75A - PH - MEDICAL MARIJUANA - PROHIBIT

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He also advocates limiting their hours to 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.....Bratton said the number of dispensaries increased from four in November 2005 to 98 a year later. "This has fostered an increasern ... crime problems and caused quality-of--life issues for families and communities, as evidenced by the l10 complaints received from neighbors, business owners and concerned citizens concerning these dispensaries," Bratton's report states. The Police Commission will. consider his recotmnendations today. Los Angeles Police Department officers have been called Co clinics because of problems i.n.ciuding robberies, burglaries and drug use in front of the clinics, Lt. Paul. Vernon said. Without regulations, he said, officers are hamstrung. In the absence of specific zoning rules, 12 of the medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles have opened within 1,000 feet of schools, Bratton said. "One clinic blatantly resorted to placing fliers on the windshields of vehicles parked in and around Grant .High School in an obvious effort to entice children," Bratton said......The clinics have proliferated elsewhere as well, although Los Angeles, as the state's largest city, has the most, said Joseph Elford of Americans for Safe Access, a group in support of the clinics. But San Francisco, with about 30 clinics, has more per capita, or about one per 25,400 residents, while Los Angeles has one dispensary for every 39,200 people. On i1~Ionday, advocates for medical marijuana disputed that the dispensaries are magnets for crime, and expressed. concerns that Los Angeles officials may reduce patients' access to the drug.....the spirit and intent of this act has been exploited and abused for both profit and recreational drug use by many of the medical marijuana dispensaries in the city of Los Angeles," Bratton said...... ap trick.mcaree ~vlatimes.com Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/californialla-me- drugs 16jan 16,1,1958373.story?coil=la-headlines-pe-California Some Santa Cruz pot users, sellers find loopholes in state's medical marijuana laws By Shanna McCord /Sentinel staff writer SANTA CRUZ - Hal f the calls t.o criminal defense attorney Ben. Rice are people busted for growing, selling or usiig marijuana. Rice has developed a reputation for protecting the rights of those who buy and sell the drug under the 10-year-old state law that makes marijuana legal for sick people. While most of those seeking Rice's services are legitimate medical marijuana patients or caregivers, he estimates 30 percent are not. These people aren't sick, he says, and are simply trying to hide behind the Compassionate Use Act for recreational or profit-making reasons. "Absolutely, no question about it, some people do take advantage of the law," Rice said.....Authorities say they regularly see perfectly healthy people, some found with several pounds of marijuana, claim the drug is for a sick friend or relative. The problem, authorities say, is proving otherwise. Ambiguities in the laws force police to let many people off scot- free because it's often difficult to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law, said sheriff s Sgt. Steve Carney, the head of the county's Marijuana Enforcement Team. Out of 10 people stopped on suspicion of marijuana crimes in the county, only two cases are sent to the District Attorney's Office on average, Carney said...... 16 75A-111