.
I also encouraged the committee to abandon plans to require collectives to disclose the names of patient-cultivators. Chairman Reyes agreed to hear more on this topic. Reyes also expressed concern about doctors writing recommendations too freely. I reminded committee members that enforcement for doctors falls to the California Medical Board, which has already sanctioned doctors who fail to uphold the agency’s standards.
In a subsequent item, the PLUM Committee also recommended denial of a hardship application for a collective on Venice Blvd. When questioned by Councilmember Koretz about what constitutes a hardship under the moratorium, a representative from the City Attorney’s office said that the decision was a exclusively legislative one, which must only have a “rational basis.” The representative reiterated that the hardship application did not give anyone permission to operate in violation of the moratorium.
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Saturday, June 6th, 2009
The Los Angeles City Council will take up fourteen hardship applications for medical cannabis collectives in Eagle Rock and Highland Park on Tuesday morning. These are the first of approximately five hundred hardship applications filed for medical cannabis facilities that opened or relocated after the City Council adopted a moratorium on new collectives on September 14, 2007. Increasing pressure from neighborhood groups and bad media coverage have embarrassed the City Council in recent weeks, and observers expect all or most of the applications will be denied. The City Council will also vote on a motion by Councilmember Huizar to remove the hardship provision from the city’s moratorium. If approved, the motion will prevent any new hardship applications.
Later on Tuesday, the Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee will discuss permanent regulations, which the City Council plans to adopt before the moratorium expires September. Medical cannabis advocates joined City Councilmember Dennis Zine earlier this year in rejecting a draft ordinance prepared by outgoing City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo. That misguided measure regarded collectives as illegal and would have forced every facility in Los Angeles to close. The PLUM Committee is expected to send recommendations for improved regulations to the full City Council on Tuesday. The Council will then forward the recommendations, including any amendments, to the City Attorney’s office with instructions to write a new ordinance.
An alphabet soup of advocacy organizations has been working with Councilmembers and city staff for over a year to craft the permanent regulations – Americans for Safe Access (ASA), Greater Los Angeles Collective Alliance (GLACA), Patients Advocacy Network (PAN). These groups join other local players, including patients, law enforcement, and neighborhood groups. The final phase of writing the ordinance will be controversial, as various interests compete to shape the next draft. Expect differing strategies and priorities.
There is likely to be something in the draft ordinance to which every stakeholder objects. Ultimately, every measure must be evaluated based on its benefit or harm to legal patients. It will be even more important now that every medical cannabis supporter in Los Angeles stay plugged in and let Councilmembers know which provisions help facilitate access to medicine – and which will roll back patients’ rights.
The City Council meets at 10:00 AM on Tuesday, June 9, in Room 340, City Hall, 200 North Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles. Arrive early to complete a public speaker’s card. The PLUM Committee meets at 2:00 PM just across the rotunda in Room 350.
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Wednesday, May 20th, 2009
Medical cannabis patients and advocates helped elect Carmen Trutanich as the new City Attorney on Tuesday, but the results in the District 5 City Council race are still too close to call. Paul Koretz appears to be the likely winner in that contest, but with only a few hundred votes separating him from his opponent, the provisional ballots will decide the outcome. The Los Angeles medical cannabis community threw its growing grassroots weight behind Koretz and Trutanich in hopes of steering the city towards a more reasonable medical cannabis policy.
City Attorney Elect Trutanich with GLACA members
The Greater Los Angeles Caregivers Alliance (GLACA), which is working to develop and implement sensible regulations for medical cannabis collectives and cooperatives, helped call voters, walk precincts, and turn out hundreds of members to elect the two candidates. GLACA members joined City Councilmembers Zine and Hahn in Universal City on Tuesday night to celebrate Trutanich’s victory, while a delegation of medical cannabis advocates gathered in central Los Angeles to watch the neck-and-neck race with Koretz.
The election of Trutanich – and possibly Koretz – is good news for medical cannabis supporters. Paul Koretz is the former Mayor of West Hollywood and California Assemblymember who has been a long-time champion of medical cannabis rights. He is likely to replace medical cannabis opponent Jack Weiss as the representative for District 5 – which will mean one more vote for safe access on the City Council.
Carmen Trutanich defeated outgoing Los Angeles City Councilmember Jack Weiss in the race for City Attorney following a surprisingly negative campaign. Patients and advocates feared Weiss would carry on outgoing City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo’s policy of obstructing progress on implementing sensible medical cannabis policy in the city. Trutanich told GLACA members he would uphold the state’s laws at a neighborhood meeting before the election.
Neighborhood groups and media have been critical of the City Council and City Attorney’s office for not moving quickly enough to regulate the exploding number of patients’ associations in Los Angeles. Having another medical cannabis supporter on the City Council and a more reasonable City Attorney could be important as the city begins the work of adopting a permanent ordinance in earnest this summer.
Congratulations to GLACA, the Union of Medical Marijuana Patients, and dozens of patients’ associations who helped make a difference!
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