Dispensaries all over Los Angeles are getting letters this week from the city telling them they have until September 6th to close their doors, or face legal action after the city council approved a total ban on dispensaries last month.

Dispensaries owners who fail to comply face up to 6 months in jail and a fine of $2,500 for every day they are open past the deadline.

Dispensary owner Yamileth Bolanos, who heads the Greater Los Angeles Collectives Alliance, said she hadn’t gotten the letter yet. But she was defiant: “I’m not shutting down.”

Bolanos, who believes the city could have come up with a workable policy that would limit the number of dispensaries while also ensuring patients have access to the drug, said her group’s current focus is on collecting signatures for a voter referendum to overturn the ban.

The process of getting signatures has already begun, according to Don Duncan, California director for Americans for Safe Access. He said about 27,500 people must sign the petition for the referendum — or one-tenth of the voters who participated in the last mayoral election.

For more information on the petition or to be trained to gather signatures, you can attend is a LA-ASA meeting between 1:00 and 3:00 PM on August 18th in the Community Room (#152) at the West Hollywood Gateway Mall located at 7100 Santa Monica Blvd. (at La Brea Ave.) in West Hollywood, CA 90046.

If you live in L.A. and care about medical marijuana access, the time to act in now.

- Joe Klare

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