If At First You Succeed, Just Wait Until the Government Finds Out

Yesterday's episode of Marketplace featured a story on the boom — sorry, explosion — in pot-clinic entrepreneurship in Los Angeles. From the transcript:

JEFF TYLER: In some Los Angeles neighborhoods, there are more medical marijuana dispensaries than there are Starbucks or McDonald's. Most sell more varieties of weed than Baskin-Robbins has ice cream flavors. City councilman Dennis Zine says calling it a boom is an understatement.

DENNIS ZINE: It's bigger than a boom. It's a major explosion with these facilities opening up, and they're opening up every single day in the city of Los Angeles.

At last count, there were 600 medical pot clinics in Los Angeles. That's right — 600.

Given the flailing economy, one might think this would be hailed as a small-business success story. At least someone is making money in this economy, right? Instead, it's seen as a regulatory failure: L.A.'s marijuanaclinics have simply been too successful. The story continues:

Zine says the city council is working on new regulations to crack down on these free-wheeling pot pharmacies. Many will be closed.

Zine: Oakland, for example, has four medicinal marijuana facilities. That's easy to regulate and control. When you have 600, you can't regulate and control. We will bring this down to a reasonable number.

While the city tries to curb the growth of pot clinics, the marijuana economy in California seemingly can't be stopped.

Can't be stopped? One hopes. But the city council isn't going to give up without trying.

Reason's Brian Doherty previously blogged about L.A.'s fight against marijuana dispensaries here. Greg Beato covered San Francisco's pot clubs here. Senior editor Jacob Sullum wrote about marijuana legalization here, here, and here.