L.A. is trying to weed out pot sellers

Hundreds are selling medical marijuana in the city. The council is looking
for a way to reduce the number.

By John Hoeffel
June 28, 2009

A city inspector dropped by the Bulldog Cafe Collective on Melrose Avenue
last week to see if it was still in business. It was. Inside the spare,
modern interior, dusky green marijuana buds were still displayed in plastic
jars. An owner who is often at the store tweezed whimsically named strains
into small vials for customers.

The store near Hancock Park is among the first 14 medical marijuana
dispensaries targeted for extinction by a City Council chagrined that it
allowed hundreds to open in Los Angeles despite a 21-month-old moratorium.

The inspections start the process to shut them down. At least one, in
Atwater Village, has already closed. But others remain open, weighing their
legal options.

City officials plan to decide this week on the next enforcement step.

On Monday, the council will accelerate its drive to roll back the number of
dispensaries, holding hearings on 29 more. "We were trying to factor in a
significant number so that we can make some headway," said Councilman Ed
Reyes, the chairman of the planning committee. "I thought we were going too
slow."

As the council embarks on this effort, it faces some obstacles.

The task is herculean, requiring hearings that could easily tie up the
planning committee for hundreds of hours. The hearings have been rocky, as
council members have struggled with complicated issues and dispensary
operators have complained that they were being railroaded. And, if
dispensaries refuse to buckle, the city could face costly court battles.

One of the Bulldog Cafe's owners, Anthony Folsom, said the rush to close
dispensaries would hurt responsible businessmen and Los Angeles. "The city
seems to be caving to political pressure," he said. "People who are in it
for the right reason are going to get out, and what they are going to be
left with is drug dealers."

The council wound up in this situation because it failed to act on
dispensaries' applications for hardship exemptions from the moratorium. That
inaction, which lasted almost 17 months, encouraged dispensaries to open;
the city attorney's office had decided it could not take dispensaries to
court until the council denied their applications.

In the last few months, applications poured in.

On June 9, when the council voted to stop accepting them, there were about
550. The decision did not become effective until Tuesday. By then, the total
had hit 883.

"That's a huge number," Reyes said. "Thank God we stopped it."

The moratorium does not spell out what qualifies a dispensary for a hardship
exemption, and the city attorney's office has advised the council only that
its decisions must be fair and rational.

That vague advice led Councilman Richard Alarcon to warn recently that the
city could find itself snarled in lawsuits. "This is a very dangerous road
we're going down," he said. "It's going to cost us a ton of money."

Reyes has held just two hearings so far, on the Bulldog Cafe and New Age
Wellness, a dispensary that has not yet opened in Venice. They were marked
by awkward moments. Council aides presented some inaccurate and unverified
information, and Reyes tried to silence the dispensaries' attorneys when
they responded to it.

At one point, Stewart Richlin, the attorney for New Age Wellness, leaped up
and cried out, "I'd like to challenge that. That's hearsay within hearsay."
He kept interrupting until he made his point, which turned out to be
correct.

Richlin and medical marijuana advocates were disturbed that Reyes allowed
most speakers just one minute.

"Gee, why should they give a full minute?" Richlin said recently. "What if
they gave 10 seconds or two seconds? Then you could give your name, and they
could say, 'Guilty, death sentence.' I mean this is a kangaroo court.' "

Reyes made no apologies for the procedures. "It's not a debate. It's a
hearing," he said. "If it was a debate, I would never finish an item."

The council's decision to reject the applications from the Bulldog Cafe and
New Age Wellness suggests it is unlikely to grant many exemptions.

The Bulldog Cafe, which originally opened in North Hollywood, was one of 186
dispensaries that met all of the city's requirements to operate during the
moratorium. But its owners say they were forced to move by their landlord,
who received a letter from the Drug Enforcement Administration that
threatened the landlord with felony charges.

The move required them to get a hardship exemption from the City Council to
be allowed to open in a different location.

"This, I think, is the classic hardship case," said Thomas J. Gray, the
Bulldog Cafe's attorney.

Many of the city's legal dispensaries, possibly more than 50, filed similar
applications when their landlords evicted them after receiving DEA letters.
The council appears disinclined to give the letters much weight.

That dismays medical marijuana advocates who believe these dispensaries
followed the rules. "I don't understand why the city is going to be hostile
with them," said Degé Coutee, who runs the Patient Advocacy Network.

In denying the Bulldog Cafe's application, Reyes noted that the store had
moved into the same block as the John C. Fremont library, calling that "an
overwhelming factor."

Cindy Chvatal, head of the Hancock Park Homeowners Assn., said many parents
whose children use the library and a nearby preschool have complained to her
about the dispensary's location.

The city has not adopted an ordinance to control dispensaries and has no
restrictions on where they can operate. But, Reyes said, "we have enough
common sense to know what we want and don't want."

The council is considering a proposal to keep them 1,000 feet from libraries
and other places children frequent.

New Age Wellness claimed as its hardship that it could not open before the
moratorium because of uncertainty caused by federal raids and confusion over
the city's proposed rules.

Its owners also said they are veteran healthcare professionals. They said
that they worked with city officials to plan their store on Rose Avenue so
it would comply with any future ordinance and that they have spent at least
$108,000.

"We have a lot at stake to lose," said Curt Moore, one of the owners.

But its location also sparked concerns. Neighbors were already irritated by
a nearby dispensary.

Whitney Blumenfeld, an aide to Councilman Bill Rosendahl, whose district
includes Venice, urged the council to reject the "build it first and ask for
forgiveness later" approach.

john.hoeffel@latimes.com