Front Page  »  

High court zones out pot stores

May 7, 2013

potCities and counties in California can use zoning restrictions to scotch medical marijuana dispensaries, the state’s supreme court ruled Monday. (Los Angeles Times)

The decision reaffirms prohibitions now in place in about 200 California cities, officials of which have sought to ban the store-front establishments outright, rather than try to accommodate and regulate them.

A case originating in the city of Riverside — which has shut down more than 56 dispensaries since 2009 — was the basis for the court decision.

There has been little effort on the part of state officials to manage medical marijuana and the cottage industries that surround it. Now, attorneys who argued before the high court on the zoning question agree that  the next move is up to the Legislature.

Court observers said the decision also appeared to signal the court’s acceptance of the reality of dispensaries, although no specific ruling on the legality of retail sales of pot was incorporated.

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) is sponsoring a bill to regulate medical pot with a new state agency.


Loading...
Subjects:                 
Related:


12 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Big Deal… Home Delivery is easier and much more convenient. Remember the moonshine runners? Stupid decisions like this one will only bring more panga boats to our beaches and make bad guys from south of the border wealthier. Maybe they have a lobbyest in the state house.


0

Are you f-ing kidding me?! In the ‘Land of the Free & Home of the Brave’ this is still an issue?


Screw Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) – we don’t need yet another governmental regulatory agency. if I want to grow, smoke, drink, eat or in any other way ingest anything I want for whatever (or no) reason it’s none of his (or Ted Slanders’ or THE LORD’S) business!!!! (Sorry Ted, I’m not a believer in the rather childish fairy tales in which you’ve apparently chosen to believe.)


If I’m driving while under the influence? Fine…. Lay down the law.


If I’m in my own house minding my own business? F-off!


0

photocal,


Jesus is smiling.


0

One day a couple of years ago before I decided to eat mj my wife said to me that I was acting weird when ever I took Vicadin. I had been taking it for seven years. Not the real strong one because the weaker one did help to alleviate the back pain. I told I do? I will quit then. That day I stopped taking it any other pain pill prescribed. No problem quitting at all. Couple of weeks later my grandaughter told me how pot helps with pain. I tried it and found that the relaxing effect helped my back.


I’m 69 and don’t really care who thinks I am an addict. I’m relaxed and refused an operation on my back years ago. Pain is pretty much gone also.


Pot has been a lifesaver to me. I do stop taking it every month or so just to keep my system cleaned up. My cardiologist tells me its okay to smoke it but I prefer eating it. I quit smoking a few years ago after smoking 54 years 4 and 5 packs a day. Quit in a second with no problems. Just decided I had had enough. I really loved smoking but it’s too expensive. I usually try to find the guy or gal in the crowd that smokes then stand next to them and ask that they blow the smoke toward me. The smell is a gift to me. I’m done with it though.


My wife still smokes and I have tried many times to get her to smoke in the house but she refuses to. I really think she is afraid I will start up again. Not happening. But that’s sweet of her anyway.


God Bless


0

I was in Long Beach recently and found a pot store almost on every block. Some blocks had two or three stores. Also San Bernadino had a pot shop every mile or so. Prices in both areas were competitive. You walk in and they never fail to give you something for free. A joint, or piece of fudge.

Bought some fudge in Bakersfield from a pot shop no problem at all. There were about twenty-five dispensary’s in a small area.


Thank God I get around some or I’d have to grow my own which I may do anyway. Medicine of this nature cuts into the budget.


God Bless


0

Screw the state, screw Uncle Sam, too. I prefer getting my weed on the black market from my neighbor and to hell with paying a stupid tax.

BTW, if you want to know why alcohol and tobacco, are legal, I’ll spell it out for you with one word — TAXES.

The government is raking in untold billions in taxes with these substances in a myriad of ways (sales tax, excise taxes, export/import taxes, stamps, fines/fees, etc…) so the chance of any of those substances being banned is zilch.

For crying out loud, Obama taxes cigarettes to pay for children’s welfare health care, do you think he wants to see cigs banned?

And with prescription meds, which by the way are the No. 1 drug being abused by teenagers today, again there is far too much money involved.

In my opinion, the reason they won’t legalize pot is because there is no way they’d be able to control and tax it. Why pay for weed when all you need is seed, soil, sun and water and you can grow your own?

They won’t legalize it because they can’t control it. That’s my red-eyed opinion.

Frankly, I hope they never do legalize it. The costs will soar through the roof if and when they do.


0

What if this statement read the following;


“The unanimous decision provided clarity for cities and counties that want to rid themselves of alcohol, prescription drugs, and cigarette outlets which have sprouted up statewide since they were made legal in the United States, even though these entities have been regulated.”


WAIT, these tangibles have been regulated quite well over the years, but why is it impossible to regulate Medical Marijuana outlets in the same way?


If we truly feel that marijuana is so harmful and has such a bad stigma in a community so that these Medical Marijuana dispensaries should be outright removed, then when are we going to remove the tobacco outlets where cigarettes have killed 393,600 people, or 0.6 percent of the 56.8 million current smokers last year?


Wait a minute, an average of 80,000 deaths per year are attributed to alcohol in the United States. Along with police forces taking the time to give DUI’s, and the accidents caused by alcohol, the public drunken behavior, etc., then when are we going to ban alcohol outlets and make it as tough on them to conduct business in any city? Isn’t these FACTS even a greater stigma to a community?


I forgot, what about those damn legal Drug Stores, you know, CVC, Walgreens, etc., where they sell Vicodin, OxyContin, Percocet, and a myriad of other concoctions that are detrimental not only to the their users, but the public as well when the user abuses said drugs. Barring the fact of “doctor shopping” to obtain even more of a particular drug, it is proven in how dangerous these drugs can be to the human body and the alertness of the person using them, which is detrimental to the public in general. Therefore, why aren’t we making it tough for these business’ to conduct business in the same vein as the Medical Marijuana outlets?


Alcohol can be very harmful, along with prescription drugs and cigarettes, but our society is able to mitigate these dangers through better regulation and better education. A vast majority of Americans use the aforementioned entities, and a vast majority of us do so responsibly. The same goes for marijuana. Keeping marijuana illegal and throwing road blocks in front of the Medical marijuana Dispensaries, while tolerating alcohol, prescription drugs and tobacco, means that our substance laws are inconsistent, arbitrary, and based not on reason, but on subjective emotion. It’s truly pathetic and backward thinking to say the least.


Yeah, it makes Jesus sick since His father has given us marijuana to begin with, but at the same time, the TRUE Christian cannot use it in any way since it’s illegal, and being so, Christians are under a moral law to follow the governing authorities to submit to every human institution. (Romans 13:1-2)


Sorry Christians, only the hell bound atheists and nonbelievers of your particular faith can use Mary Jane for medical or recreational reasons. You’ll just have to stick to those harmful prescription drugs for your maladies.


0

I don’t always agree with you Ted but MAN you hit this SPOT ON!!! It is a WASTE of our time and money going after MJ. Legalize it NOW and let’s move on to other important issues. This obsession the Gov’t has with pot smokers is ludicrous.


0

Stop the “Drug War” now!


0

After reading the readers comments on this story, My long time suspicions are confirmed……. The majority of the readers are pot heads……… Who did not have much effect in the last general election. Some great ideas, thoughts, ect: but really NO change. Sad… but true.


0

Well…. Sorry…. Except for Ted Slanders doing the Lords work.


0

MJ is just a medicinal herb. What’s the big deal over medicinal herb?


0