In what has to be one of the most short-sighted (and cravenly politically opportunistic) moves in some time, L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley and City Atty. Carmen Trutanich have decided that the way medical marijuana dispensaries distribute cannabis to their patients is illegal and violates state laws.

But what no one is pointing out is how this is simply a bid for Cooley and Trutanich to cynically further their political ambitions. You can’t expect to run for, let’s say, State Attorney General without the support of the police and correctional officers unions, both which are—no surprise here—extremely opposed to legal marijuana sales DESPITE WHAT THE VOTERS OF CALIFORNIA WANT, for the simple reason that it would increase law enforcement budgets if marijuana sales are prohibited.

Furthermore, since medical cannabis sales are taxed—and there is, of course, discussion in the California Legislature to further raise those taxes with special levies—why in the world, in the middle of the Great Recession, would anyone think it’s SMART to leave the tax receipts from California’s biggest cash crop on the table??

Trutanich and Cooley know fully well that the vast majority of the over 800 medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles county are reputable businesses who go out of their way to get along with and respect their neighbors. These establishments don’t harm anyone and they help a lot of people. The attorneys say they’re going after the “greedy” dispensaries, but why?

Just tax them you idiots!

From the Los Angeles Times:

At hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles, cash is changing hands, typically about $45 for an eighth of an ounce.

The dispensary owners call it a donation because state law requires their stores to operate as nonprofit collectives. But their critics—police, the district attorney and the newly elected city attorney—insist that it’s a sale and that marijuana sales remain illegal under state law.

The debate turns largely on the interpretation of one sentence in the law, but it touches on one of the biggest concerns about dispensaries in Los Angeles: that the rapid proliferation of stores is being driven by people who are hoping to profit from the so-called Green Rush and who are buying rather than growing much of their cannabis.

“The people who are simply trying to make a profit are the ones messing it up for those people that need it and those legitimate distributors who are trying to help people,” said L.A. City Councilman Dennis Zine.

Some officials challenge legality of over-the-counter medical marijuana sales

Grow Room photograph by Taryn Simon