Pubdate: Tue, 23 Nov 2010
Source: Glendale News-Press (CA)
Copyright: 2010 Times Community Newspapers
Contact:  http://www.glendalenewspress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/167
Author: Melanie Hicken
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

POT CLINICS BANNED IN LA CRESCENTA

LA CRESCENTA -- Medical marijuana clinics looking to open in La 
Crescenta will have to look elsewhere after the Los Angeles County 
Board of Supervisors on Tuesday banned the dispensaries in 
unincorporated areas of the county.

Supervisors had directed county planners in July to prepare an 
ordinance banning all medical marijuana dispensaries from setting up 
shop in unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich has pushed for the ban, which he said 
would help keep dispensaries from relocating to unincorporated 
communities in Los Angeles, where the City Council passed a series of 
tightened restrictions.

The county had already placed strict restrictions on medical 
marijuana dispensaries, but officials pointed to the proliferation of 
shops operating illegally as proof of the need for more regulation.

On Tuesday, the board voted 4 to 1 to approve the ban, with 
Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky voting in opposition.

"A complete ban is not going to achieve the objectives that all of us 
want to achieve with some of these out-of-control illegal 
dispensaries that have popped up in unincorporated areas," he said. 
"It's the illegal ones that don't come in for permits that are 
creating a lot of the problems."

In response to a separate motion from Yaroslavsky, the board voted 
unanimously to direct county officials to take aggressive action 
against illegal clinics, including levying a fine of $1,000 per day.

In Glendale, city officials have held off on establishing regulations 
for the dispensaries, instead enacting a moratorium to give city 
attorneys more time to analyze the complicated, ever-changing legal landscape.

The county's new ban includes a provision that allows for a return to 
existing regulations if the California Supreme Court rules that 
outright bans are unconstitutional.

Howard Hakes, president of the Crescenta Valley Drug and Alcohol 
Prevention Coalition, said he was glad to hear of the ban, citing 
stories of recreational users easily attaining medical marijuana prescriptions.

"It's closing another loophole where the drugs were coming from," he 
said. "I think it's great the supervisors saw that."

Crescenta Valley Town Council President Cheryl Davis said most 
residents she's spoken with support a ban.

"They want the ban because they feel that if there is a need to get 
medical marijuana there are legal dispensaries near us," she said.

At Tuesday's meeting, many dispensary operators and medical marijuana 
patients spoke out against the ban, which they said would provide 
unnecessary hardship for legal users.

"If you ban, it would take people such as myself out of the loop of 
providing medicines for chronically ill patients," said Sue Taylor, 
president of the nonprofit cooperative ICann Health Center. "The ban 
would do nothing for these pot shops -- unregulated clubs that are 
showing up everywhere."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom