There is a need for regulation. I believe that the people have a right to their medicine, but Los Angeles is becoming a drugged out mess. How many "Clinics" do we need? This is out of control. There is a green cross almost anywhere you look, in every neighborhood. Leaflets stuck to your windshield, flyers passed out on Venice beach. A little discretion would not hurt.

The kids cannot have free reign of the cookie jar.

Native, what is "out of control?" I live within 5 miles of at least a dozen dispensaries. Sure there are allot of them, but there are just as many CVS's, Walgreens, etc. Why does the number of them matter? I haven't noticed problems with any of them.

Sure I am concerned about reports of robberies at some dispensaries, but doesn't that just mean our city should increase funding for more police patrols? Impose a medical marijuana tax like Oakland did to pay for it. I doubt anyone would oppose it.

The city attorney's proposal is illogical. How can a 85 year old cancer patient on chemotherapy have the energy to work the fields when he can barely stand?

I'm pretty sure this decision can't have been helped by the Weekly's sensational coverage of the issue.

While I'm totally against this ruling it really just means delivery services like ours will flourish.

We're also looking at expanding into assisting people with setting up and managing their own gardens.

Overall this may change the game but it definitely won't be ending it.

How many 85 year old cancer patients do you see walking out of these clinics?

I agree that the laws that exist don't make sense, but the one
to let the clinics exist did. The problem is the abuse of it. This is the reason they are being shut down. This is the reason that 85 year old might not get his medicine.

By the way, I think that 85 year old could handle plugging in a light.

I've seen the EXPLOSION of shops everywhere in the Valley...thought it was my imagination until I started reading and seeing the news coverage. But how did I notice the "problem?" Noticing store-fronts adbandoned for sometime being opened with big green symbols or crosses...NOT from a huge uptic in violent crime, public transportation accidents, scores of children passed out on the street. The fact is...this is micro-experiment which should be allowed to proceed a little further...(like the apprehension to do ANYTHING real with our National Health Care system...the reality to observe actual affect of any significant and meaningful change will require TIME. I have never consumed marijuana and likely never shall...not a fan of any smoking period. But the reality seems to be this is hurting no one, nor devastating civic communities. Now we will spend rediculous MILLIONS on this campaign of the city council when we are severly cash-strapped with MUCH MORE prescient and grave problems...we'll spend HUNDRED of THOUSANDS even INVESTIGATING and DEBATING if we should do something about it. Instead...we should be doing the patently intelligent thing...adding some regulation...and creating a Municipal Tax and monitoring the situation for a decade.
But no...taking this "action" is a nice boost to the section of the senior-voting set that happens to be a bit out of touch in the reality of the situation. (Sigh)

The Times' article cited a few dispensaries were a bit seedy, and that the City doesn't have a serious regulatory plan in effect. So, logically, one would think the City would regulate, and not close, the dispensaries.

I second luminari's *sigh*

We don't need the full dozen dispensaries within a mile from my house (Venice). I presume the more established dispensaries would agree.

Trutanich had three "Medical Marijuana" samples from "dispensaries" analyzed by the FDA. Guess what, results for two of the three have already come back. In both cases the samples had up to 85 times the amount of pesticide lawfully allowed to be present on anything used for human consumption.
Interestingly, that pesticide is one used to control red fire ants - a pest not commonly found in California, but indigenous to Mexico, suggesting (according to Trutanich) that the weed being sold on Ventura Boulevard, was not only toxic, bit illegally smuggled into Los Angeles from Mexico by the drug cartels.
Trutanich is right on this one. Medical Marijuana is about compassion not commerce. The crime syndicates running 600 of these so-called dispensaries are heading to jail as soon as the council gets of it's fat ass and passed Trutanich's law.
The original 168 collective-type dispensaries have nothing to fear from either Trutanich or Cooley, as long as they remain true to Prop 215, and limit their practice to compassion, not commerce.

It would be great to see ALL medicinal herb analyzed for contamination and for potency. That would be a public service! How 'bout it, Chief?

Are we not consistently bombarded with advertisements and propaganda supporting the liquor industry. There seems to be no desire to "protect" children from exposure to alcohol, although time and again studies are proving that more violent crimes, auto accidents, psychological and physical disorders are associated with alcohol use that marijuana. Unlike alcohol, many studies, and case experiences, demonstrate that marijuana is an effective, affordable, and relatively safe medicine, which provides comfort and relief to sufferers of many chronic conditions who otherwise find no relief through the allopathic medical system.
Why are we not talking about regulating the free-for-all pharmaceutical industry, who's billboards, TV commercials, advertisements, and promotional programs infiltrate our collective culture, attempting to direct us into further dependency on expensive, non-accessible, and dangerous substances. Currently, correctly prescribed medications by doctors is the number four cause of death within the medical industry. Doctors correctly prescribing these pharmaceuticals are killing people! Marijuana has never killed anyone, and practically speaking, there is no such thing as a marijuana overdose.

