The Los Angeles City Council Wednesday put off until January a vote on an ordinance aimed at regulating the hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries that have sprung up around the city.
Council members said they wanted more time to consider restrictions on where dispensaries can be located. The draft ordinance requires them to be at least 1,000 feet from homes.
By some estimates, as many as 1,000 medical marijuana outlets are now in operation in Los Angeles, despite a previous city moratorium.
Council members want to bring the number down to about 70 -- eventually.
City Council President Eric Garcetti said the ban on dispensaries near homes was too restrictive and would result in only "about five or ten mega- dispensaries that would be in industrial parks in Los Angeles, and that's it."
The latest version of the ordinance would cap the number of medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles at 70, but would allow almost double that number to stay open -- at least temporarily -- provided they adhere to the new restrictions.
In 1996, voters statewide approved Proposition 215, which enabled people with recommendations from doctors to legally grow and smoke pot. Senate Bill 420 further defined how marijuana could be legally grown and exchanged via cooperatives, but many city and county governments have banned dispensaries or delayed indefinitely codifying regulations.
Local
Get Los Angeles's latest local news on crime, entertainment, weather, schools, COVID, cost of living and more. Here's your go-to source for today's LA news.
Don Duncan, California director for Americans for Safe Access, addressed the City Council Tuesday.
"I'm afraid what we're looking at is a de facto ban on medical cannabis in Los Angeles and that's contrary to the will of the voters, and it's contrary to what the council has expressed at its intent," Duncan said.
