Speaking out against the Los Angeles County City Council’s rejection of a proposed ban on over-the-counter medical marijuana sales, Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley stated that he will follow through with plans to prosecute medical marijuana dispensary owners who are selling marijuana.
The District Attorney’s announcement comes just a day after two city council committees rejecting the advice of Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich proposing that they adopt a provision in the city ordinance banning over-the-counter sales of medical marijuana. Trutanich believes that over-the-counter medical marijuana sales are illegal under current state law and court decisions and that medical marijuana dispensary owners are only shielded from prosecution for the marijuana they grow.
Nonetheless, the Los Angeles City Council rejected Trutanich’s position and, instead, adopted a city ordinance allowing for over-the-counter cash sales of medical marijuana sales as long as they are in compliance with state law.
Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley believes the city council got it wrong. Cooley stated:
“Undermining those laws via their ordinance powers is counterproductive, and, quite frankly, we’re ignoring them. They are absolutely so irrelevant it’s not funny.”
Cooley, like Trutanich, believes that state law and state court decisions do not authorize medical marijuana dispensaries to engage in the sale of marijuana.
Cooley stated that he decided to issue a statement today because he is irritated that the city council ignored the advice of its lawyer, Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich. Cooley’s statement may also be an attempt to influence the city council which set to reconsider the ordinance on Wednesday.
Finally, Steve Cooley reiterated that he believes most, if not all, of the Los Angeles medical marijuana dispensaries are operating in violation of state law and that his office is already in the process of prosecuting them. The Los Angeles District Attorney also promised that he would step up the prosecution of medical marijuana dispensary owners beginning next month.
City Councilman Ed Reyes has just issued a statement about the city councils position on medical marijuana sales and Cooley’s statement. Councilman Reyes said about Cooley:
“This is not about Cooley versus Reyes, or Cooley versus the council. This is about the quality of life. We all have better things to do than to do this legal jousting.”
On the issue of medical marijuana sales, Reyes had this to say:
“We’ll let the courts decide. We are trying our very best to work with a system that is very vague at this moment.”
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