L.A. County Wants To Ban Dispensaries In Unincorporated Areas
Joe | Jul 07, 2010 | Comments 0
It seems there is just too much medicine in Southern California. They are so overloaded with medicine, they just can’t handle anymore. First the city of Los Angeles shut down over 400 dispensaries. Then yesterday the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors moved to ban dispensaries in all unincorporated areas of the county; a swath that covers 1.5 million people.
The supervisors’ action directs county staff to prepare an ordinance to implement the ban. It first needs to be considered by the Regional Planning Commission and then by the Board of Supervisors, a process that could take at least three or four months.
Some supervisors are worried that more dispensaries are on the way, which they said could attract crime. Another factor was the city of Los Angeles’ recent aggressive push to shut down dispensaries that are illegal under a city ordinance that took effect four weeks ago, raising concern that dispensary owners would be searching for a new home.
“It leaves the unincorporated portion vulnerable,” said Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, author of the motion. The board, he said, needs to protect residents’ “safety and property values.”
This notion that medical marijuana dispensaries “attract” crime is ludicrous. What attracts crime is tying down your police force with marijuana plant search hiking adventures and having your Gang Division shutting down “illegal” dispensaries. If you want to protect residents’ safety, how about sending your officers and deputies on…patrol. It’s where they get in their cars and drive through neighborhoods, observing the area for signs of crime. Some even do it on motorcycles and bikes. They interact with their community, taking the “pulse” of the residents, finding out what’s going on and if anything is going down.
But instead these officers and deputies search out plants to pull and burn. They then blame crime on medical marijuana dispensaries. Well, I live near Cincinnati, and they have a ton of crime. Yet there is not a medical marijuana dispensary or collective within 500 miles.
Either the people of Southern California have been cured of all diseases and ailments, or medical marijuana patients are getting the shaft. I’m betting it’s the latter.
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