“The tiny state of Rhode Island took a big step last week when the House of Representatives passed a bill authorizing nonprofit associations to “acquire, possess, cultivate, manufacture, deliver, transfer, transport, supply, or dispense marijuana” to legal patients. The Senate has already adopted a similar bill, and the 63 to 5 margin in the House makes the bill veto-proof. Patients and caregivers in Rhode Island may be the first to acquire medicine from 100% legal dispensing associations…”
Read the entire post on the ASA blog – Medical Cannabis: Voices from the Frontlines.
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).
On Friday, the New York Times ran an article featuring the Los Angeles Patients and Caregivers Group (LAPCG) in West Hollywood and me, discussing the reaction in the medical cannabis community to US Attorney General Eric Holder’s latest statement about federal policy. I told the reporter that we were breathing a little easier, but still worried about federal interference and rouge law enforcement. I also reminded him that there are still dozens of people facing trial, awaiting sentencing, or serving time. Holder’s “new American policy” must not forget people like Charles C. Lynch, who is to be sentenced to 5 to 20 years in Los Angeles tomorrow.
Patients and staff at LAPCG worry that local police and federal agents have little experince distinguishing who is and who is not obeying state law. Under the previous Administartion, obeying the letetr and the spirit of California law still left you at risk of prosecution and jail. It is our hope that law enforcement will rise to the challenge and learn to tell who is doing it right. It should not be too difficult to see that a legal, tax-paying, nonprofit patients’ association like LAPCG, which has operated in West Hollywood since 2004, is off limits to the DEA under Holder’s new policy. Time will tell; but until we change federal law to allow states to choose and regulate medical cannabis as they see fit, there will always be a risk.
The historic election of President Barack Obama and the expanded Democratic majority in Congress signal an opportunity for change in federal policy concerning medical cannabis, and recent developments indicate that this change may already be underway. On February 4, in response to post-inauguration raids by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) at medical cannabis dispensaries in California, White House Spokesman Nick Shapiro reiterated the President’s campaign pledges to stop wasting federal resources in efforts to circumvent state medical cannabis laws. Then on February 25, US Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters at a press conference, while standing next to acting DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart, that ending federal raids on medical cannabis dispensaries “is now American policy.” Attorney General Holder followed up theses comments on March 18, by indicating the new policy meant the federal government would only prosecute providers who were breaking state law.
We have also seen remarkable progress in Congress. US House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) sharply criticized DEA interference and intimidation in medical cannabis states last year. His historic letter of April 28, 2008, challenged the DEA tactics in California and other states where medical cannabis is already legal. On February 6, 2009, Congressman John Olver (D-MA) and fifteen of his colleagues sent the Attorney General a letter asking him to abandon his predecessor’s policy of blocking medical cannabis research; and on February 16 Congresswoman Lois Capps (D-CA) asked him to stop threatening California property owners who rent to medical cannabis providers.
These are remarkable developments, but I want to caution all potential operators that federal law has not changed. Medical cannabis remains illegal and penalties are still severe under federal law. There is more work to be done to harmonize federal law with state law. You have a role to play in that ongoing work.
D.C. Council Holds Hearing on Medical Marijuana; Maryland May Be 15th Medical Cannabis State; ASA Argues Against Local Dispensary Bans in Calif., Sues Over LA Dispensary Rules; Medical Marijuana Week National Success; UC Researchers Issue Report […]
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 
