Marijuana Dispensaries

The City Council's planning panel approved in concept Tuesday a moratorium on issuing permits for new medical marijuana dispensaries. An ordinance will now be drawn up and later considered by the full council. Councilman Dennis Zine said he is seeking the moratorium so the city can better determine which are legitimate dispensaries and which are merely fronting for drug dealers.

Los Angeles teachers agreed to shortening the school year by 10 days to 175 days, and to accept a commensurate pay cut. This is the fourth year in the row that the school year has been shortened. Is it only a matter of time before this editorial cartoon becomes a reality? ALSO: A soda ban, L.A.-style Photo gallery: Ted Rall cartoons Marijuana dispensaries: Hands off, City Hall Follow Ted Rall on Twitter @TedRall . Follow Opinion L.A. on Twitter and Facebook .  

California cities may not ban medical marijuana dispensaries, but the operations may sell only weed that is grown on site, an appeals court ruled in an Orange County case. The unanimous decision by a three-judge Court of Appeal panel in Santa Ana was the first in the state to prohibit cities from enacting zoning restrictions that effectively ban all marijuana dispensaries. The court was also the first to rule that dispensaries must grow the marijuana they sell, a requirement that would force most of them out of business.

Seeking new revenue for the city, Councilwoman Janice Hahn proposed Wednesday that the council consider imposing a tax on sales of medical marijuana. Los Angeles has hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries. As California's local and state governments look to plug their budget deficits, attention has started to focus on marijuana as an untapped source. Oakland voters will decide Tuesday on a medical marijuana tax. "In this current economic crisis, we need to get creative about how we raise funds," Hahn said in a statement.

The Los Angeles City Council has decided that leaving medical marijuana dispensaries unregulated and uncontrolled is what is best for L.A. residents. On Tuesday, as reported by The Times , council members voted 14 to 0 to no longer be in the business of ensuring that dispensaries are well run and that patients have safe access to medicine. This will not eliminate dispensaries in Los Angeles. Rather, the City Council's action will only eliminate the most transparent, compliant, well-intentioned facilities.

With the fate of the city's medical marijuana industry in question, workers at more than a dozen Los Angeles pot shops have formed a labor union in part to help ward off a proposed citywide ban on dispensaries. The employees joined the ranks of grocery workers, healthcare providers and pharmacists at the United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 770. At a news conference Thursday, the president of the union vowed to leverage the "full force" of its 35,000 members to keep dispensaries open.

A pair of U.S. governors appealed to the Drug Enforcement Administration on Wednesday to reclassify marijuana as a drug with accepted medical uses, saying current federal law makes it difficult for states that have legalized medical marijuana to safely regulate it. The petition filed by Gov. Christine Gregoire of Washington and Gov. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island asks the government to change marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule II under the...

The same day the Los Angeles City Council took its first votes to shut down rogue medical marijuana dispensaries, the chamber roiled with city workers who denounced plans to balance the budget with furloughs and layoffs. When medical marijuana advocates had their chance to talk, they seized on the coincidence and startled the council with their message. Don't ban us, they said, tax us. Last week, Councilwoman Janice Hahn proposed to do just that.

Can't Los Angeles do anything right? First it was billboards, legal and illegal, conventional and digital, that proliferated across the city as seemingly powerless officials fretted about what to do. For a while, every official action seemed to make matters worse. Then it was marijuana dispensaries that were suddenly everywhere, encouraged by inaction from City Hall. Belated attempts to regulate and police them were struck down in court. Dispensaries opened, closed and opened again. Now it is, allegedly, prostitution, as self-described massage parlors have rapidly opened their doors within city limits, particularly in Eagle Rock and other northeastern neighborhoods of Los Angeles.