Yup. You heard it right. The LA City Council… in a rash, pretty much draconian proposal, wants to outlaw access to medical marijuana unless you are part of a collective and work there, i.e. grow your own. In effect, this would close down all the dispensaries operating now.
If you are a seriously ill patient, or someone who doesn’t have the time to grow your own…. forget about getting easy access to your medicine. This new ordinance would also outlaw edibles and concentrates, items that every single cancer patient I know uses. It would prohibit the sale of medical marijuana and any edibles.
If you care about this at all…. please write your city council person today and request that they reject this new ordinance. It is titled, “Third Revised Draft Ordinance Establishing Regulations Regarding Medical Marijuana Collectives”. Go to: here (http://lacity.org/lacity/YourGovernment/CityCouncil/index.htm)and scroll to “my neighborhood” to find your council person. Eric Garcetti is President of the City Council… write him and let him know your views… and Eric, I hope you are reading this. We need input and a fair draft of this ordinance by patients, citizens, dispensary owners…. not just the City Attorney and the police department. This proposal violates all the rights patients have worked so hard to achieve.
Personally, I have a friend who was diagnosed with throat and esophagus cancer 5 weeks ago. He began treatment immediately and was told that he may need a feeding tube because of the side effects of chemo/radiation. The only way he has avoided this is by eating a medical marijuana brownie and/or using THC drops once a day to keep his appetite up. His doctor told him to keep eating them so he can continue treatment without a feeding tube. Thank good he has been able to get a prescription and there is a medical marijuana dispensary within walking distance to his house.,
Patients like this will just be out of luck with this new law. Under this measure, the city also allows anyone from the police department or the dept of building and safety to look at records, videotape and walk in to do inspections at any time without a warrant. Isn’t this in direct violation of our constitutional rights to privacy?
Would they enact laws like this for a CVS pharmacy? Or any other business? It’s treating dispensaries as if they are illegal again.
Citizens of this state and city have voted over and over again to allow safe access to medical marijuana. This is just another attempt by the city attorney to shut down safe access. The city attorney, the new guy Trutanovich, who was elected in part by saying he would work with medical marijuana activists to put new regulations on the books that would help patients…. but clearly now has reneged on that promise, is behind this new ordinance.
Another aspect…. what about all the money the city is throwing away? Why close down the hundreds of dispensaries that have sprung up, when the city… and state… needs money so badly? Just tax the medicine. Oakland, Berkeley, and many other CA cities have all done the intelligent thing and made sensible regulations and appropriate taxes. Why throw away an awesome income stream for the city? And what about all the jobs lost, the landlords who will lose their leases…. it’s a downward economic spiral. Has the city council lost it’s intelligent connection to the people of this city?
Councilman Reyes is in charge of this proposal (that’s what I was told) and has publicly said that dispensaries shouldn’t be allowed to make so much money… and all of them should be closed! Should he even be in office when the citizens of this state and city have voted for safe access over and over again? If indeed we are calling this medical marijuana… and the majority of Angelenos have voted and in polls said they want marijuana to be legal, let’s stop treating it like an illicit drug. Let’s look at this issue with compassion and an eye towards making this ordinance one that will serve the people. Is that so hard?
Medical Marijuana Dispensaries in Los Angeles are CLEARLY serving a need, otherwise, they wouldn’t be in business. Please take a moment and let your councilperson know you don’t want this ordinance. They are voting on this immediately.
