LA PLUM Committee - June 9 at 2:00 PM

The Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee will send recommendations to the City Council regarding permanent regulations for medical cannabis collectives/cooperatives in Los Angeles on Tuesday afternoon. The Council will then forward the recommendations, including any amendments, to the City Attorney’s office with instructions to write a new ordinance. That ordinance will come back to committee and the full City Council in time for a final vote on the permanent regulations, probably in August.

These are comments I sent to Chairman Reyes concerning the committee's recommendations:

Dear Chairman Reyes and PLUM Committee Members,

The Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee will consider regulations for medical cannabis dispensing collectives and cooperatives on Tuesday afternoon. Americans for Safe Access (ASA), the nation’s largest organization promoting safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic use and research, joins thousands of Angelinos in supporting sensible regulations. I am writing today to suggest some improvements to the recommendations you will send to the full City Council next week.

The continued proliferation of patients’ associations has generated some bad media and concern from neighborhood groups. Research conducted by ASA and our experience in cities and counties statewide show that regulations reduce crime and complaints around collectives and cooperatives. Many of the facilities in Los Angeles are committed to operating in a safe and legal manner, and have acted in good faith to abide by state and local law. It is my hope that the PLUM Committee will send recommendations to the City Council that work for patients and their primary caregivers who comprise the legally organized and operated medical cannabis collectives in the city.

Some important changes to consider making to your draft recommendations are:

Security Plan. Law enforcement input on the required Security Plan is prudent, but requiring approval from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) may be problematic. ASA recommends a process that includes objective standards for safety, which can be verified by the LAPD without requiring subjective evaluations.
Identify Patient-Cultivators. Legal collectives and cooperatives only receive medicine from their registered members and provide it to other members. This arrangement ensures a closed circuit of medicine, isolated from the illicit market. Requiring the patients association to disclose the names and addresses of members who supply medicine is unnecessary and places the patient-cultivator at undue legal risk from inappropriate law enforcement activity, rouge police officers, and federal interference.
Location Standards. The requirement that collectives and cooperatives are located 1,000 feet from a laundry list of sensitive uses is unnecessary and does not make a reasonable accommodation for legal patients associations. A more reasonable approach can be found in LAMC 12.70(c), which says that adult entertainment business can not be located “within 500 feet of a religious institution, school, or public park within the City of Los Angeles.” This is more than sufficient for the type of discreet, well regulated, and safe facilities anticipated by theses regulations.
Zoning Districts.  Collectives and cooperatives should be allowed in any commercial zoning district in which a pharmacy is allowed.
Not-for-Profit. Medical cannabis collectives and cooperatives can not receive recognition of tax-exempt status under the Internal Revenue Code, and state recognition of tax-exempt status is contingent on federal approval. Patients associations can, however, incorporate as nonprofit organizations (without tax exemption) and/or operate in a not-for-profit manner.

It is important that we make the recommendations the best we can before they go to the City Attorney’s office to be incorporated into a draft ordinance. ASA is committed to helping craft and promote sensible regulations, which facilitate safe access and protect the community at large. Thank you for your time and effort so far.

I look forward to working with you and your staff to discuss these modifications and other issues surrounding the regulations before the City Council meets on June 19. I will contact your office this week to make an appointment..

Sincerely,

Don Duncan
(323) 326-6347

For additional information:

What the California Attorney General’s Guidelines Mean for Medical Cannabis Dispensing Collectives in California
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=5561

Medical Cannabis Dispensing Collectives and Local Regulation
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.ph … p;type=280