Medical Marijuana Patients To Protest Potential Ordinance Shutting Down Dispensaries
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Terminally and seriously ill medical marijuana patients will gather on the steps of City Hall Thursday to protest ahead of a City Council meeting that could shut down pot dispensaries.
The Public Safety Committee meeting, planned for 8 a.m. Friday, will consider a preliminary ordinance to either ban medicinal cannabis dispensaries completely or allow a little over 100 to continue to operate.
The ordinance "would ban medical marijuana businesses, which include any location where marijuana is cultivated, processed, distributed, delivered or given away," according to the city clerk's office.
The four exceptions to the ordinance include marijuana co-ops, hospices or licensed clinics, care-giver locations and vehicles that are used to distribute the drug to patients.
There are approximately 100 licenses dispensaries still operating in the city. These shops were permitted to open prior to the establishment of the Interim Control Ordinance in 2007, which established a moratorium on new dispensaries.
Protestors say the new ordinance is too limiting to patients who use the drug for medical reasons.
The protest is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Thursday.