Here's a dose of basic logic. There are so many medical marijuana clinics in Los Angeles County because people patronize them. Clearly, the demand continues to expand as people realize the benefits of medical marijuana. When marijuana is proven safer than alcohol and pharmaceuticals, why should we submit medical marijuana dispensaries to more harsh and limiting standards than liquor stores and pharmacies?

Just for all of you un-informed out there, growing medical grade marijuana is a careful science and an art, not something your typical sufferer of chronic illness has the capacity to do. Also, most medical marijuana users lack the information and access to the information to understand how to grow medical grade, ORGANIC, CHEMICAL FREE, NON-HYDROPONIC, marijuana, which is the only "medical" grade marijuana that truly exists. Referencing the comment above, it's much more than just turning on a light.
And, we don't require that everyone who needs lycopene grow their own tomatoes. Or that everyone who needs aspirin harvest and process white willow.

I'm from out of state, so I may be missing something, but it sounds like the city council is trying to distinguish between the legally established collectives and the not-so-legal store-fron dispensaries. California seems to have crafted a good, compassionate law exempting mj users and cultivators from prosecution, provided they adhere to some pretty reasonable sounding regulations. It also sounds like some folks have tried to piggy back onto that to create mere store-front sales operations that are NOT protected under the law. It will be interesting to see which establishments survive the evolving enforcement actions. I hope California can get it sorted out and serves as a model for the rest of the nation.

I work at a dispensary in Los Angeles, a legitimate, professional, friendly dispensary that provides affordable medication to people who not only need it but deserve it. Lawyers, doctors, little old asian ladies...innocent people who just want to enjoy the privilege of being able to live pain free for a few measly hours before going back to work. i do agree that the sea of dispensaries that has popped up in the last few months should be investigated because i've been into a few where the environment just isn't right for most who need medical weed. but to simply try and scare people by saying there's pesticides all over the weed is ridiculous! put pure weed next to tainted weed and even the most radical anti smoker will be able to see which one is chem'd out. pesticides are needed on most foods we eat, and for a good reason, but to properly flush your crop will get rid of any chemicals. and if you really want to get me mad, lets talk about the shit you put in your body from pharmaceutical companies. the commercials for pills that talk about how much they'll help you and then go on to explain how some anal leakage or blindness may occur! no I'm not going to eat a salad with raid on it, and no I'm not gonna smoke weed with pesticides, just like i won't eat tomatoes with chemicals sprayed all over them either. Medical Marijuana provides a safe alternative to pharmaceuticals and still gives you the relief you're looking for. To take away something so wonderful that has helped so many people and done wonders for our economic hardship would be the true crime.

Dispensary owners need to be more aware, growers need to be careful and thoughtful in every move, don't rush just grow...so that the ones suffering don't have to. dispensaries play such an important roll in aiding the patients...so much can go wrong in the growing process...mold, various mineral deficiencies, etc...to suggest that people who can't even get out of bed should have to worry about any of that is absurd.

I am in this fight till the end, and will keep my feet grounded in this wonderful collective for as long as i can...as someone who has personally benefited from the positive effects marijuana can have, and for everyone else who just hasn't tried it yet ;)
I hope the right things happen and reefer madness doesn't get the best of Los Angeles.

Trutanich had meds tested by the FDA? I'd recommend being a little suspicious about his claim for "85 times the legal amount" and the pesticide likely came from Mexico. First off, agricultural pesticide testing requires a really big sample. EMA here in California recommends a 200 gram sample, almost a half pound. Secondly, if it was tested and came back positive for pyrethrins as claimed, that doesn't mean that the marijuana originated in Mexico. You can buy pyrethrins at any hardware or garden supply store anywhere in the world. They are effective for combating fire ants, here, in Mexico and just about every other country in which they are found. They're also used as a general purpose insecticide all over the world. They are derived from chrysanthemums Saying that the presence of this insecticide means that the marijuana is coming from Mexican drug cartels is like saying that a Canadian bacon sandwich consumed at a dispensary means they're getting their marijuana from Canada.

City Attorney Carmen Trutanich and City Councilman Ed Reyes are obviously suffering from an overdose of racist reefer madness propaganda—

"Marihuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men's shadows and look at a white woman twice." (Hearst newspapers nationwide, 1934)

"There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the U.S., and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana can cause white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others."

"...the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races"
- Federal Bureau of Narcotics Director Harry J. Anslinger, 1930

"Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality and death."

"Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind."

"[Smoking] one [marihuana] cigarette might develop a homicidal mania, probably to kill his brother." (see US Government Propaganda To Outlaw Marijuana - http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/taxact/t3.htm)

These are the lunatic lies marijuana prohibition is based on. There is no scientific, medical or social reason to stop adults from using all of the cannabis they desire. But madmen like City Attorney Carmen Trutanich and City Councilman Ed Reyes depend on "marijuana crimes" to appear important to equally loony supporters.

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