L.A. Finally Drafts Medical-Marijuana Rules

More than a year and a half after it first began drafting regulations for medical-marijuana clinics, the city of Los Angeles has released proposed rules to control the dispensaries’ proliferation.

The Los Angeles Times reported Nov. 14 that the proposed rules retains a ban on marijuana sales and could cap the number of medical-marijuana clinics by council district or other criteria, but would not require dispensaries to reveal their membership lists. Clinics would be allowed to collect enough money from clients to cover the “out-of-pocket costs of their collective cultivation.”

The city attorney’s office drafted the ordinance, and the city council is expected to take it up soon. “The whole idea is to get some control over the in-your-face way that business has been conducted up until now,” said David Berger, an assistant to City Attorney Carmen Trutanich.

Berger said that the city attorney’s office can’t take action against illegal dispensaries until an ordinance is in place.

Don Duncan of Americans for Safe Access called a ban on locating dispensaries within 1,000 feet of schools, parks, libraries and other sensitive sites “unworkable” and termed the legislation “a square peg for a round hole.”