More than 100 pot shops have been shut down in Los Angeles because of proposition D, City Attorney Mike Feuer announced Monday.
Proposition D was passed in May 2013 and went into effect in June. It regulates medical marijuana dispensaries by limiting the number and location of businesses. The ordinance taxes pot shops and fines landlords if they do not comply with the state’s pot licensing laws.
"With the invaluable work of our partner LAPD, we have been successfully and aggressively enforcing Proposition D and upholding the will of the voters," said Feuer during a press conference with LAPD Chief Charlie Beck Monday. "Today we launch additional efforts including assisting the real estate industry and property owners in complying with Prop D."
According to the proposition, it is the property owner’s responsibility to determine if a medical marijuana business has met the requirements necessary to stay in business and claim immunity. One requirement is that the shop must have been in operation since September 2007. The proposition also limits the number of businesses to "no more than 135."
In addition to meeting all the requirements for immunity, a medical marijuana business can't be within a 1,000 feet radius of a school or within a 600 feet radius of a public park, public library, religious institution, child care facility, youth center, alcoholism, drug abuse recovery or treatment facility or other medical marijuana business.
Those in violation of Proposition D are committing a misdemeanor and can face a fine of $1,000 and six months in county jail per day.
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One Bellflower resident hopes that the city she lives in will implement similar efforts.
Kimberly Gavin lives next to Bellflower Patients Group. She said that people often trespass, search the dumpster looking for anything thrown out by the dispensary, leave stuff on her property and sometimes block her driveway with their parked cars.
"Right now it’s affecting me so, yeah, I'm upset," Gavin said, adding that sometimes marijuana users light up in the parking lot directly outside the shop.
"Ugh it’s nauseating. That smell is so disgusting to me," she said.
NBC4’s Gordon Tokumatsu reached out to Bellflower Patients Group via phone but was told no one was available for an interview. He also called the number listed for the property owner, who then said that he had the wrong number.
Bellflower city officials said they have heard Gavin’s complaints and promises that they are not falling on deaf ears, but rather, that the process takes a lot of time.
