Medical cannabis cooperatives and collectives in Los Angeles should already be paying a “sin tax” of 5% of their gross receipts. The tax was created by Measure M, a voter initiative proposed by the City Council last year. Tax is due effective April 18, 2011. Patients associations can download forms to pay the tax from the city’s web page.

The Measure M tax is almost ten times higher than the next highest business licensing tax in the city. That new expense will almost certainly be passed along to legal patients who comprise the cooperatives and collectives in Los Angeles. Patients and providers resent the extra tax on medical cannabis, because the city’s multi-year regulatory process has yielded one of the most restrictive ordinances in the state and dozens of lawsuits. No one knows when the litigation – both from and against the city – will be resolved. Many legitimate associations are paying huge legal bills and rent on two properties – their current locations and new one that comply with the onerous location restrictions in the embattled ordinance.

Taxing medicine like cigarettes or alcohol is bad public policy. Sick and dying Angelenos should not pay a “sin tax” on medicine their doctors recommended. The city’s ordinance already requires the cooperatives and collectives to pay all of the costs of implementing the ordinance and enforcing the law. Why not just tax these legal associations like every other business in the city? City Council Members and a large majority of voters saw Measure M as quick money from presumably well-heeled “pot dealers.” Too bad legal patients will foot the bill for that misperception.

LA City Attorney Trutanich

Los Angeles City Council is likely to approve a request by City Attorney Carmen Trutanich to extend the deadline for complying with the city’s Medical Cannabis Ordinance for another 180 days. The extension is necessary because litigation and administrative delays made the original June 7 deadline for compliance impossible.

Numerous collectives have filed lawsuits challenging the ordinance, including new lawsuits seeking to overturn a controversial provision that will select 100 eligible collectives at random. Staff members at the City Attorney’s office are currently reviewing more than 200 applications to participate in the lottery. There is no indication how long that process will take. Meanwhile, the City Attorney filed lawsuits against seven collectives deemed ineligible to register for the lottery. Mr. Trutanich will seek injunctive relief to close those collectives immediately.

If there is any silver lining to this most regressive of taxes, it is that voters ignored patients and anti-medical cannabis voices in law enforcement at the same time. Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, and LAPD Chief Charlie Beck all opposed Measure M. They said medical cannabis, patients’ collectives, and sales of medicine are illegal. But voters do not care. That says something about how much stock voters in Los Angeles put in the anti-medical cannabis arguments. Perhaps the upside of Measure M is that voters think medical cannabis is here to stay.

Measure M is bad law, but let’s hope lawmakers appreciate and acknowledge this newest sacrifice by patients. Patients and advocates should redouble their efforts to improve local regulations and resist efforts by Cooley, Trutanich, and Beck to eradicate medical cannabis in Los Angeles.