“The Farmacy” A Medical Marijuana Dispensary in L.A
On Friday, January 21st the Los Angeles city council unanimously voted to amend the city’s new marijuana decree, altering key provisions that a judge declared unconstitutional in the previous month. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Anthony Mohr’s ruling basically left the council with no choice but to vote to amend the ordinance, allowing the city to distinguish more power to shutdown new dispensaries. Jane Usher, a special assistant city attorney, told the council that Mohr’s injunction “put our feet to the fire”.
Since judge Mohr’s ruling, dispensaries have already brazenly reopened. The council stated that it could potentially take the city six months to two years to shut them down. However, the councils 12-0 unanimous ruling allows the revisions to become effective within about ten days.
The city council has decided to change things up, setting up a type of lottery system that will choose 100 dispensaries that will be allowed to remain open. However, in order to qualify the dispensary must be able to prove they were in existence as of September 14, 2007, the date the city’s moratorium on new dispensaries became legislation. The city’s attorney has negotiated with the council and both parties have agreed to this set number. The original ordinance would have allowed existing dispensaries that registered under the moratorium to remain open.
A lottery would eliminate up to a quarter of the already opened dispensaries, and potentially create adverse selection, sifting out some of the most law-abiding and well-run dispensaries of the bunch. Nevertheless, this mass elimination is certain to draw legal action from those that weren’t lucky enough to remain open.
Now we are faced with an ethical dilemma. “I understand that this is not fair to many of the operators who are doing the right thing,” said Councilmember Ed Reyes, who led the effort to declare the ordinance. Still, he urged the council to act, rather than return to lawlessness. “This lottery is all we can do now, as much as it hurts”.