Medical Pot Activists Seek to Overturn LA Dispensary Ban

By admin on August 26, 2012

With the total extinction of medical marijuana dispensaries looming, Los Angeles medical pot patients and providers have gone on the offensive in the ongoing skirmish in the wake of the L.A. City Council’s recent dispensary ban by gathering signatures and filing a lawsuit.

The ordinance became law on August 1 when signed by L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and is scheduled to take effect on Thursday September 6.

The medicinal cannabis activist group Americans for Safe Access is in the process of gathering the required 27,425 signatures of registered voters by September 21 in order to place a voter referendum on the March 5, 2013 ballot that, if passed, would immediately overturn the dispensary ban.

Some dispensary owners have pledged to continue operating even though they face imprisonment and fines of up to $ 2,500 every day they continue to provide medicine.

The effort to ban the ban is also being taken to the courtroom. On Friday the activist organization Patient Care Alliance of Los Angeles filed suit on behalf of over 300 dispensaries in L.A Superior Court. The organization is seeking an injunction to immediately halt enforcement of the September 6 shutdown.

However, the Sept 6 ban will likely be in effect by the time the injunction is heard in approximately four to six weeks. In the meantime, pot patients are holding out hope the city won’t be able to immediately enforce the ban because of the sheer number of dispensaries in L.A., as well as individual dispensaries filing restraining orders in court to prevent the city from shutting down their businesses.

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