[ShiningSkull]

One City's Insane Fight Against
Obama's Sane New Pot Policy

The administration has officially put a stop to crackdowns on the medical-marijuana business, but to hear the dispensers tell it, nothing's stopping Los Angeles from finding every last ridiculous loophole

By John H. Richardson

The way law-enforcement officials read the new Obama policy, nonprofit Los Angeles pot dispensaries like this one should turn into farming collectives that can't accept cash. "We are in the fight for our lives," one prominent shop owner tells Esquire.com.

Two years ago, in the throes of a Bush administration that disregarded states' rights whenever it felt like getting high on itself, there were fewer than two hundred medical-marijuana outlets in Los Angeles. Today, even the most conservative estimates say that number has quadrupled. On one stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard alone, four thriving pot shops estimate their tax payments at $4 million a year. Got an emergency radiation treatment and can't find the nearest store? There's an iPhone app for that.

With patient demand pushing dispensaries in several of the fourteen states that allow medical marijuana to expand their business, the Obama administration last week ordered the Justice Department to respect state laws and stop harassing them.

You would think, after our new president's ups and downs on what is ultimately the road to wholesale legalization, that calling off the pot bullies would be, by all accounts, A Good Thing. Hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of Americans have used the approved stuff, after all, whether as therapeutic medicine or therapeutic something else.

Trouble is, all this common sense seems to have fried the brains of the law-enforcement leaders in the City of Los Angeles. They've suddenly come up with a bizarre new interpretation of the law — that the requirement for pot dispensaries to be "nonprofit" actually means that they can't accept cash.

Yes, you read that right. This is how Deputy City Attorney David Berger put it: "We can still use state law to enforce, and we still believe that the only legal way to do that is to enforce against the selling of marijuana, as opposed to giving it away as a collective."

This has to be the first time in American history that the government is ordering its citizens to start collectivizing our farms.

The backwards logic was codified in the fourth version of a draft ordinance that City Attorney Carmen Trutanich submitted last Tuesday to the Los Angeles city council. Apparently a hard-core member of the Marxist-Leninist wing of the Republican party, Trutanich even argued that dispensary owners shouldn't use cash to pay for labor or fertilizer — that the voters of California actually intended for marijuana to be produced and dispensed, unlike all other drugs in the known universe, on a pure barter system. (This from the man who made Michael Jackson's funeral look like it switched from the Staples Center to Tammany Hall.)

Naturally, the government's marijuana bait-and-switch over the past eight days has producers and dispensers very upset. When I spoke with her late last week, Yamileth Bolanos, owner of a shop called PureLife Alternatives and president of an influential medical-marijuana trade group, summed up the general sentiment:

"They expect people who are sick and on chemotherapy to get up and farm their own crop? If you're not directly involved in growing the crop, you can't have any of it?"

Imagine the unintended consequences, Bolanos said. "They say there's between 250,000 and 300,000 medical marijuana patients in the city of Los Angeles, and we don't have wide-open spaces here where we can grow. That means every building in Los Angeles will be a grow site."

The draft ordinance is city's latest attempt to bring some kind of order to the explosion of pot stores, all of which have so far failed. Bolanos insists that she and the marijuana community want to be partners in this, helping to clean up the shady cannabis clubs that don't pay taxes or check prescriptions. "We've been screaming for regulation," she told me. "I've gone to the city council and said, 'Show us the rules. Tell us what to do, so we can provide for patients in a safe manner.' [But] the city let the situation get out of hand — they wouldn't give us regulations, so we made up our own regulations, we started accrediting clubs. We follow the rules very strictly, but what they're asking us to do now is impossible."

For example, the draft ordinance includes a clause saying you can't have a shop across an alley from a residential area. "That alone wipes us all out," Bolanos says. "Who doesn't have an alley behind a commercial property in Los Angeles? That's how the blocks were built — the outer block is commercial and there's residential behind it."

A true believer in medical marijuana, Bolanos began smoking when she was diagnosed with liver cancer. "I use cannabis every day — I have a new liver, I don't want to put any medicine in my body that will tax my liver. What are people supposed to do, go back to the streets? That's what they're doing: they're sending sick people out on the street to get their medication."

As a result, she has no sympathy for the argument that the government should just stop the charade and legalize pot altogether. "No, no, I am not for full legalization — this is medicine to me. There are real patients here. It's very sad that because of a few people who are abusing the system, the real patients have to suffer. What is the old line? Non-sinners pay for what sinners do?"

Despite all that, nobody really thinks this fight is about medicine. It's about the virtual legalization of drugs that is slowly but surely happening in California. Here's are some of the online reviews for a club in Reseda called Nature's Natural Collective Care, for example:

"They have a nice little smoke room where you can try your samples and they have a few water pipes, glass pipes, papers in there for you to use. I was asking about a certain strain and the guy busted out the Cannibible and gave me the low down on that strain. I like that type of service."

