David Lizama of Eagle Rock was among medical pot users at a City Council Public Safety Committee hearing where members voted 3-1 to recommend the council shut clinics. (John McCoy/Staff Photographer)
A second city panel on Friday voiced a clear preference toward a "gentle" ban that would result in closing down medical marijuana clinics throughout Los Angeles.
The Public Safety Committee voted 3-1 to recommend the proposal from Councilmen Jose Huizar and Mitch Englander shutting down the clinics until the state Supreme Court decides on the legality of permitting dispensaries. But the proposal would allow those who need medical marijuana and their caregivers to grow the plant.
The panel also recommended the City Council not adopt a measure from Councilman Paul Koretz to allow 100 dispensaries to continue operation as long as they followed strict regulations. Earlier the council's Planning and Land Use Management Committee took a similar vote.
The measure now goes to the full City Council for consideration. No date has been set for the hearing.
"I think the bottom line, the reason this has been an essentially failed policy, is the state law was miserably ineffective in defining what we should be doing to provide safe access for legal marijuana," Councilman Paul Krekorian said.
"What's happened has made a mockery of the medical marijuana law. Do we really need these on every other block? Across from every park? Within walking distance of high schools? We are struggling to find the right answer. It's like trying to build an airplane while you're flying it."
A number of medical marijuana patients urged the panel to back the
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Koretz proposal, saying they feared for their safety if they had to turn to the black market for marijuana. They also suggested the ban would bolster organized crime similar to what occurred during Prohibition.Englander, however, said he and other officials are concerned about the crime that has developed in and around the dispensaries as well as the impact on the quality of life for neighborhoods.
"The impact of having these pot shop storefronts is one not necessarily intended by the voters," Englander said. "We have had nearly 1,000 of these throughout the city and they have created all sorts of havoc.
"We have seen arrests for assault with a deadly weapon, thefts, burglaries, thefts from motorvehicles, assault, murder. The fact is these have gotten out of control."
Capt. Bill Hart, commanding officer of the LAPD Gang and Narcotics Division, said the existing city law has been ineffective.
"We receive complaints every day regarding the medical marijuana dispensaries," Hart said, adding there was one instance where a shop owner became so frustrated with burglaries that he slept in his store with a gun and got involved in a gunbattle with bandits.
Councilman Dennis Zine voted against the Huizar proposal to ban the clinics, saying he believes Koretz's approach is better and would give the city some leeway in regulating the dispensaries while providing access for those who need it.
"Our intention was to have legislation so people who needed to obtain marijuana could do so in a fair and safefashion and not have a negative impact on neighborhoods," Zine said.
"Instead we ended up with lawsuit after lawsuit and court decisions that went round and round on every measure we tried to adopt."
Several Studio City residents also testified in favor of the stricter measure.
Barry Johnson of the Studio City Residents Association said residents would support any proposal that brings in controls.
"In Studio City, we have 12 of these within our city limits," Johnson said. "That's more than the number of pharmacies we have."
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