L.A. City Council Puts Off Pot-Shop Ordinance ... Again

If you were an animal-rights advocate worried about the plight of cats and their claws, justice would be swift and City Hall would be at your service with a quick ban of declawing. But if, say, you lived next to a pot dispensary that did more business than a 7-Eleven (and that had shady characters bringing supplies in the back), your wait for some kind of city regulation would now be stretching into the two-year zone.

You'd have to wait some more: The Los Angeles City Council today put off instituting a pot-shop law for the nth time on this week. The council is supposed to get yet another (watered down) version of a proposed pot law and wants some time to smoke, er, study it. The ordinance won't be considered until at least Dec. 8, according to Julie Wong, Council President Eric Garcetti's senior adviser.

The latest version of the city's proposed pot-shop ordinance says dispensaries must grow their own weed, although cash sales, an aspect of medical marijuana not really envisioned in 1996's Prop. 215, would still be allowed.

LA Weekly recently conducted an investigation that found medical marijuana dispensaries woefully unregulated in Los Angeles. A Weekly survey (PDF) of registered pot shops found many operating under shady circumstances, including a few based out of post office boxes and at least one that delivers.