Following the concerns expressed by Superior Court Judge Anthony Mohr, who recently ruled that some portions of the city’s ordinance were unconstitutional, the Los Angeles City Council has unanimously voted to revise their strict ordinance.
This is a huge win for medical cannabis patients who were finding their locations dwindling daily, just to see them flourish again upon the judge’s ruling last year, but lacking the oversight they hoped would be in place by now.
Many cities delayed dealing with medical marijuana policy because they were waiting to see the outcome of Prop 19, which would have not affected the medical law one bit, but many politicians were unaware of that fact. Now they find themselves scratching their heads trying to figure out how to create a proper policy that protects the patients and their rights.
Last year, hundreds of collectives that were dispensing cannabis were forced to close after city officials approved the previous ordinance.
Included in the law’s revisions would be a to create a lottery that would select 100 collectives which opened before a September 2007 moratorium which, owners argue ‘would unfairly allow some shops which don’t follow state law to remain in business,’ according to the Associate Press.
Long Beach had tried that and ran into difficulties every step of the way, and continue to change things in their own ordinance this same week.