| Graphic: mrc.la |
| Compassion and common sense: a good combination in La Puente |
In an inspiring show of common sense, the La Puente, Calif., City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to allow six medical marijuana dispensaries to open.
The first pot shop in town, La Puente Medical Cannabis Center, opened two weeks ago. Employees there declined to comment, reports James Wagner at the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.
City officials appeared not to take very seriously the grandstanding tactics of pot-hating Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley. Media whore Cooley last month said he would prosecute medical marijuana shops — even those protected by city ordinances.
“If they sell it, it’s illegal,” Cooley’s spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons told the Daily Bulletin on Wednesday.
| Photo: Ross Berteig |
| Los Angeles County D.A. Steve Cooley: “Approximately zero” dispensaries are legal |
In a fit of pique, the petulant Cooley declared city councils “have no authority” to regulate dispensaries — which would certainly come as good news to patients and dispensary operators in the 120 California cities which have banned the pot shops.
Attention-starved Cooley grabbed headlines last month with his asinine pronouncement that “approximately zero” medical marijuana dispensaries in L.A. County were operating legally.
But appears increasingly unlikely that anyone, even law enforcement, continues to subscribe to Cooley’s frothing-at-the-mouth anti-dispensary crusade.
“The allowing of these facilities is not necessarily a challenge,” Sheriff’s Sgt. Hugo Macias said. “It is legal. We still patrol the streets the same. It’s like having any license.”
“In this whole debate, we can’t forget those who use this properly and use it as their last resort,” said Mayor Louie Lujan.
Over the past three months, five business licenses for dispensaries have been approved in La Puento, and one more application is pending. City officials say this is the reason the number of dispensaries in town was capped at six. Two of the pot shops are scheduled to open soon, the Daily Bulletin reports.
Under the city’s new ordinance, dispensaries are allowed to be open for business between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. A security guard — who can be armed — must patrol a two-block radius around each shop.
The ordinance will go into effect in January after a second reading.