Huizar Seeks City's Guidance on Medical Marijuana Ordinance

has asked the City Attorney to advise the City Council about the legal implications of a reported announcement by California’s four U.S. Attorneys that they have mailed letters to medical marijuana collectives across the state, ordering them to shut down or face prosecution.

Huizar introduced a City Council resolution Friday, requesting the office of City Attorney Carmen Trutanich for an update about the City’s options on how to proceed with its own regulation of medical marijuana dispensaries in light of the federal announcement, Huizar’s Director of Communications Rick Coca said in a news statement.

Reported Warnings to Landlords

The Los Angeles Times reported Friday that the federal prosecutors have issued warnings to landlords on whose properties medical pot shops are located “to stop sales of the drug within 45 days or face the possibility that their property will be seized and they will be charged with a crime.”

The Associated Press reported Thursday night that at least 16 medical marijuana facilities or their landlords received letters this week informing them that they are in violation of federal drug laws, even though medical marijuana is legal in California.

"Under United States law, a dispensary's operations involving sales and distribution of marijuana are illegal and subject to criminal prosecution and civil enforcement actions," the Associated Press news report quoted letters in San Diego that the news agency said were signed by U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California Laura Duffy. "Real and personal property involved in such operations are subject to seizure by and forfeiture to the United States … regardless of the purported purpose of the dispensary," the letters reportedly read.

The AP reported further that California’s four U.S. Attorneys are scheduled to announce “a broader coordinated crackdown” at a Friday news conference.

City's Medical Marijuana Ordinance Faces Legal Tests

A medical marijuana ordinance that Huizar helped craft and which the City has been trying to enforce with little success since January 2010 has been the subject of prolonged litigation in the court of Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Anthony J. Mohr.

In December 2010, Mohr deemed large parts the City’s ordinance as unconstitutional. The ordinance faces further “legal hurdles brought on by a recent ruling” of the California Court of Appeal for the Second District in the case of “Pack vs. City of Long Beach,” which allows cities to “restrict and limit the actions of collectives, but cities may not regulate in a manner that permits or authorizes collectives because such facilitation violates federal law,” the news statement said.

A City lawsuit against American Eagle Collective, one of the 10 medical marijuana facilities located in Eagle Rock, is also tied up in Judge Mohr's court—and a similar lawsuit against another medical pot shop in the neighborhood, House of Kush, is also being challenged in a local Superior Court.

“Given the federal governments announcement to prosecute medical marijuana collectives and the recent court action that will directly affect what Los Angeles medical marijuana ordinance can and cannot do, the Los Angeles City Council needs to be updated so we can consider all legal options available to us,” Huizar was quoted as saying in his office’s news statement.