Prosecutors in Los Angeles insist that collectives cannot sell medical marijuana at their stores and can provide it only to members who actively cultivate it together. Dispensary operators, on the other hand, argue that it is absurd to expect them to run Soviet-style collective farms and to rule out cash payments for pot.
As the Los Angeles Times reports in this in-depth article, when the Los Angeles City Council finishes its marijuana ordinance, which may finally happen this month, it is likely to inflame this increasingly contentious debate over how the drug can be distributed.
The conflict hinges on the state’s 2003 medical marijuana law and almost entirely on a single sentence.
“The law’s screwed up in a lot of ways. There’s big gaping holes,” said Yamileth Bolanos, who runs PureLife Alternative Wellness Center and is one of the city’s most politically involved operators. “It’s very confusing for everyone, even the prosecution and law enforcement. It’s like the Bible, everybody reads it the way they want to.”
The confusion could be cleared up by the Legislature, but that body has shown no desire to revisit the law. And the attorney general, who issued guidelines on how to interpret the law, has not responded to calls to update them to account for recent court rulings that have added to the bewilderment.
Instead, the issue may be left to the courts to decide, which could lead to years of costly criminal prosecutions and civil lawsuits before prosecutors and dispensaries have clear rules.
“What a shame that the courts have to give the clarity, when the Legislature could do it a lot more quickly and actually think it through,” said San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, who has aggressively prosecuted dispensaries for selling pot. She also said state Attorney General Jerry Brown “could write clearer guidelines to say exactly what a collective can do and to outline the steps to comply with the law.”
The detailed Times article then goes on to explain how the legal issue revolves around a single sentence in the Health and Safety Code. It continues:
The City Council, trying to accommodate City Attorney Carmen Trutanich and Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, who contend that sales are illegal, crafted what it called an “elegant” solution: to allow “cash and in-kind contributions . . . in strict compliance with state law.”
But by pegging it to state law, the council did nothing to settle the issue. Medical marijuana supporters say the City Council’s language allows collectives to sell marijuana, but Chief Deputy City Attorney William W. Carter disagrees. “As I read the language, it would bar sales,” he said.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.