LA City Attorney Fights To Close Marijuana Farmers Market
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer is trying to put a stop to the so-called "Farmers Market" for medical marijuana.
The California Heritage Market opened for the first time over July 4 weekend at West Coast Collective on Esperanza Street in Boyle Heights.
KCAL9's Randy Paige reports Feuer plans to ask a judge Tuesday to declare it illegal for card-carrying cannabis patients to meet directly with growers to purchase marijuana at the market, arguing it violates the terms of Proposition D.
The measure, passed by city voters in May 2013, specifically lists marijuana dispensaries that are allowed to conduct business in L.A.
"The voters of Prop. D never contemplated concentrating multiple businesses at one location," Feuer said. "We allege this is a marketing strategy designed to circumvent the letter and the spirit of Prop. D and it does, we allege, violate other city land use laws and we've argued creates a public nuisance."
The attorney representing Progressive Horizons, which operates a dispensary at the same location where the market was held and is on the list of allowable dispensaries under Prop. D, says the growers at the farmers market all work for the dispensary and are therefore not breaking the law.
"We're going to point out our client does not operate like an indoor swap meet as our city attorney purports that we do," he said.
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