Perhaps there's no greater metaphor for the differences between Orange County and L.A. proper than the way they deal with pot shops. The city of Los Angeles has been wrestling with regulating its out-of-control medical marijuana dispensaries since before a 2007 pot-shop ceiling that actually increased the number of cannabis retailers. O.C?

Get this: In Orange County the board of supervisors is actually studying ways to regulate pot retailers in the face of Prop. 19 — the marijuana legalization effort that has not even passed yet. In other words, as Los Angeles struggles to get weed sellers to comply with new regulations that put most of them out of business, O.C. is actually preparing for the next challenge.

The board of supervisors down there asked the county's lawyers to draw up a law that spells out how pot shops would be dealt with if Prop. 19 passes. The November initiative would allow the sale of marijuana to people 21-and-older in localities that will allow it. No doctor's note would be necessary.

Do you think the L.A. City Council is ready if Prop. 19 passes? Yeah, right.

So, to summarize, when it comes to getting homework done, L.A. is the kid in the back of the class who robs people after school. O.C. is the straight-A student … who smokes pot once in a while.

-With reporting from City News Service. Got news? Email us. Follow us on Twitter, too: @dennisjromero.

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