"They have over 60 strains at times all capped at $50 an 1/8th and no more than $400 an oz on the highest quality. With ounces ranging from like $180-$400. They even let you have free samples."

"Full O's are all sub $400 for great shit and the service here from the budtenders is beyond fantastic. Their knowledge and ability to work with you is amazing."

As the right-wingers warned from the beginning, medical marijuana is turning out to be the genie you can't stuff back in the bottle. Even if the L.A. city council's rushed vote comes down in favor of the Trutanich ordinance, it seems likely that the regulations will be overturned in the courts — which is exactly what happened with Trutanich's last attempt to shut down the clubs. The state attorney general has already gone on record saying — and reiterated to Esquire.com when we asked him for comment — that the law allows sales. In the end, this case of bureaucratic bullying — and others across the country as states come to terms with a (relatively) sane White House pot policy — will be just another pointless and expensive skirmish on the inevitable road to marijuana legalization.

But for now, the fight is on: One day after Trutanich submitted the draft ordinance, the LAPD raided Nature's Natural (NNCC.)

"We expect more," Bolanos says. "They told us there are going to be more. We are in the fight for our lives."


Read more: Obama Medical Marijuana Laws - California Laws on Medical Marijuana Dispensaries - Esquire

[BrattonBasher]

Yeah Yami! Esquire knew exactly who to interview for this. I have included in my letters to the council that the entire nation is watching, so thanks to Esquire for chiming in. Not so long ago months and months would go by without a single item about MJ in the news. Now everyday there are tons coming out.

[ShiningSkull]

Esquire Magazine gives big shout out to NNCC!!!!



Another sign of the times!

[ShiningSkull]

This is an affirmation, too:

The state attorney general has already gone on record saying — and reiterated to Esquire.com when we asked him for comment — that the law allows sales.

[cephas]

Makes me wish I still subscribed to Esquire.

Great article SS!


...Here is some trivia... Before founding Playboy, Hugh Hefner's first job was with Esquire...He stole most of the staff, and the basic idea to found his magazine...

OH yeah, and Leonardo Da Vinchi invented the ball bearing,...still being used today...were it not for him we literally would not have half the tech we do....all made possible with the little metal balls he invented....

[silvercloud]

Originally Posted by ShiningSkull

This is an affirmation, too:

The state attorney general has already gone on record saying — and reiterated to Esquire.com when we asked him for comment — that the law allows sales.

That's the ticket SS ,the whole bowl of wax (pun intended) is in Brown's hands now ~ if Holder will stop holding out and give the okiedokie to drop the hammer on Cooley/gang(Nuch) ,ya'll will see freedom "pronto" ~ that is all

[BrattonBasher]

Originally Posted by silvercloud

That's the ticket SS ,the whole bowl of wax (pun intended) is in Brown's hands now ~ if Holder will stop holding out and give the okiedokie to drop the hammer on Cooley/gang(Nuch) ,ya'll will see freedom "pronto" ~ that is all

The State Attorney General has exactly nothing to do with this L.A. city council action. If they ask him he will give his opinion. If they pass an ordinance that is unlawfull he could possibly intervene, but that is unlikely. And Holder has even less to do with this than Brown. People need to focus on our local politicians.

[ShiningSkull]

I agree about the focusing locally, BB

I'm just happy ole Jerry doesn't seem to be agin' us.

[BrattonBasher]

Originally Posted by ShiningSkull

I agree about the focusing locally, BB

I'm just happy ole Jerry doesn't seem to be agin' us.

LOL Jerry is looking old these days. I would not be unhappy if he wins again!

[ps-med]

I love nation-wide favorable coverage. LA is going to end up looking like a bunch of fools when the dust finally settles on this. Even San Diego is working on MMJ regulations and looks like those will be in place in the next couple of months, LA has "been working" on regulations for how many years now?

[BrattonBasher]

You are correct ps-med, this makes Trutanich look like a hemmoroid. And it is likely that the council will not want to follow him down the road to nowhere. Nuch can do his dog and pony show anytime it does not go against the will of the voters IMHO. In fact his style might be what the city needs, but he must be our servant, not our mommy.

[silvercloud]

Originally Posted by BrattonBasher

The State Attorney General has exactly nothing to do with this L.A. city council action. If they ask him he will give his opinion. If they pass an ordinance that is unlawfull he could possibly intervene, but that is unlikely. And Holder has even less to do with this than Brown. People need to focus on our local politicians.

One of the purposes of this forum is to accentuate facts and question hearsay ~ on one side you state that the State Attorney General has nothing to do w/LA city council action ,But you state if the council passes an ordinance which is unlawful ,then he can intervene (unlikely ,LOL) ~ soo ,which is it fence sitter ? ~ and as far as the Secretary Attorney General ,Eric Holder ,you can bet your sweet butt that he's got the power of leverage over Cali ~ isn't it time you got your nose out of your butt , and smell the java by now

[cephas]

Originally Posted by BrattonBasher

You are correct ps-med, this makes Trutanich look like a hemmoroid. And it is likely that the council will not want to follow him down the road to nowhere. Nuch can do his dog and pony show anytime it does not go against the will of the voters IMHO. In fact his style might be what the city needs, but he must be our servant, not our mommy.

