Los Angeles Gives Up on Intelligent Policy, Bans Medical Marijuana Storefront Dispensaries

After many months and likely thousands of man hours of thought and planning back in 2009-10, detailed in my May 2010 Reason cover story, over the issue of how to properly regulate the storefront distribution of medical marijuana (legal under state law), the Los Angeles City Council has today given in to a bunch of largely pointless complaints and decided to outright destroy hundreds of local businesses and complicate the lives of tens of thousands of medical marijuana users with a crummy vote today to ban the dispensaries.

Details from the L.A. Weekly (itself complicit in creating a phony panic over these harmless suppliers of a medical, and personal, need):

The council voted 13 to 1 to allow only nonprofit collectives of up to three people who want to grow and share pot for the medically ill behind closed doors…

The core of the ordinance says that medical marijuana "businesses" will be banned until a "regulatory scheme" can be realized by the city, ostensibly after various challenges to similar bans and other pot shop regulation schemes are decided by the California Supreme Court….

After a second vote next week the ban should go into effect within 90 days. Stock up, people.

J.D. Tuccille from June about how there is no apparent link between pot dispensaries and crime. Jacob Sullum from December 2011 on the beginning of this latest attempt to pointlessly rethink L.A. policy toward dispensaries.

Reason.tv classic from 2010 on the California growth industry in medical marijuana that both the feds and now the L.A. City Council are trying to stymie:

Comments

[R C Dean]

Let's hear it for the Dems for their enlightened opposition to the WOD!

[?J?? de ?guila]

Hah, the creeps are aligning themselves with Fearless Drug Warlord Obama...

[Pound. Head. On. Desk.]

Another good idea gone to pot.

[Suki]

After many months and likely thousands of man hours of thought

You used thought liberally there didn't you?

They had no intention of doing the right thing for freedom here.

[SKR]

Oh FFS!!!

[SKR]

Who was the 1?

[SKR]

Paul Koretz but he voted for a motion to ban all but the oldest dispensaries.

[Ken Shultz]

I'm sure all the gangs will be happy to pick up the slack.

I bet the 18th Street Gang is throwing themselves a party tonight--they just hit the jackpot!

All thanks to the LA City Council.

[Pound. Head. On. Desk.]

They weren't the only ones who got a surprise visit from Santa Claus. But Disney didn't like it.

[heller]

OT: Really, Egypt?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v....._embedded#!

[General Butt Naked]

Jesus man, I thought the first guy was going to fuckin kill someone. Damn.

[Apatheist ?_??]

And his "apology" for hitting a woman was followed by "you brought it on yourself." What a dick.

[Metazoan]

Ah tribalism... alive and well.

[Voros McCracken]

And then he makes a pass at her. I can't imagine how she managed to resist his charms.

[Paul.]

He slapped me! Then he made a pass at me!

So... did you go out with him?

Oh yeah!

[Apatheist ?_??]

The host chick is smoking hot.

[Paul.]

this

[Voros McCracken]

Lunacy...

[Hyperion]

Welcome to your great new progressive utopia, libtards! Now keep voting for progressive democrats so that they can progressively destroy any liberties that you have left, along with the remnants of your economy.

[RBS]

I feel this post from a girl I know fits right in with this comment:

Managed not to make a fool of myself tonight when Leader Pelosi hopped on the rather crowded elevator with me tonight.

[ant1sthenes]

Huh, I guess sloopy wasn't lying about the killer gas.

[Paul.]

progressively destroy any liberties that you have left, along with the remnants of your economy.

But with free healthcarez!

[Onyxwolf]

EXACTLY, the two go hand in hand. You want the government to provide more, well that takes a transference of responsibility, and as the government becomes more responsible over our lives, the more it can determine our own fates for us. Since the creation of radio, the American people has been bombarded by this false sense of the Government being able to CONTROL, well, anything. I think people are starting to wake up to the fact that it can't. The Federal Reserve has killed our dollar's value; the DEA only ensures the continuance of gang-related violence; BATFE only ensures the armament of Mexican cartels; the ED only ensures that schools must continually "refresh" the way they teach to the director's whim of the week; and the TSA is only good at making sure those of Arabic descent are thoroughly punished and embarrassed for the actions of a handful of lunatics. Proactive protection is as much a myth as the possibility of utopia. Reactive protection (??? that doesn't sound right: protection via threat of retaliation is better) is the only reason a government should exist. Not only that, but the preparedness of ones ability of reactive protection is more of a deterrence than proactive protection could possibly ever hope to be. For example, you punch me, I punch you back, and if I am better prepared (bigger than you, or maybe a known MMA fighter) to retaliate, then you probably won't punch me in the first place...

