LA City Council to debate medical marijuana regulations on Wednesday

Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images
A man holds a placard advertising medical marijuana outside an evaluation clinic on Venice Beach in Los Angeles on October 9, 2009.
Nov. 16, 2009 | Frank Stoltze | KPCC

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[Update at 4 p.m. Monday, Nov. 16, 2009] As hundreds of medical marijuana patients and providers overflowed Los Angeles City Council chambers today, two key council committees rejected an outright ban on the sale of medical marijuana in the city.

The committee members said people with doctor's recommendations for marijuana ought to be able to reimburse pot dispensaries for the cost of cultivating and distributing it, without making a profit.

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The committees also considered limiting the number of pot dispensaries in the city to as low as 70, but referred that and other issues to the full City Council. The City Attorney had wanted the ban to shut down hundreds of marijuana dispensaries.

The proposed ordinance, as amended by the committee, would allow monetary ``transactions'' among members of collectives, so that one or more members could be paid to cultivate medical marijuana for their fellow members.

However, those transactions would not be for profit but rather would constitute ``reasonable compensation or reimbursement for actual expenses.''

The City Attorney's Office contends the amendment might result in allowing over-the-counter sales of medical marijuana, which is banned by state law.

The committees began to debate the proposed new ordinance as the number of those outlets has exploded in the city. As many as 1,000 operate in L.A. – more than in any city in the nation.

Those affected by the possible change in city business, reacted to the news.

“It’s easy enough to get a prescription for medical marijuana," said a 28-year-old man, who was not identified, as he sat outside a small house in Silverlake.

The man found a doctor to give him a medical recommendation (it would violate federal law for a physician to call it a prescription) in one of L.A.'s many magazines devoted to pot. He says the doctors made it easy.

“They just have a whole list of disorders that you can say," the man said. "You can say ‘Oh, I can’t sleep. I have insomnia.’ OK. Done. It’s like a three-minute process. They give ‘em out left and right."

The man, who described himself as an author and artist with curly blond hair and an easy smile, doesn’t want to be identified because of the stigma associated with smoking pot. Neither do his two roommates sitting nearby.

When asked what his prescription was for, the man said that it was for insomnia. When asked if he really has trouble sleeping, he said "Sometimes," to laughter from his roommates. His roommate asked, "Do you need the drug? Are you addicted?" the man jokingly responded, "The hard-hitting journalist here. It's like 60 minutes."

His roommate is 22. She mentors kids at a public school. Why bother getting a doctor’s recommendation, she asks, when she can get her pot from John? She says she’s been inside a few of L.A.'s medical marijuana dispensaries – many identified with signs that depict a green pot leaf or green cross.

“I mean some places are just like glorified old school drug dealers with a shop," the woman said. She recalls visiting one in the San Fernando Valley. “I walked in and they didn’t even ask me for a prescription. And they like sold me stuff. So I mean, obviously, it’s like the pot rush. Everybody’s sort of running in and trying to make money off of this.”

No one knows for sure how many dispensaries operate in L.A. More than 900 have filed papers telling the city they’re open or about to open. Operators filed most of these after the Obama administration announced an end to federal raids on pot stores in February.

We have more pot shops than Starbucks, more pot shops than public schools, perhaps more pot shops than gas stations," said David Berger, of the L.A. City Attorney's Office. Berger helped draft a proposed law to regulate dispensaries. It would ban them from operating near schools, churches, and parks, limit how much inventory they stock, and subject them to city inspections. The heart of the law would prohibit people from exchanging money for pot if they don’t participate in a medical marijuana collective.

But Dan Halem says it’s tricky to define ‘participation.’ He runs a marijuana delivery service based in Hollywood that serves people whose maladies range from cancer to anxiety. “Our patients are everybody and anybody, from the critically ill to doctors, attorneys, the person who is in the cubicle next to yours, said Halem.

Halem, who takes marijuana to deal with a hormone condition, says some patients simply pay him money for pot. “Some people might choose to participate in a collective by financially compensating the collective. They don’t necessarily have time to volunteer to tend to the plants.”

Berger of the City Attorney’s Office concedes that state law only vaguely spells out what participation in a collective means. “That, because we have this loosely described state law, will have to be decided by a case going all the way up to the Supreme Court.”

