Marijuana Dispensary Ban in L.A. Officially on Hold

By Dennis Romero Thu., Sep. 6 2012 at 12:02 PM

Chuck Coker

See also:
*Medical Weed's Stay of Execution in L.A.

Today was the day L.A.'s loathed ban on medical marijuana dispensaries was to start.

But yesterday was the day that the L.A. City Attorney's office, long a foe of weed sellers across town, admitted that this ban ain't happening for now. Official so.

The office released a letter by none other than City Hall attorney-in-chief Carmen Trutanich that acknowledges the reprieve:

The City Attorney's office will not enforce the City Council's ban for at least 15-30 days from Aug. 30, which is when backers of a referendum that seeks to overturn to the prohibition turned in almost double the amount of signatures they needed to put the matter before voters.

The City Council now must weigh whether to allow you to vote on overturning the ban or put the brakes on it through its own vote.

Trutanich:

From the date the referendum petition was received and throughout the time it will take for the City Clerk to verify the signatures on the referendum petition (estimated 15-45 days), the City Attorney's Office will not enforce Ordinance 182190. The ordinance may or may not remain suspended after the City Clerk's review depending on whether the City Clerk determines that the petition contains the required number of valid voter signatures.

So all you medicinal customers can exhale for now, except that ... Trutanich warned, as has L.A. city Councilman Jose Huizar, who proposed the ban, that pot shops aren't really legal in L.A. regardless and can still be shot down by cops, who have been doing just that in parts of the San Fernando Valley:

... The business of medical marijuana continues to be an unpermitted land use in the City. Further, as stated on all City business tax registration certificates, a tax registration certificate does not constitute a license, permit, or land use approval; it is solely a tax collection document.

But here's the bottom line: For the most part the city doesn't have the resources to shut down all of our esteemed cannabis retailers. You can breath easy for now.

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

Tags:

City Attorney, dispensaries, dispensary ban, marijuana, medical marijauana, Trutanich

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mike

"pot shops aren't really legal in L.A. regardless and can still be *shot* down by cops"

I do hope that was a misspelling since u and o are so close. Or are they threatening to shoot them down?

alan1078

@dennisjromero @LAWeekly naany?

malcolmkyle16 topcommenter

Maybe you're a police officer, a prison guard, or a local/national politician. Possibly you're scared of losing employment, overtime pay, the many kickbacks, and those regular fat bribes. But what good will any of that do you once our society has followed Mexico over the dystopian abyss of dismembered bodies, vats of acid, and marauding thugs carrying gold-plated AK-47s with leopard-skinned gunstocks?

Kindly allow us to forgo the next level of your sycophantic prohibition-engendered mayhem.

Prohibition prevents regulation: legalize, regulate, and tax!

Patrick Wilson

Carmen Trutanich sucks! He totally ignores what the people of California want and voted for!!! Safe access!!! There is way better things that are way more important than this that hr/they could be focusing their time and taxpayer's money on! Taxpayers that voted for you to leave these people alone and voted for you to use their tax monies otherwise! But you guys decided to say forget the taxpayers and the voters and I hope they say the same about afl of you the next time you run for office!!!!!

Finmore Scottish

:|goodbye america:when you came to me and asked me to do your physics homework for you so you could get into law school did i look you in the eye and say that "that isn't a physics problem go somewhere else" and refuse to do my job or what: :|homeless former prelaw students inc: لا قيمة لها فائدة المحامين الأميركيين يرفضون القيام بعملهم الخاصة ليوم واحد من بين كل 10 سنة: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3i9klvJkSc&feature=relmfu Iranian Lawyers

Tara Chabot

the city officials in Los Angeles have zero balls, two years of this back and forth. Unless this is part of some grander strategy to cry Wolf so many times that when they finally do roll in with the big guns, no one will see em coming.

Jan Fogel

RIGHT ON!!!!!! Don't let 'em tear you down!

Nabil Nathie

Would be nice if they used city funds on something better. Cleaning up? Fighting gangs and violence? Improving traffic? Is this what all our parking ticket and meter money is being used for?