LA patients move to stop the ban
August 10th, 2012Posted by Don Duncan
The Los Angeles City Council voted to ban medical cannabis patients’ cooperatives and collectives on July 24. Now patients are taking the case for safe access to the streets with a voter referendum to repeal the ban. If we gather 27,485 signatures from registered voters in the next thirty days, the City Council will be forced to choose between repealing the ban themselves and calling a costly special election for voters to decide. Paid and volunteer signature gatherers will be on the streets this week. City Council Members will soon learn if there is enough grassroots support for safe access to force their hand. Patients and advocates are betting there is.
Americans for Safe Access (ASA), the nation’s leading medical cannabis patients’ advocacy organization, helped organize the voter referendum and is committed to its success because the ban is bad for patients. The large majority of legal medical cannabis patients in Los Angeles rely on cooperatives and collectives for safe and reliable access to the doctor-recommended medicine they need to treat the symptoms of cancer, HIV/AIDS, Multiple Sclerosis, chronic pain and other serious conditions. Closing the facilities means patients will do without their medicine or buy it from the dangerous and unregulated illicit market. That is not what voters intended when they approved Proposition 215 in 1996, and it is contrary to polling that shows that 77% of Californians still support regulation and control of medical cannabis.
City Council Members made a commitment to regulation in 2008, but controversy and political conflict stymied their efforts. Conflicting decisions for the California Appellate Courts have confused the issue, and City Attorney Carmen Trutanich has consistently touted a ban only viable option. But City Council Members do have a choice. On the same day they approved the ban, the City Council also approved a motion by Council Members Paul Koretz and Dennis Zine asking the City Attorney to create a new ordinance tightly regulating a smaller number of facilities. The City Council would do well to expedite that effort instead of trying to enforce the ill-conceived ban.
It is not acceptable to close all of the patients’ associations in the city just because some are located or operated in a manner that is problematic. Instead, the City Council should work with stakeholders to develop workable regulations. Research shows that cooperatives and collectives do not cause crime. In fact, research conducted by ASA shows that sensible regulations actually reduce crime and complaints around access points. Los Angeles can join more than fifty other cities and counties in finding a way to protect patients’ access and neighborhoods – if they have the political will to do it. Let’s hope a successful referendum and vote to repeal the ban is just what they need to make it happen.
ASA is joined on the Committee to Protect Patients and Neighborhoods, the referendum’s campaign committee, by representatives from the Greater Los Angeles Collective Alliance (GLACA), which represents some of the city’s oldest and most reputable patients’ associations, and the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 770, which represents workers in local cooperatives and collectives.
Please join me on a conference call to discuss the referendum campaign and how you can help on Monday, August 13, at 6:00 PM. Call (832) 431-3335 and dial 1618568 to join the conversation.
Make plans to join the Los Angeles ASA chapter on Saturday, August 18, to get the latest updates on the referendum and the ongoing effort to adopt a good ordinance in Los Angeles. The LA-ASA meeting is between 1:00 and 3:00 PM in the Community Room (#152) at the West Hollywood Gateway Mall located at 7100 Santa Monica Blvd. (at La Brea Ave.) in West Hollywood, CA 90046.
August 10th, 2012 at 11:28 am
I am a medical marijuana patient. I have a painful disease known a Fibromyalgia which is definded “as chronic condition fo widespread pain and fatigue”. I take marijuana in the form of edibles as I don’t smoke. I have this only as I go to bed at night.
August 10th, 2012 at 4:00 pm
I help run a collective in LA that opened 5 months ago. From our perspective, you are actively working against us, as ASA seems to only be interested in protecting the rights (and these are rights) of collectives that have been open prior to 2008. I’ve personally witnessed activities at these clubs that aren’t in line with any of the best practices in the industry. There is no proof AT ALL that being open before 2008 makes you a responsible collective. It is shameful and you can count on 100′s of dispensaries that are on the other side of your imaginary “good” line to fight against you. I would have gladly helped circulate this petition and post it in our collective. But, as ASA’s intent is the same as the City Council, to see our collective shut down, I won’t lift a finger and will actively agitate against your efforts.
August 10th, 2012 at 4:19 pm
“On the same day they approved the ban, the City Council also approved a motion by Council Members Paul Koretz and Dennis Zine asking the City Attorney to create a new ordinance tightly regulating a smaller number of facilities. The City Council would do well to expedite that effort instead of trying to enforce the ill-conceived ban.”
Has ASA spoken to the City attorney regarding the distinction between small collective grows and storefront dispensaries in this new ordinance?
How do you propose the distinction be made?
August 15th, 2012 at 2:32 pm
this ban is unacceptable! Thank you ASA for never slowing down or giving up the fight for patient’s rights! For human rights for that matter! We are with you all the way and will continue in earnest no matter what obstacles befall us. Keep on keepin’ on…UNITED. Thank you.
August 15th, 2012 at 7:20 pm
how can i sign this i give u my permission 2 use my signature
August 16th, 2012 at 11:34 am
Peter Sokolow- by actively agitating against ASA’s efforts, how are you helping yourself, if the referendum gets enough signatures, it stops the actions of the City Council in shutting all the dispensaries down, and gives the city and the medical cannabis community an opportunity to come to the table and develop sensible guidelines for dispensaries within city limits. I don’t know if you have been at the meetings, but there is an attempt to gather consensus within the entire community to come up with what we would like to see as guidelines that are fair and that we can all live with. By actively agitating against ASA and other organizations that are working together, you are just going to ensure that you’ll be shut down- is that what you really want? If you are truly concerned about ensuring access for patients and running a legitimate dispensary, isn’t it more in your best interest to join the discussion and help come up with something workable, but in the meantime stopping this ban? just sayin’….
August 16th, 2012 at 3:25 pm
In yesterday’s paper, The daily news; It was said that all dispenseries will have to close on September 6th or face daily fines etc. It went on to state that the reason for the closures is because the city can not afford to regulate the clubs. If this is the reason then let the clubs pay for their own regulations. Some kind of financial negotiation seems to be called for to work with the city. Some times money does talk, and loudly.
August 16th, 2012 at 5:18 pm
Talking out both sides of their ass…Didnt LA County try this same crap and were knocked down by Appelate court? Why not take the same road for this?
August 17th, 2012 at 9:44 am
Peter…we don’t need 2 shops on every block. It’s reasonable to limit it to 180 shops. you’d rather have zero than 180? Like the city council…you only care about $
August 18th, 2012 at 1:15 pm
ASA and the other cannabis lobbying groups have done much to move forward the anti-prohibition cause. Though I’m indebted to you for this, I’m still befuddled by the trajectory of the movement. Will you please enlighten us as to why the decision was made to make such a huge issue out of “the need for regulation?” Why?
One reason I’ve heard espoused is that it causes psychosis. That hypothesis was shot down years ago when someone ran the data. There simply is no increase in psychosis when there’s an increase in the number of consumers, even young ones. I practiced as a psychotherapist for 32 years. Those patients who used cannabis did far better than those who didn’t, especially those with serious mental illnesses including thought disorders.
I just don’t get this apparent fixation on making a bunch of rules around cannabis. Those of us who have taken the trouble to learn the history of prohibition know that its source was purely political with a racist foundation. It has never had anything to do with it being dangerous. So, why are we feeding this disproven logic by begging for more regulation. Can’t we just admit that we made a culture-wide error and get on with fixing it?