Here is yet another article in yesterdays news that speaks to the unpopularity of marijuana in the State of California. For years, the "pot lobby" has used the State of California and The Netherlands as examples for how popular marijuana is. Well, now we are seeing the truth as the cities and counties across California and The Netherlands are shutting the marijuana dispensaries down. The pot heads thought they could get away with all of their lies and deceitful tactics but now the tide is turning as the "folks" become informed to "The Truth".
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Cities crack down on medical
marijuana shops as court decision, ballot measures embolden new bans
The
crackdown against medical pot shops across Southern California began as soon as
the state's highest court ruled last month that cities could enforce their
dispensary bans,
Police
have raided a legion of medical marijuana dispensaries across the Southland,
while legal threats have been issued to hundreds more. From Santa Ana to San
Bernardino, cities that had put the kibosh on the pot shops now had potent
legal ammunition in which to shut them down.
By
late last week, San Bernardino had shuttered all but 10 of its 33 banned
dispensaries — including two the city raided Wednesday — and was gunning to
finish off the rest. Burgs from Beaumont to Anaheim have followed suit.
For
two years we've had to explain to people why we weren't shutting them
down," said San Bernardino City Attorney James F. Penman, who had been
holding off on enforcing the city ban until the May 6 state Supreme Court
decision, lest the city risk losing a lawsuit. "(But) there's been a big
push by council members and by the public to hurry up and close them.
"We
get far more calls from people thinking there's a dispensary that's reopened
near them than ... anything else right now."
For
medical marijuana users, the widespread closures of storefront dispensaries in
the past few weeks have put gaps in their supplies. For residents weary of the
state's 17-year experiment with medical pot, the renewed enforcement means a
breath of fresh air.
Pot
shop bans are now being enforced in as many as 94 cities and five counties
across the Southland.
Two
weeks ago, Los Angeles voters elected to sharply slash the city's number of
dispensaries — from as many as 2,000, city officials say, to 135. The
Proposition D law is expected to face fierce legal challenges.
Even
as states like Colorado and Washington legalize marijuana — while it remains
illegal under federal law — California is moving toward a patchwork of vast
swaths where marijuana users won't be able to walk into a store and legally buy
weed.
Some
in the industry say that will return it to the underground, where couriers and
secret pot clubs will distribute buds within counties and cities that otherwise
serve as No Stoned Zones, similar to the dry counties that sprang up across the
U.S. after Prohibition was repealed.
As
many as nine counties and 72 cities across the state have already passed
dispensary moratoriums, including Los Angeles, Downey, Redlands, Rosemead, San
Dimas, Santa Monica, South Gate, Victorville and Westlake Village, advocates
say, with varying levels of enforcement.
Many
cities now enforcing pot shop bans lie in Orange County and the Inland Empire,
with stores also outlawed in unincorporated Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San
Bernardino and Santa Barbara counties. They had banned the dispensaries because
of worries about lax control over distribution of a drug still illegal under
federal law.
The
state Supreme Court decision followed a challenge to Riverside's dispensary
ban. The city, backed by the League of California Cities, had argued cities
have a right to regulate land use.
The
court found that California's Proposition 215, approved by voters in 1996,
permitted medical marijuana, but didn't address local regulation. It said local
governments can use nuisance laws and other regulations to ban activities and
land uses such as pot shops.
Such
cities as Costa Mesa, Garden Grove, Anaheim, Santa Ana have already initiated
crackdowns, with some issuing dozens of letters to offending businesses threatening
fines of $1,000 per day and possible criminal charges. Meanwhile, Beaumont
became the latest city to ban dispensaries.
"The
patchwork landscape is extremely frustrating, leaving whole areas without legal
access," said Kris Hermes, spokesman for Americans for Safe Access, a
national medical marijuana advocacy group based in Oakland. "What we need
is a more equitable regulatory system, that is being worked on at the state
level."
In
Los Angeles, attorneys are preparing to send out warning notices to as many as
2,000 illegal shops as soon as the new law is certified, according to a City
Attorney's Office spokesman. Under the measure, only the 135 dispensaries that
were operating before a failed moratorium six years ago can stay open.
Those
that do must be at least 600 feet from any park, school or child-care center
and fork over 6 percent of their gross in taxes.
"Essentially,
between the bans and the moratoriums, nearly every city in the state has put a
ban against dispensaries," said F. Freddy Sayegh, a Culver City attorney
who has represented medical marijuana dispensaries, and was the keynote speaker
at a hemp convention last weekend in Los Angeles.
"What
I see happening because of Prop. D in Los Angeles and the Supreme Court ruling,
this thriving legally controlled market will evaporate and go underground — at
a person's home, car, business. There will be private collectives or
cooperatives."
And
that would be just fine with some local advocates who say guidelines from the
state attorney general urge that pot must be grown and distributed within
private patient groups.
"You
have no signage. You have no offensive people hanging out anywhere. You have a
group that takes care of itself," said Bob, a pot business consultant who
runs a Hollywood collective delivery service and has been advocating for
legalization since the 1970s, who declined to give his last name. "You
don't want to create waves or be a nuisance in the community."
Los
Angeles Councilman Jose Huizar noted that an appellate court ruling upheld a
2010 city ordinance that sought to limit the number of pot shops to 70s. An
attempt was made last year to ban them altogether.
"It
is a Groundhog Day situation," said Huizar, who once supported a ban, in a
statement. "The key will once again be whether we as a City can enforce
Measure D or whether the dispensaries not covered under its provisions will
once again delay enforcement through the courts."
At
the HempCon conference that took place downtown last weekend, hundreds lined up
for what was billed as "America's largest medical marijuana show."
Lines
of mostly 20- and 30-something enthusiasts lined up sporting marijuana leaf
shirts, socks, or duds emblazoned with Bob Marley or Marilyn Monroe smoking a
joint. Or merely the word, "addicted."
And
vendors, some with racy models in low-cut tops or fishnets, lined up to hawk
dispensary, courier, doctor recommendation or legal services. Or zanier smoking
machines, bongs and "Doob tubes" good for odorless deliveries.
One
of them was Hector Montoya, of Proteus420.com,
an Escondido software company catering to cash-only dispensaries. "I have
to drive great distances to find an open shop," he said.
"Everything's going underground, to delivery."
Another
was actor "Henry Hemp," dressed head-to-toe in leafy green, drawing
from a pipe of hemp oil, which he claimed could potentially cure cancer.
"I think it's the last gasp of people who don't understand the healing
powers of the plant," said Hemp, aka Magic Jason Elliott, a Los Angeles
transplant from Vancouver, Wash.
Nearby
was Thomas Chang, a quadriplegic in a wheelchair. Five years ago, the West
Covina resident said he suffered horrible constipation and drowsiness from
prescription medications. Then he discovered Girl Scout, a cannabis bud he buys
10 miles from his home at a dispensary in La Puente.
He
considered nine out of 10 people who purchased pot at the store to be
recreational, as opposed to medicinal, pot users.
"It'll
mellow you out," said Chang, 48, who said it also helps with his back
spasms. Without his pot store, he said "it would create more inconvenience
"¦ but if you really want it, you can get it.
"They
ought to just let it go — legalize it — but keep it under control."
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