About 100 dispensaries previously threatened to shutdown may be allowed to stay open after the Los Angeles City Council tentatively relaxed medical marijuana regulations Wednesday. 



Marijuana (Creative Commons)

In an 8 to 3 vote, the council preliminary tweaked a rule that would have closed dispensaries for changing, even slightly, their ownership or management since 2007. A final vote will come next week.

The city’s medical marijuana ordinance, passed earlier this year, allowed those dispensaries that registered with the city under its original moratorium in 2007 to remain open if they met certain requirements, which included maintaining the same management and ownership.

In August, the city clerk determined merely 41 of the 169 dispensaries that applied under the ordinance would be allowed to stay open.

Most were disqualified due to management or ownership changes, a number that surprised many city officials.

“I think what we have here is a good ordinance,” said Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who along with Councilman Paul Koretz sponsored the change. “We have nowhere close to the 800 clinics to 1000 that we had at one point. We’ve brought that number down to more like 140. I think that makes sense for the city of Los Angeles.”

Cornerstone Research Collective in Eagle Rock was among a number of L.A. dispensaries threatened with closure.

Michael Backes, who is on the dispensary’s board, said Cornerstone was declared ineligible in August because the collective added two new managers since registering with the city three years ago.

“It’s not like we sold our collective to the Mexican cartels or something,” Backes said last week. “The thing about it is, we don’t want not to be regulated. We just want to be intelligently regulated.”

The new language will allow dispensaries to remain open if they are “still owned, in whole or in part, by at least one of the owners” identified in their original registration three years ago. 

Dispensaries may also remain open if their CEO, secretary or chief financial officer – as filed with the California Secretary of State – was identified as an owner in its original registration, as well as abiding by other requirements. Dispensaries would no longer be required to maintain the same management.

The council also extended the amount of time dispensaries have to conform with other regulations by 180 days, which include not operating within a 1,000-foot radius of a school, public park, public library or religious institution.

If the council passes the measure next week and the mayor signs it, the city clerk will review the denied applicants to determine who can stay open.

“Terrific,” said Backes, when asked Wednesday for his response to the council’s action. “This is one more step toward a reasonable ordinance.”

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