Medical marijuana advocates said Wednesday they have gathered enough
signatures to place a referendum before voters that would halt the
forced closure of dispensaries next week and overturn a ban on new pot
clinics in Los Angeles.
More
than 50,000 signatures were collected during the past several weeks,
after the City Council approved an ordinance that would shutter hundreds
of pot shops by Sept. 6.
The city clerk’s office has 15 calendar
days to verify the signatures as those of registered voters. If the
measure qualifies for the ballot next year, the ban would be immediately
suspended. The City Council also could rescind the ordinance.
"Because of the ban’s questionable future, the city ought to
reconsider its tough stance on enforcing the ban," said Don Duncan,
California’s director for Americans for Safe Access, the country’s
largest medical marijuana advocacy group.
The drive to eliminate the ban is the latest offensive by pot advocates to keep clinics open.
The
city has fumbled with its medical marijuana laws for years, trying to
provide safe and affordable access to the drug for legitimate patients
while addressing worries by neighborhood groups that streets were being
overrun by dispensaries and pot users.
The city ordinance outlaws
the sale of the drug in stores and limits the growing or sharing of the
drug to three people. City officials have been notifying dispensary
owners that they must shut down or be subjected to court action and a
$2,500 fine for every day they remain open past the deadline.
City
officials previously ordered the closure of pot shops, but the process
failed amid lawsuits and conflicting rulings by appellate courts.
The
Committee to Protect Patients and Neighborhoods collected signatures
during the past month, saying they needed at least 27,425 names of
qualified voters to get the issue on the ballot.
Advocates also
are pinning their hopes on a lawsuit filed by a medical marijuana trade
association, arguing the city ordinance violates state law guaranteeing
legal access to marijuana for medical reasons.
Even if
dispensaries remain open, the operations still could face action by the
federal government, which has been ordering stores to close around the
state for the past 10 months. Federal prosecutors recently filed three
lawsuits and sent warning letters to more than 60 clinics in Anaheim and
La Habra.
Marijuana remains illegal under federal law.
