Mayor Villaraigosa

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa  signed the final version of the city’s new medical cannabis ordinance on April 30. The state’s toughest regulations become effective on June 7. The City Attorney’s office sent letters to hundreds of collectives deemed in violation of the ordinance this week. The letters threaten civil and criminal penalties if the collectives remain open after the effective date. Time will tell if the city has the resources and political will to send in the police department to enforce its threats.

Collectives qualified to register under the ordinance are breathing only a little easier. Restrictions on where collectives can be located and on how many be in any one of the city’s thirty five Community Plan Areas mean that virtually all of the qualified collectives must relocate in short order. In response to a lawsuit filed by Americans for Safe Access (ASA), the city dropped a requirement that collectives provide their new address within seven days of the effective date. This is only a minor reprieve, however. All of the qualified collectives must complete a thorough (and expensive) pre-inspection process at their new address within thirty days after the city publishes the “priority list” of qualified candidates.

A handful of collectives will find suitable properties and jump through bureaucratic hoops in time to register under the ordinance, but it is unlikely that it will be the maximum number of seventy allowed. This is good news for compliance-minded collectives that are not qualified to register in the first round. Those that can wait six months to enter lotteries may still find an opening in one of the Community Plan Areas.

The Byzantine timelines and other restrictions in this ordinance have already generated litigation. Expect that to continue as qualified and un-qualified collectives run up against deadlines, unworkable restrictions, and regulations that violate their rights and common sense.

Jan Perry

One day after approving onerous new restrictions on where medical cannabis collectives can be located, the Los Angeles City Council seemed ready to rethink the issue today. Spurred by comments from Councilmember Ed Reyes, several members indicated they were willing to revisit Tuesday’s motion by Councilmember Perry to double the size of the buffer zone between collectives and a laundry list of sensitive uses to 1,000 feet – including any property used as a residence. The change of heart is good news for tens of thousands of patients in Los Angeles. Perry’s unexpected motion might have excluded collectives in most of the properties in Los Angeles.

The City Council has delayed a vote on the final ordinance, including Perry’s motion, until Wednesday, December 16, when the Planning Department is expected to produce maps illustrating 500 and 1,000 buffer zones around sensitive uses and residential use. Early research suggests the maps will show little opportunity for legally organized collectives in the city. This may spur City Councilmembers to reconsider the previous language, which required collectives to locate 500 feet from sensitive uses and avoid only those properties that abut residential use.

City Councilmembers deserve credit for rethinking their 11^th-hour decision to adopt the unworkable amendment, but grassroots activists played an important part in changing their minds. A team of activists from Americans for Safe Access (ASA), the Greater Los Angeles Collective Alliance (GLACA), and others stayed up late calling and emailing City Council offices after yesterday’s decision. Then, they got up early to follow up in the morning and be at City Hall by 10:00 AM.

Advocates were pleasantly surprised when the City Council approved the delay without objection. But they didn’t just walk away happy. A team of ASA and GLACA representatives fanned out across the fourth floor of City Hall after the decision, visiting each Council office to reinforce their message. They will follow up with meetings, phone calls, and emails before Wednesday’s vote. The dedication of this all-volunteer team is admirable. Many of them have been working on this issue for years.

Grassroots pressure has help push the city of Los Angeles towards regulations since 2005. Citizen advocates helped stop early plans to ban collectives outright, thwarted plans to prohibit sales of medicine, and defeated a proposal to restrict collective cultivation to a single location. That is a great track record against powerful foes, who want to roll back safe access in the city.

The City Council will take up the draft ordinance at the City Council meeting on Wednesday, December 16, in their meeting beginning at 10:00 AM. The meeting will be in Room 340 at City Hall.