Thursday, May 23, 2013

4/20: Los Angeles Lets the Joint Go Out

More like put it out on purpose:

"LA voters back measure to cap number of marijuana dispensaries" AP, May 23, 2013

LOS ANGELES — Voters approved a proposition limiting the number of medical marijuana dispensaries in the city.

Proposition D garnered around 63 percent of the votes in Tuesday’s election. Two competing measures to regulate pot sales lost.

Proposition D caps the number of pot clinics in the city at 135, far below the roughly 1,000 that operated several years ago. It also increases taxes on the dispensaries and sets rules about their hours and distances from schools and parks.

The measure was backed by both mayoral candidates.

Related: Garcetti Eats Greuel

He must be stoned.

Supporters portrayed it as a balanced way to deal with neighborhood concerns about loitering and crime from dispensaries proliferation.

 The real problems are meth, cocaine, and heroin, not medical marijuana.

Medical marijuana has been legal in California since voters approved it in 1996. However, regulation of so-called pot shops has been haphazard, particularly in Los Angeles.

The number of dispensaries in the city surged since 2007, prompting a series of unsuccessful efforts by city lawmakers to bring order to the industry.

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Related: 4/20: California Closes Medical Marijuana Dispensaries