City Council: Dazed and Confused

A day after the city moved to shut down a exemption status loophole that allows all medical marijuana dispensaries to open and operate, the Los Angeles Times traces the history of that exemption status. Blame the City Council. "Some time last year, medical marijuana entrepreneurs discovered that the city attorney's office was not prosecuting dispensaries that had filed hardship applications, saying the City Council needed to rule on them first. The council has not acted on any of the applications." With a "roughly half a dozen applications [being] filed with the city clerk every day," City Councilman Ed Reyes now tells the paper he will hold hearings that'll likely result in legal action to shut the dispensaries down, but for now the cases are currently being handled by the Department of Building and Safety. The agency "has received about 200 complaints. It has issued about 80 orders to comply with the moratorium," according to the paper. Hmm, deja Clear Channel vu. [LA Times]