Dennis RomeroOne of the more farcical aspects of medical marijuana in Los Angeles is the flouting of state law, which says pot shops must be nonprofit.
A recent SoCal Connected report estimated that one Eagle Rock pot shop (American Eagle Collective) saw one customer a minute as its cameras rolled during a daylong time-lapse shoot.
It's open on weekdays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. SoCal Connected described its busy parking lot scene as looking “like McDonald's at lunchtime.”
We'll take the Happy Meal, BTW.
So let's assume that each one of those 600 customers that day was getting an average “dose,” let's say a $50 “eighth” of weed (we checked pot shop prices by flipping through our handy-dandy hardcopy of LA Weekly) and not a three-figure ounce or $30 bucks worth of “shake.”
That's could be $30,000 day for AEC, conservatively. We're sure the local nuns are enjoying their cut.
So, getting back to state law: This is a nonprofit collective distributing homegrown cannabis among members who are “seriously ill?” Yeah, right.
So, here's the deal. San Francisco Assemblyman Tom Ammiano wants to propose an “omnibus cannabis bill” to better oversee the medical pot industry.
Don't worry, L.A. pot-shop owners. It sounds like what he wants to do is regulate it as-is — codify its status as a business and forget this nonprofit b.s. Maybe.
In any case, Sacramento marijuana dispensary lawyer George Mull is proposing that yes, the state should just get rid of the nonprofit clause. It's not working.
We'd have to agree there.
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