Los Angeles City Council lifts ban on medical marijuana dispensaries

Medical marijuana dispensaries are once again legal in Los Angeles, after the Los Angeles City Council voted last week to nullify a ban set in place in July.

Westwood’s only marijuana dispensary, The Farmacy, will continue selling medical marijuana as a result of the vote, said Bill Leahy, the shop’s general manager.

Marijuana use and possession is illegal nationally, but California is one of 17 states that allows it for medical purposes.

A ban on medical marijuana dispensaries would have gone in effect early September, but was halted after the council received a petition asking city officials to either overturn the ban or place a referendum on the city council election ballot in March 2013.

The petition had collected about 50,000 signatures by the time it was sent to the city council. The council chose to completely lift the ban.

Following the council’s recent vote, there is currently no formal regulation of marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles.

Even with the ban, medical patients would still have been allowed to grow their own marijuana in small groups of three people or less.

Several organizations that support medical marijuana dispensaries, including Americans for Safe Access, the Greater Los Angeles Collective Alliance and the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 770, created the petition after the ban was passed.

In July, the council voted to ban all marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles because many were concerned about the growing number of dispensaries and their potential negative impact on neighborhoods, said Bridget Freishthler, an associate professor in the Department of Social Welfare at UCLA.

Most of the people who visit The Farmacy are elderly people who cannot grow their own marijuana or are looking for alternatives to pharmaceuticals heavy with side effects, Leahy said.

But some councilmembers worry young people might be taking advantage of what they consider to be easy access to marijuana.

“It has become commonplace for people as young as 18 years old to easily obtain prescriptions for ailments such as anxiety or insomnia and buy marijuana from storefront dispensaries for recreational drug use,” said Council member Mitchell Englander in a statement.

However, Kris Hermes, a spokesman for Americans for Safe Access, a group of medical marijuana supporters, said he feels medical marijuana dispensaries should not be shut down if they abide by the law.

“There are thousands of people in Los Angeles who need safe and legal access to their medication,” Hermes said.

The debate about the legality of medical marijuana also spurred research at UCLA.

Freishthler is currently conducting research into the effects of dispensaries on neighborhoods.

So far, Freishtler’s research in Sacramento has shown that neighborhoods with medical marijuana dispensaries have the same amount of crime as neighborhoods without dispensaries, she said.

Still, more research is necessary to determine whether or not there are negative effects, she added.

Freishtler said the lifting of the ban is only the beginning. If the issue is sent to the courts, the state may have to step in, she said.

Meanwhile, Englander said he plans to regulate dispensaries using existing laws, such as codes that regulate property, he said in the statement. Marijuana dispensaries in violation of Los Angeles zoning laws are still eligible to be shut down, he added.

Hermes said that marijuana advocates would be happy to discuss how to properly regulate dispensaries with councilmembers.

“The council has to roll up its sleeves and has to get to work on setting up a set of regulations,” Hermes said.