How Many Pot Dispensaries in One City Are Too Many?

Los Angeles, a city with by all accounts the largest number and concentration of existing medical pot dispensaries, will likely see a hard cap on them after its City Council passes a new set of regulations on the medical marijuana business, which could happen as early as tomorrow.

More details and news clip links from my California news and politics blog "City of Angles," and you can check out the proposes ordinance, amendment, and actions on it at the L.A. City Council's web page.

Comments

[hmm]

Cap those tax dollars. You clearly have enough money to wage a war of morality without concern.

Can we give California back to Mexico and say pick up Mexico's eastern coast?

[Warty]

So it sounds like they talked to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board to learn how to best serve the customer.

Yo, fuck beer distributors.

[Paul]

Awww, and we were thiiiiiiis close to a freewheeling legalized marijuana market, too.

Regulate us! Tax us! Set us free!

[Xeones]

How Many Pot Dispensaries in One City Are Too Many?

Don't know, but i can damn sure tell you how many are too few.

[JerBear]

How many are too many? Ah, another question that the free market would gladly answer if only we would ask it rather than puritanical regulators.

[Paul]

Ah, another question that the free market would gladly answer if only we would ask it rather than puritanical regulators.

Can't have that. This is people's healthcare we're talking about here, not some market bazaar where health and well-being are sold to the highest bidder!

Afterall this is medical marijuana. Which makes these people what? Drug companies. And you know how we feel about Big Pharma.

If you're growing marijuana, how do we know it's safe and effective? What are the side effects? If we let profit come into play here, people might be exposed to marijuana which is dangerous.

Medical marijuana is all well and good, but it must conform to the same stringent standards any other prescription narcotic.

[Paul]

And why is Benicio Del Torrow smoking a bong in the sidebar?

[Paul]

*torro

Damn medical weed...

[Nash]

This scourge of unbridled business, wealth, and consumer choice must be quashed immediately lest we are left with prosperity.

[j.i.am]

Taxes are significant in the policy decision that will be made. LA County is broke and has a whopping 9.75% sales tax. Marijuana dispensaries are a cash businesses. The dispensaries use the term 'donation' for their transactions, making the purchases non-taxable, even though the operators are getting money. And since they are getting rich on cash, the full amount of their income cannot be tracked for personal income taxation either.

Nash, no private prosperity can go unshared.

[Personal Cultivation Permit]

Think about the sales tax on not just the mj but on the resulting mj-related tourism. This would be a chance for California to reap an economic windfall. While we're thinking, let's implement a nation-wide personal cultivation permit. Limit the number of plants, and put a fee on it, something like a fishing license, with maybe a little extra for education or fixing the roads.

How about $100 per year for a permit to cultivate a dozen plants? It's a win-win.