Still, he and other city officials hope to shut down most of L.A.’s dispensaries using the proposed regulations. Those still need City Council approval and the mayor’s signature. Halem’s delivery service, that carries marijuana in smokeable and ingestible form, may become one target.

Halem opened a plastic bag and described one of his products, saying “They’re chocolate chip cookies. They’re double-dosed, so we’ll generally tell patients to start with a little bit, see what that does for them."

Halem agrees that the city needs to better regulate pot dispensaries. He also warns that if that regulation becomes too harsh, Los Angeles will make it more difficult for legitimate medical marijuana patients to get the relief they seek.

Protect our Kids from the Criminal Drug Dealers
2 months, 3 weeks ago

The marijuana debate is not just about medicine. It's time to drive a wedge between the criminal drug dealers and our kids. Licensing, taxing, and regulating the distribution of marijuana, whether for medical or other uses, is the surest way to put the criminal drug dealers out of business and protect our children from the money-hungry criminal element. It’s time to protect our children and take the marijuana business out of the hands of criminals. License, tax, and regulate the marijuana business. And while we’re at it, let’s implement a personal cultivation permit. Limit the size of the growing area or the number of plants, and put a small user-fee on it to cover administrative costs, something like a fishing license. Maybe high enough that there will be a little something left over for education or fixing the roads.

One possibility:$100 per year for a permit to cultivate a dozen plants.
It's a win-win.

anon
2 months, 3 weeks ago

HOW COULD THEY?! I NEED RELIEF!!!

bull
2 months, 3 weeks ago

people like 'john' and his roommate 'jane' are going to be the ones who destroy our(legit patients)access to our medicine...if i could i would punch them both in the face.....or better yet,use this article to prove that they are lying about being sick to get pot....if you dont need it,dont go to a dr and get a rec,dont go to dispensaries....you dont walk into a chemo facility and say you have cancer to get chemo,do you?stay away from our meds,and LA,back off the patients,and arrest 'john' and 'jane'

Joan English
2 months, 3 weeks ago

Medical marijana is taxable! The state Franchise Tax Board says it is subject to sales tax.

Mike
2 months, 3 weeks ago

OMG! Why can't the people who don't like cannabis just let it rest? I don't particulary care for alcohol, but I'm not trying to take it away from you. If you want to kill your body with booze, so be it. Let me have my cannabis. Get a life people.

k
2 months, 3 weeks ago

It's really sad that stupid people like John and Jane could ruin it for everyboby else. People like them need to shut their ignorant mouths!!!

paul
2 months, 3 weeks ago

watching my brother die of cancer was one of the worst things i have ever dealt with in my life. he was clean and sober. 28 yrs old with a family. after watching him wither away, i heard about the medical marijuana program from a friend. unfortunately it wasnt a cure, just relief. he began to eat and gain weight. i also have a handi-capped brother who was hit by a drunk driver on his motorcycle head on. he does not like medications cuz they make him very "loopy". medical marijuana has also done wonders for him with pain, appetite, and sleep. overall, the city should let them all be. how is having 'too many' dispensaries a problem when we have many coffee shops fast food stores and other bussiness throughout the valley on every corner also?

Josh
2 months, 3 weeks ago

the main problem is trutanich deciding this is something we need to focus on. There are much bigger fish to fry in LA than the easy access to marijuana. Get over it Carmen, it's just not that big of a deal if a bunch of people are using the system to get stoned. Could be a lot worse.

Herbalicious
2 months, 3 weeks ago

I would like to cause John and his roommate as much pain as I have, so that they know what it's like to be in medical need of cannabis.

BIGGZ
2 months, 3 weeks ago

TO John's 22 yr. old roommate, you remind us all that people like you should be banned from the entire program of a proper collective. I know that for a fact you didn't do what you said at a dispensary and if you did it's those type of places that we hope get shuts down.The doctors need to be regulated more and to that John's roommate a questions? Do you like get off teaching children while you are baked? do you like putting your friend in jeopardy by illegally receiving medical marijuana? Do aspire to get proper collectives shut down with your false statements and obvious agenda?
To John and his roommates , I actually know who you are, oh what? really? Did he really just say that? I'll be sure to let some in this compassionate collective side to give them your photo and make sure you and your agenda DO NOT RECEIVE MEDICINE for your social use. Good Luck!

