The commerce committee, chaired by Errol Santos, the only Fil-Am member of the Neighborhood Council, voted unanimously to recommend disapproving the medical marijuana providers’ request to get of their hardship status to fully licensed dispensary status. The vote was made after more than twenty Panorama city residents, police officers, dispensary owners and their legal counsel, voiced their opinions during a public meeting held at the Goldilocks Restaurant located inside the Island Pacific Supermarket in this community.
LAPD officer Karen Reade, whose beat is in this community, said that in her area alone, there are three medical marijuana dispensaries, and they have become magnets for criminal activity. "In my area, there are two dispensaries that are fifty feet apart. These dispensaries have been targets of burglaries," Officer Reade testified.
She said that the LAPD does not have anything against legal medical marijuana dispensaries. "We are only concerned about public safety," Reade attested. "When it increases crimes, obviously, I am against it. If there is anything that increases crime in this community, in the city of Los Angeles, we oppose it."
Commerce committee chair and PNPC board member Santos said that medical marijuana stores are currently unregulated, and many are operating under "hardship exemptions" from a city moratorium on new stores of this type. Of particular concern is Panorama Providers, a store located at 13807 Roscoe Blvd, Panorama City, which recently opened with 1056 feet away from Saint Genevieve High School, according to Santos. There is also a cluster of three medical marijuana stores on Woodman Avenue, just a short distance to the north.
The five-member commerce committee decided to make a recommendation, even though the public meeting was originally planned to just accept the public’s comment on the issue, and to make recommendation for action by the PNPC, which is headed by Tony Wilkinson. The LA City Council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee is currently reviewing all of the "hardship exemptions for stores that have been filed.
"The chair, Tony Wilkinson, initially said that it was enough to have the community voice their opinion," said Santos. "But now, the members of the commerce committee opted to make a recommendation," Santos announced. "The committee members made a motion to make a recommendation, which was voted unanimously." As chair of the committee, Santos abstained from voting.
( Published on September 16, 2009 in Asian Journal Los Angeles p. B6 )
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