City Wants to Eradicate Greed From Green Rush
At least one city official is tired of these "greedy bastards"
By JONATHAN LLOYD
Updated 1:30 PM PDT, Thu, Oct 1, 2009
State law requires medical marijuana dispensaries to operate as nonprofit collectives. But some city officials claim many dispenaries are nonprofits only in name.
"The people who are simply trying to make a profit are the ones messing it up for those people that need it and those legitimate distributors who are trying to help people," said L.A. City Councilman Dennis Zine told the LA Times.
Critics said owners out to profit are jumping into the Green Rush. District Attorney Steve Cooley and City Attorney Carmen Trutanich agree that most dispensaries operate in a way that violates state law, the Times reported.
The issue has been a major sticking point in efforts to rewrite the city's medical marijuana ordinance. A draft was sent to the Public Safety Committee earlier this week, but it did not resolve the issue of when to prohibit sales.
So what does the draft address? According to the Times article:
The proposal would require dispensaries to be at least 1,000 feet from schools, parks, libraries, religious institutions, child-care facilities, youth centers, hospitals, drug rehab centers and other collectives. That restriction could make it extremely difficult to find acceptable locations; city officials are still drawing maps to see whether it would work.The ordinance also restricts operating hours to 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and requires that membership, cash flow and inventory records be available for inspection without a search warrant or court order.
But the key issue -- how the city can ensure that "greedy bastards," as Zine put it in a radio interview, are run out of business and only nonprofit collectives are allowed -- was left for another day.
Problems were compounded after 2007 when the city called for a moratorium on new dispensaries. That moratorium was never enforced and the nearly 200 dispensaries already open were joined by hundreds more, according to the Times.
First Published: Oct 1, 2009 1:16 PM PDT
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