Darin
2 months, 3 weeks ago

I've seen these magazines and I've gotten medical marijuana myself (not for any illness, although I do suffer from depression and insomnia, which may or may not be related, in an unclear relationship, to the fact that I smoke marijuana). I believe the state of medical marijuana in our state is ridiculous. They come in containers that look just like what you would get with legal pharmaceutical drugs and yet they use still use names like "Trainwreck" and "O.G. Kush." They may as well have a label saying "Hey ni**a, this green right here is some dank-a** shi*!."

I think the solution to this problem is a fairly easy one, especially relative to things like job unemployment and unsustainable energy consumption and banking systems.

1) Marijuana should be legalized. Money being funded to anti-marijuana propaganda and money used to jail pot smokers should instead be used to promote moderated and responsible use of the drug if one chooses to use it for recreation, medicine, socially, spiritually, or whatever else.
2) Either a) Get rid of these current pot dispensaries and bring marijuana under the jurisdiction of medical doctors to dispense with recreation being a legitimate reason to get it (i.e. one has to obtain tetrahydrocannabinol the same way one would obtain fluoxetine (prozac) or b) Let it be sold commercially like is done with alcohol and tobacco (creating a new, legitimate business sector full of new jobs and taxable income for governments).

3) A more precise way of ingesting weed should be made commercial. This is important so that people can regulate how much they actually smoke. This would help encourage responsible use and prevent people from just getting completely stoned all the time. Just like people are allowed to regulate for themselves how many fluid ounces of wine they have they should be allowed to regulate how many grams (or liters I guess if you're inhaling it in gaseous form) of marijuana they smoke. People should also be given thorough information about the psychological addiction factors (as far as I'm aware, marijuana isn't physically addicting and isn't even lethal to humans, regardless of how much you try to smoke which is much safer than a lot of the freely prescribed drugs today), productivity inhibition factors, and all the other effects of weed (such as depression to motor abilities, which means people shouldn't smoke and drive just like they shouldn't drink and drive and also shouldn't get stoned and go to work just like they shouldn't get drunk and go to work). New brand names should be created and things associated with gangs and criminal lifestyles should be abolished. A good marketing campaign in addition to legalization could go a long way to decreasing a lot of drug-related crime and tragedies in our nation.

I honestly believe legalization of marijuana is in the best interest of Americans, and most of human societies, at this point.

Darin
2 months, 3 weeks ago

In addition, to add a social perspective, I want to have to deal with shady drug dealers and cartels as much as anyone, that is, not at all. I've been fortunate to have people I know personally and like who have connections, but I get to deal mostly with just them and not their actual connections. I don't want to give money to people involved in the mexican drug cartel who then use that money to buy guns and go cause all kinds of hell in Mexico and wherever else. Legalize weed and then tax the heck out of it. You have people willing to go through black markets for this stuff, you could sell it at a reasonable price and then add even an absurd tax like 40% or something off the base price. It'll kill like a dozen birds with one stone. It would screw the drug cartels (for marijuana at least anyways) which helps both us and Mexico, then you could use all that green, money, to do a lot of social good, pay debts, actually help drug addicts instead of jailing them (which will probably end up being less expensive and more efficient at "correcting" bad behavior), and have a happier, friendlier, more peaceful society.

Dann Halem
2 months, 2 weeks ago

Thank you Frank Stoltze for your work on this story. When Frank and I sat down for the interview, I made a few things clear that due to time constraints weren't included. So for the record, Artists Collective is a registered California non-profit with a legitimate non-profit mission and fundraising goals. We want to create art grants. Medical marijuana has become a $2 billion industry and we believe such monetary muscle could fund any number of good causes.

We hope the LA City Council will recognize the merits of legitimate non-profit organizations using marijuana as a funding tool. We are diverting money away from drug cartels toward socially benevolent means. That's something to celebrate, not shut down. Society as a whole will benefit through these kinds of innovative ideas.

If you'd like to learn more about Artists Collective and our non-profit mission, visit www.ArtistsForAccess.org

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