75A - PH - MEDICAL MARIJUANA - PROHIBIT

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After all, cities try to regulate the number of liquor stores and bars, just because abuse can happen. It's obvious that pot clinics need regulation as well. What we'd prefer seeing is putting marijuana prescriptions in the hands of doctors, and removing the potential for abuse in obviously under-regulated marijuana dispensaries. Source: http://www.santacruzsentulel.comlarchive/2007/March/12/edit/stories/01 edit.htm hiding Nigh 01.27.07~Los Angeles Business )oun~~By Deborah Crowe With tittle fanfare until this month, Los Angeles County has quietly become the country's capital of medical marijuana. In the last tvvo years the number of marijuana dispensaries in the county has ballooned from a relative handful to more than 200, according to most estirnates......Maiiy of them. have opened in strip shopping centers, typically using such. names as "compassionate caregivers" ar "patient collectives" -names that seldom mention marijuana. Even the Rev. Scott linter, who co-authored the ballot initiatwe that legalized medical. marijuana, thinks the industry that he inadvertently helped create has gotten out of control. "We created this beast that t'rankly the state and. local governments have been too slovr to regulate," Imler said. "We're a liberal state and everyone wants to bend over baclzwards to be compassionate and. understanding and. groovy. And they get taken advantage of." .....A report presented to an Oakland oversight committee last faU estimates Californians consume between $870 million and $2 billion worth of medically related marijuana each year.... Mi~shiroaming Indzr,slt~~ California was the first of 10 states to pass a medical marijuana law. But no other metropolitan area has nearly as many marijuana storefronts as Los Angeles. The Bay Area, for example, has about 70. Still, the medical marijuana industry got a slow start in California......However, in 200] a West Noilywood cooperative that was organized by haler was raided by federal authorities and shut down......As that case made its way through the courts, the Califol7~ia Legislature in 2003 passed SB 420, which recognized the right of patients and caregivers to associate collectively to cultivate medical marijuana. Subsequent court decisions expanded thai protection to retail-style dispensaries. However, the industry remained stunted because of criminal cases such as Imler's. But in 2005, Im1er's case was settled.. He got one year's probation. Attorney John Duran, a councilman in West Hollywood who successfully defended Tinier, said that once it was clear that. tinier wouldn't be heading to prison, local. entrepreneurs were emboldened to launch their own clinics -despite the threat of federal raids. The dispensaries were aided by the tack. of specific regulations covering these businesses within many jurisdictions of Los Angeles County, particularly in the city of L.A. The county and many cities inside it scrambled to enact moratoriums to give them time to decide whether to regulate or ban the shops. At Least eight cities now have moratoriums in place, while Torrance and Pasadena in the past year have banned clinics. In November, Los Angeles police offcials began. talking seriously about enacting a moratorium. 25 75A-120