Backlash
The Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council recently decided to ask Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley and US Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate medical cannabis collectives in that neighborhood. The vote comes amid a renewed expansion in the number of collectives operating in the City of Los Angeles. The new proliferation includes collectives that closed after the city adopted a tough ordinance regulating the facilities last January and new players eager to exploit legal confusion in the state’s largest medical cannabis market.
The catalyst for the latest expansion in collectives is a Preliminary Injunction from Superior Court Judge Anthony J. Mohr blocking enforcement of portions of the city’s Medical Cannabis Ordinance. Some lawyers, advocates, and entrepreneurs see the injunction as a green light for new collectives. Their spirit of free enterprise notwithstanding, the perception that medical cannabis collectives are once again out of control in Los Angeles may have consequences reaching beyond hand-wringing by the neighborhood councils.
Anti-medical cannabis City Council Members have certainly taken notice. Council Members Bernard Parks and Jan Perry introduced a motion calling for an outright ban on medical cannabis collectives in the city on December 15. It is unlikely they have the votes to prevail yet, but sensational media coverage and public ambivalence could sway Council Members to abandon the slow, contentious work of regulating medical cannabis in favor of an easier option to ban collectives – a position City Attorney Carmen Trutanich has steadfastly supported. It has happened before. Critical media coverage and neighborhood complaints regarding collectives and the City Council’s apparent inability (or unwillingness) to regulate them helped steer the City Council away from sensible regulations in 2010 towards what is arguably the state’s toughest ordinance.
Medical cannabis advocates in Los Angeles and elsewhere ignore a backlash at patients’ peril. A simple analysis may conclude that more collectives mean more access. History teaches otherwise. The Cities of Oakland, San Francisco, Sacramento, West Hollywood, and others all adopted ordinances limiting the number of collectives following an artificial inflation in the number of facilities like the one we are seeing again in Los Angeles. These earlier proliferations did not lead to more collectives; they led to fewer. Those who have been involved in medical cannabis on the longer term remember the rise and fall of “Oaksterdam” all too well. “The-more-the-merrier” does not necessarily apply.
We must not doubt that the federal, state, and local backlash against medical cannabis is underway. Renewed DEA raids and more subtle interference from the Obama Administration raise doubts about the federal momentum towards reform. Consider increasing IRS audits of collectives, banks closing medical cannabis accounts en masse, the unanimous confirmation of anti-medical cannabis crusader Michele Leonhart to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the recent decision to deny a permit to grow medicine for medical research.
And here in California, Los Angeles, Orange, and Fresno Counties recently banned collectives outright – all on the same day! Supervisors in Riverside County abandoned plans to replace their existing ban with regulations. These bans come in concert with city bans, which continue to multiply in the void left by the incomplete decision in Qualified Patients Association v. City of Anaheim. We are also looking at a battle with more sophisticated opponents in Sacramento over legislation regarding patients’ rights, cultivation, distribution, and taxation. Medical cannabis foes will be working hard to fan the flames of sensational media and community concern – especially when it comes to the perception of unchecked proliferation.
There is a way to push back on the backlash. Americans for Safe Access (ASA) is making field development a priority this year. The goal is to train an army of effective citizen advocates to take up the mantle of safe access and bring the debate back to the patients’ needs. The nationwide “Activist Boot Camp” in February is one of the early efforts in this regard. The Greater Los Angeles Collective Alliance (GLACA) is pushing back locally by supporting sensible amendments to the city’s imperfect Medical Cannabis Ordinance and stepping up efforts to accredit legal collectives that uphold its safety and operational protocols.
Perhaps the most important thing patients and advocates can do right now is to let policy makers know that their constituents support safe access and sensible regulations – not bans. Lawmakers need to hear this at the local, state, and federal level now more than ever. If we can put the patients’ voices back at the fore front of the debate, we will reverse the backlash and keep moving forward.
