Thought I'd post a follow-up. A judge declared the City's previously referenced moratorium illegal. The City relied upon the flawed advice of City Attorney Carmen Trutanich who got thrown out of court on his behind as expected.

If you are angry about the chaos the City has been thrust into, blame Trutanich.

Now this legal eagle is giving new advice that all dispensaries are illegal.

Lawyers are lining up once again.

Whose behind do you think will once again be thrown out of court?

Time for reasonable regulation like the City of West Hollywood has adopted.

There are no safety or crime problems with dispensaries in WeHo (where there is an ordinance). The problems are all in LA (where there is NO ordinance). Coincidence? I think not.

I live off Melrose and I've watched who comes and goes from the marajuana houses and it's not sick people. It's a scam. Shame on our city officials.

Life is not easy and expensive in Los Angeles. I'm really tired of having to deal with scum-bag criminals, gang members, drugies and rapists. We need to change the law in this country and especially this city. One violent preditorial crime and you're in jail for life, no possibility of parol. Period. And that means a six by six cell -- no tv, no nothing from the tax payer. Either that, or allow the population to take care of the scum-bags ourselves.

I agree with the above comment when it says that LA has done a very poor job putting in place regulations for medical marijuana. However this comment is just plain wrong when it says that all of the marijuana stores are now legal. Most of these stores sell pot, and hide behind the excuse that it's medical marijuana. But SELLING marijuana is illegal for any reason, including medical reasons. Real medical marijuana patients are supposed to either grow their own pot, or get it from non-profit collectives that they have joined and actively participate in. Any store that SELLS pot is by definition an illegal enterprise, and should be shut down immediately. Considering the amount of crime connected to these stores in our neighborhood (3 armed robberies in just the past few months), we need for all of them to be shut down. Those are the regulations we need to demand that City Council adopt.

You've missed the back story.

The City's moratorium officially ended Sept 15. In the absence of city regulation, every medical marijuana dispensary operating in the City of LA is now legal, regardless of prior operation or hardship history.

According to state law, cities may only enact emergency moratoria for no more than 2 years. The rationle of state legislators is that 2 years is plenty of time for a jurisdiction to put regulations into place.

The City of LA has taken a rather lone view that it, alone among cities in the state, is able to extend a moratorium for longer than 2 years. The city, when asked, manipulates the facts and plays fast and loose with dates in an effort to extend the moratoria longer than allowed.

But attorneys are lining up to sue and the city has no legal leg to stand on. If you thought billboard regulation was a joke, city dispensary regulation has become a farce.

This has exposed the city to enormous legal liability and opened the floodgates to flagrantly irresponsible dispensary operators. This has made it doubly difficult for responsible operators who are being tainted by the illegal activities of the bad operators.

We need to demand the City Council enact reasonable regulations ASAP. They have had 2 years and have so far failed. They can enact reasonable land use regulations and respect Prop 215 at the same time. Many other cities like West Hollywood have been able to adopt regulations; why can't LA? We expect LA to be a leader not a laggard.