[Libertarius]

The argument for pot legalization--in addition to that for every other drug--can and must only be made on moral grounds.

You must have the courage and integrity to assert the MORAL RIGHT of an individual to decide for themselves what they will put into their bodies.

[David E. Gallaher]

Libertarius, To get along, go along. You MUST get lost in the weeds along with everyone else. It will make you "grow" in your human experience.

[Ken Shultz]

And being a back-door form of legalization is probably the best argument for marijuana dispensaries. I'd much rather some entrepreneur have that revenue stream than a bunch of thugs...

And, you know, when the gangs are killing people over distribution--it's sad that the victims are mostly minorities. Even the NAACP agrees that keeping marijuana illegal is objectively racist.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.co.....ation.html

I'm sure, if it hadn't been for all the racist Republicans on the LA City Council, this vote never would have gone through!

Huh? What do you mean there's only one Republican on the LA City Council?!

That's unpossible.

[SKR]

It was a conspiracy between one republican and the savy "former republican" that declines to state a party. Zine isn't fooling anyone.

[David E. Gallaher]

There is no such thing as entropy, because for every government action, there is an even stupider reaction.

[Dylan]

I think you are confused. What does Newton's Third Law have to do with entropy?

[Dylan]

Perhaps you are thinking that entropy is the conservation of energy and that Newton's third law implies conservation of energy?

Well then you are still mistaken as the third law implies conservation of momentum and entropy is most certainly not the conservation of energy.

[Karl Hungus]

I wonder if there's any possibility that this decision by the city council will drive the marijuana market underground. Would people really dare to flout the law and buy and sell this dangerous drug illegally?

[SKR]

That's unpossible. No one could possibly go against the will of their betters.

[Karl Hungus]

That's what I'm thinking too, and I certainly hope you're right. But there's no telling what some of these monsters might be willing to do to get their poison.

[SIV]

If the dispensary owners and their suppliers opposed Prop 19 I can't help but be pleased at this turn of events.

[RBS]

I'm sure some of them did. I wonder if they've learned their lesson? Probably not...

[Another Phil]

If the dispensary owners and their suppliers opposed Prop 19 I can't help but be pleased at this turn of events.

Actually, it appears as if you've dispensed with the "if" and jumped right to schadenfreude.

[SIV]

It's a bad habit. For anyone in that distribution chain who did support Prop 19, my apologies. For those who opposed it, Ha!

[Troy muy grande boner]

My first thought was that wasn't there a thread a few days a ago about people whining about the untaxed underground economies. It's like these california government fucks are intentionally trying to fuck themselves over.

[amelia]

Truly. I can't wait for all those newly unemployed workers to hit the unemployment roles.

[amelia]

With the stigma of being former employees of crime-generating pot dispensaries on their backs.

[SIV]

Tough shit, ya know.

[Paul.]

Tooooold you....

How's that Medical Marijuana workin' out? How's that "tax us! Regulate us! Set us free!" thinkin' goin?

How's that "politics of the possible" workin' out?

Putting Marijuana into the spotlight of "Healthcare" is going to be our greatest regret when the smoke clears.

[lpascher11]

featured prominently by Christian Louboutin Daffodile actors as Christian Louboutin Galaxy as musicians and other artists.

[lpascher11]

actors as Christian Louboutin Galaxy as musicians and other artists.

[adidas23]

http://www.discountbandagedress.com/

[Ralph Wylie]

Getting the government out of the Cannabis regulation business in California probably a good thing. The cartels, criminals and dope dealers have a far better record in fiscal management and have the public's trust more than the current politicians do.