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Medical Marijuana Dispensaries

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Category: Community News

Published on Tuesday, 06 July 2004 15:00

Written by David Sroaf

Walking a Fine Line In Our Communities

Medical marijuana has been in the news a lot lately.  The proliferation of dispensaries providing patients with safe access to cannabis products, the preferred prescribed medicinal relief for many sick and ailing Californians, can justifiably be called a revolution.

With the passage of Proposition 215 (also known as the Compassionate Use Act of 1996), adult Californians are guaranteed the right to obtain and use marijuana medicinally with a doctor’s recommendation.  Prop 215 eliminated criminal penalties for patients and their designated primary caregivers, for personal possession and cultivation of marijuana for medical purposes.  A subsequent state legislative statute, SB420, in effect since January 1, 2004, broadened the terms of Proposition 215 to allow patients to “collectively or cooperatively” cultivate marijuana for medical purposes.

In 2007, the City Council established a moratorium on any additional medical marijuana dispensaries (MMDs), which numbered 187 at the time. The moratorium also included a “hardship” clause known formally as the Interim Control Ordinance (ICO), included in order to make the restriction on the number of MMDs defensible in court and to allow dispensary’s to continue to open if they met the hardship requirements.

Despite or because of  this legislation, the existence of medical marijuana dispensaries in our business districts remains a controversial subject and at present some 650 collectives, the term given to such medical marijuana enterprises, exist in Los Angeles.  Two of these are operating within the midcity area.

If you have seen them, you may not have recognized them for what they are.  Located at 4410 W. Pico Blvd.,

LA Wonderland Collective opened for business and just last month,  Blue Moon Collective began operating under the ‘hardship exemption’ at 5155 W. Washington Blvd, part of a three unit strip mall that has seen two long-standing businesses fail in the past year.

Of late, the L.A. City Council has begun reviewing over 600 post-moratorium ‘hardship exemptions’ (like Blue Moon Collective) at the rate of 10-15 per week to determine whether these Johnny-come-lately dispensaries should be allowed to continue to operate.  There has even been talk of letting them stay in order to tax them and generate revenue for the city. While some residents stand to benefit from access to discrete, secure, and considerately operated collectives, others are troubled by what the existence of these outlets bode for the community.

At the meeting of the Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee of the Mid-City Neighborhood Council (MINC) on Thursday, June 11, the matter of the medical marijuana dispensaries in our midst was briefly addressed.  PLUM did not take up the issue of legal versus illegal (post-moratorium) dispensaries, something that the city council and city attorney themselves have yet to fully reconcile. The question for PLUM chairperson Bruce Durbin was straightforward:  why was there no community input before the collectives were allowed to open, as there would have been before another operation, say a business that intended to sell alcohol, was given the go-ahead?  Secondly, was this the direction the community wanted support?

Mid-City Neighborhood Council president Allan DiCastro spoke to the latter concerns by drawing attention to the fact that the stretch of Washington Blvd. on either side of Blue Moon Collective already has a residential care facility for schizophrenics, several motels conducive to prostitution activities, a liquor store, and a methadone clinic.  DiCastro questions the wisdom of adding a marijuana retail establishment to this mix, making a point about the questionable environment this creates for people struggling with addictions.

For its part, the management of LA Wonderland Collective has done what it can to maintain a good reputation and low profile at its Pico Blvd. location.  Unlike Blue Moon Collective, which advertises its presence with signs and symbols familiar to marijuana pop culture, the Pico Blvd. dispensary does without such self-promoting iconography.  In fact, La Wonderland Collective can be hard to identify even when its address is known.  “We have tried to be very mindful of the community’s concerns,” the owners stated.  As evidence of this, they cited operating hours which overlap as little as possible with those of a nearby daycare center, adding that only after they’d been in business for nearly a year did they become aware of a church down the street.

Area resident and longtime medical marijuana patient Richard Kerns has different concerns.  Kerns, who has AIDS, actively involves himself in his medicinal choices and wellness regime and is troubled by the notion that less scrupulous dispensaries will not provide their patients with the comprehensive care and education they deserve.  “Medical marijuana collectives need “product quality controls as well as social quality controls,” Kerns says, asserting that the local dispensaries need to police themselves and enforce high standards in order to overcome any unfavorable impressions the medicine and the industry face.

As with boom times in any market, the medical marijuana business will almost certainly attract some operators interested in nothing more than a quick retail buck. Just how to weed any such profiteers-disguised-as-caregivers from the medical marijuana field remains unanswered.  In late June, 10th District City Councilman Herb Wesson, Jr. did state his opposition “to the unregulated and uncontrolled spread of MMDs throughout the city,” as well as his desire to “reduce the number of MMDs operating now.”  Nonetheless, for the time being both LA Wonderland Collective and Blue Moon Collective remain open for business, providing safe access to medical marijuana and continuity of care to mid-city patients under the aegis of Proposition 215.

DAVID SROAF

Is SB420 Constitutional? click here

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