Huizar's Marijuana Shop Ban Motion Moves Forward

A motion to suspend Los Angeles' medical marijuana ordinance moved one step closer to a judgment day before the City Council.

The motion--proposed by Councilman José Huizar--would indefinitely shutter Los Angeles' approximately 300 medical marijuana dispensaries, while still allowing authorized patients to grow their own marijuana, or have a certified caregiver do so for them.

The City Council's Public Safety Committee on Friday forwarded the proposed motion to the City Council and Planning Commission after hearing testimony from local law enforcement officials, including LAPD Northeast Division Captain Bill Murphy and Eagle Rock Senior Lead Officer Craig Orange. 

The Planning Commission next meets on Monday, Jan. 26.

According to Huizar, his motion is in response to the California Second District Court of Appeal's finding the case of Pack v. the City of Long Beach, in which the court ruled that Long Beach's medical marijuana ordinance violated federal law by attempting to regulate the sale of a federally prohibited substance.

The ruling declares that states are only allowed to decriminalize marijuana, not regulate it.

Superior Court Judge Anthony Mohr ruled on October 14 that L.A.’s marijuana ordinance is valid and that its enforcement cannot be challenged by as many as 29 dispensaries that had sued the City over the issue. But Mohr also advised the City to revisit the ordinance to determine whether it can withstand a preemptory challenge in light of the Pack vs. Long Beach ruling and the fact that the L.A. ordinance has a provision for a lottery for dispensaries and other regulatory mechanisms.

“Given that we were advised by our City Attorney that we currently have an unenforceable ordinance, we are in a place where we were before we had an ordinance [when] we had a proliferation of dispensaries throughout the city, and with that proliferation came an impact on the quality of life in local communities,” Huizar said when

Huizar, who helped craft L.A.'s ordinance, has long expressed his frustration with state laws regarding the cultivation and distribution of marijuana, which have prevented local regulation, including zoning. In December, he was joined in his criticism of the state's flawed marijuana laws by California Attorney General Kamala Harris, who wrote a letter to state legislators, urging them to address what she said was "the exploitation of California's medical marijuana laws by gangs, criminal enterprises and others." (See attached pdf for details of the attorney general's letter.)

There are three medical marijuana dispensaries in Highland Park--the Green Earth Collective, the Hummingbird Collective and the Highland Park Patients Collective--and approximately 15 in Eagle Rock.

correction:

A previous version of this story reported that there were only two medical marijuana dispensaries in Highland Park, the Highland Park Patients Collective and the Green Earth Collective. The Hummingbird Collective is also located in Highland Park. We regret the error.