That made me spit my water out.....

Completely agreed.

What I simply do not understand is how 2 of the highest legal offices in the county can be so oblivious to what the voters seem to want, and to what case law says....

It's like the double whammy of stupid.

[BrattonBasher]

Originally Posted by silvercloud

One of the purposes of this forum is to accentuate facts and question hearsay ~ on one side you state that the State Attorney General has nothing to do w/LA city council action ,But you state if the council passes an ordinance which is unlawful ,then he can intervene (unlikely ,LOL) ~ soo ,which is it fence sitter ? ~ and as far as the Secretary Attorney General ,Eric Holder ,you can bet your sweet butt that he's got the power of leverage over Cali ~ isn't it time you got your nose out of your butt , and smell the java by now

Education is great. I recommend some civics and government classes. Of course you need help in other areas as well, but it's a start. Maybe some lessons on manners would help. Good luck!

[E.T.]

From out here this Trutanich fellow with his red star logo is a commie general in disguise. Boot this communist thug out of power before he turns L.A. into a commie military paradise.

[silvercloud]

Originally Posted by BrattonBasher

Education is great. I recommend some civics and government classes. Of course you need help in other areas as well, but it's a start. Maybe some lessons on manners would help. Good luck!

Can't see myself taking any advice from a worn out trumpeteer ~ are civics/government your only forte` ?!? ~ it sure sounds like a narrow-minded analysis from someone that admits to embrace sarcasm at every junction , ~ BTW ,you know what you can w/your GoodLuck ! ~ that is all

[wallawalla]

Damn!!

[Mindfury]

Cant we all just smoke a bong?

the la govt will implode very soon, the gov will have to step up.

[silvercloud]

Originally Posted by Mindfury

Cant we all just smoke a bong?

the la govt will implode very soon, the gov will have to step up.

Got that RIGHT ! ~ that is all

[mrwhite89]

Originally Posted by ShiningSkull

This is an affirmation, too:

The state attorney general has already gone on record saying — and reiterated to Esquire.com when we asked him for comment — that the law allows sales.

The absolute stupidity of some of our elected officials amazes me. It shouldn't, but it still does. Think of all the money, time, effort and chaos that will be wasted because Trutanich thinks he can bully his way to a solution. I'm so fucking sick of this shit. I JUST WANT TO BUY MY MEDICINE PEACEFULLY, TAKE IT HOME AND SMOKE IT IN PRIVACY!

The thing is, Trutanich isn't stupid. The guy is obviously a highly educated and successful attorney. He's got to see that we are on the path to outright legalization in this State. Dispensaries provide quality cannabis in a safe environment. We are making a huge dent in the Mexican Cartels #1 cash crop by growing our own legally. Why can't he see this?

[VooDoo Chile]

Originally Posted by E.T.

From out here this Trutanich fellow with his red star logo is a commie general in disguise. Boot this communist thug out of power before he turns L.A. into a commie military paradise.

[VooDoo Chile]

Originally Posted by cephas

That made me spit my water out.....

Completely agreed.

What I simply do not understand is how 2 of the highest legal offices in the county can be so oblivious to what the voters seem to want, and to what case law says....

It's like the double whammy of stupid.

LOL Stay Tuned! Next week they're headed for: The Holy Grail of Stupid!

[cannadyke]

thanks for posting the article!

hopefully w/ all the added attention, the city council will realize that the entire country is watching them. this is a really big deal and they need to come up w/ some fair regulations. this issue will not go away. they allowed this to blow up in their face, they should step up to the plate and deliver a workable solution.

[dwynn8822]

Originally Posted by cannadyke

thanks for posting the article!

hopefully w/ all the added attention, the city council will realize that the entire country is watching them. this is a really big deal and they need to come up w/ some fair regulations. this issue will not go away. they allowed this to blow up in their face, they should step up to the plate and deliver a workable solution.

This article was Okay in my opinion, but the "Reviews" of nncc patients talking about over 60 strains and so on, but what really got my attention was them talking about "Free" samples,(Now i worked here for a year) and i have nothing against it BUT, is that what we want representing our community ? Patients talking about a cornacopia of strains and "Free Samples"? I mean a reg Dr doesn't allow us to try vicodine, or perc's to see if we like it before we leave. Just some food for thought, Peace .......... Dale!

[Col. Kif]

:Reposted for this thread:

"The state attorney general has already gone on record saying — and reiterated to Esquire.com when we asked him for comment — that the law allows sales."

I must then ask why are these Attorney's jackboots still on our necks?

Please Defend us from these Rogue D.A & C.A (Trutanich & Cooley) !?!

Mr. Mayor? Mr. Governor? Mr. Attorney General?

No taxation without representation?