Author: Jessica Gelzer
On Monday, Sept. 21, the Los Angeles Collective Association and the Green Oasis marijuana dispensary filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles City Council. The suit is in response to a moratorium placed on marijuana dispensaries by the City Council in the summer of 2007. According to the L.A. Times, the moratorium was designed to prevent new dispensaries from opening. The Los Angeles Collective Association and Green Oasis claim that the moratorium is unconstitutionally vague and has been extended beyond its stipulated length.
According to the L.A. Times, the moratorium was enacted in order to give the City Council time to write an ordinance that would regulate dispensaries. However, the City Council has been drafting the ordinance for over a year and it has yet to be completed.
In the meantime, marijuana dispensaries are taking advantage of a loophole in the moratorium. Accirding to the L.A. Times, many dispensaries are filing for “hardship exemptions” which allow them to operate while pending approval from a ruling by the City Council. The City Council has not been addressing these hardship exemptions and thus 508 dispensaries have continued operation as a result.
This explosion of dispensaries has not gone unnoticed – even in Eagle Rock. “I didn’t know how many there were before, but it seems in the past couple years I have been here at Oxy, more have opened in the area, especially close to campus,” said Claire Coddington (junior).
During the summer, Derek Singleton (senior) researched the impact of California’s Medical Marijuana Law on criminal offenses. His research project asked whether the liberalization of marijuana policy in California led to fewer arrests for misdemeanor possession offenses and felony trafficking offenses. “I think that the attempts to close down collectives that were set up legally is punishing people who were just exercising a loophole in the law. The main reason is because they underestimated the resourcefulness of the medical marijuana movement. Then again, there were also people trying to make a quick buck,” said Singleton.
Overseeing Singleton’s work was Philosophy Professor Dr. Kory Schaff. “I think the City Council is acting in the interests of everyone in trying to find a middle path of regulation. For example, how many dispensaries are needed to ensure safe, effective and secure access? Or, where is the ideal location for dispensaries? But I think the impulse to regulate is sometimes clouded by moral incoherence, for example, the fallacious belief that marijuana is addictive or that it promotes criminal behavior,” said Schaff.
This belief is one of many that have fueled another debate concerning the availability of marijuana. Medical marijuana became legal in California in 1996. However, recreational use is still criminalized. “There is also a theoretical component about the contradiction of maintaining criminal prohibition for possession while allowing medical marijuana to thrive,” said Singleton. “If you have medical marijuana you can have up to 8 oz of marijuana on you at a time. In the same moment, a person without a card carrying 1/100 of that amount is criminalized.”
To address this contradiction, California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano is drafting AB 390, a bill to be voted on by the California house in 2010. This bill would make marijuana legal in California for those 21 years and older. This would raise $1.3 billion in taxes, reducing the state deficit. Nonprofit groups such as National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NRML), the Drug Policy Alliance and Marijuana Policy Project are working to pass AB 390.
When asked about the effect that the Los Angeles Collective Association and Green Oasis lawsuit would have on support for AB 390, Singleton stated that he did not think the suit would have an adverse effect on the bill. “They are all business groups, suing the city on grounds that the law was unconstitutionally vague. Whether or not [the claim] will hold water, it’s not for me to say.”
Additional reporting by Riley Hooper and Ashly Burch
This article has been archived, for more requests please contact us via the support system.
