Testing It Up

Sixty illegal medical marijuana dispensaries have been ordered closed by Los Angeles city officials, according to a feature on the Los Angeles Times.

The letters to these stores were sent out two weeks after orders went out to operators and landlords of 141 pot shops to close down. The letters carry warnings that violators could be sued, and that the city could seek financial penalties and “padlock the property.”

City employees checked each of the stores that were notified recently to ensure that these businesses were indeed open, according to Asha Greenberg, the assistant city attorney overseeing the enforcement efforts. She shared further that the office was unclear about these locations, and that it has not yet found out if all the stores are selling marijuana.

The letters that were sent out asked for a response, and so far, the city attorney’s office has received information on two dozen locations, according to Greenberg. Eleven dispensaries are already closed. Six stores were going to be closed by their owners, while six were still open. One store has denied that it was a medical marijuana dispensary.

If the suspected dispensaries that received notification letters do not close, the city attorney’s office will work with the police department in the gathering of evidence for use in court proceedings, so that these stores could be shut down.

The dispensaries that received notifications were those that did not register for a lottery that would choose 100 dispensaries that will be allowed to operate. Los Angeles received 228 such applications.

Los Angeles Drug Screening

Stepping up its drive to close pot shops, the Los Angeles city attorney’s office has notified operators of 140 medical marijuana dispensaries that they must close immediately.

The office sent letters to the concerned dispensaries whose owners  did not file applications by the February 18 deadline to participate in a lottery to choose 100 shops that will operate in the city. The office received 228 applications, which are being reviewed to make sure they meet qualifications. One of the requisites is having been operational since September 14, 2007.

Assistant city attorney Asha Greenberg has warned that violators could be sued and could face penalties. LAPD will also investigate the shops that don’t follow the order immediately.

If the announcement of the city officials of Los Angeles is to be upheld, there will only be 41 marijuana dispensaries left in the city – but dispensaries deemed ineligible are not taking the ruling sitting down.

According to a report on the Los Angeles Times, there are only 41 medical marijuana dispensaries that were found to be eligible to stay in business under the city’s ordinance. The number, however, is so low that the process will reportedly be suspended, pending the ruling of a judge that it is legal. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge will be asked by the city attorney’s office to decide if the process being followed by the city is suitable.

PureLife Alternative Wellness Center is one of the dispensaries that have been found to be ineligible to continue its operations. The ruling did not sit well with Yamileth Bolanos, who runs PureLife: “I’m not going to take this lying down… This is ridiculous. They have screwed up one thing after another. Not once have they thought about the patients of Los Angeles.”

As of this time, there are almost thirty lawsuits from an estimated 85 dispensaries that are challenging the procedure that Los Angeles is following, which aims to limit the number of dispensaries. The dispensaries who filed the lawsuits are among the more than 400 dispensaries that have been shut down since the city adopted the process in January.

Los Angeles sought to trim down dispensaries operating in the city after it saw an increase in the number of dispensaries after failing to implement a moratorium that was put in place in 2007.

Los Angeles Health Screening