The debate about medical marijuana has come to a new conclusion in the city of Los Angeles: We have too many dispensaries, and about 9 out of 10 of them will have to be shut down.

That's according to the results of the May election, which saw the victory of Measure D. It will only allow less than 135 pot shops, out of more than 1,000, to survive. But if medical doctors voted, they might have had something different to say. Docs like pot:

A show of hands of 1,446 MDs from 72 countries, including some from 56 states and provinces in North America, found that more than 3 out of 4 of them (76 percent) “favor of the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.”

So says a recent report in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Why are doctors — with the most favorable views coming from the United States, Mexico and Canada — more gung-ho about medical pot than the voters of L.A? The Journal:

Physicians in favor of medicinal marijuana often focused on our responsibility as caregivers to alleviate suffering. Many pointed out the known dangers of prescription narcotics, supported patient choice, or described personal experience with patients who benefited from the use of marijuana.

We'll smoke to that.

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