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SEBASTOPOL, Calif. — The medical marijuana dispensary in this California wine country town is in a former auto dealership, and has more registered patients than the town has residents. Los Angeles has more pot shops than Starbucks or schools.
The surge in medical marijuana in California has left many communities scrambling to regulate the free-for-all, while others are trying to ban the drug altogether. The issue took on greater urgency after the Obama administration announced looser federal marijuana guidelines last month.Some local governments are looking to take an approach similar to Sebastopol, where officials welcome the business as a source of tax revenue.The Peace in Medicine marijuana dispensary could be mistaken for a doctor’s office, if not for the security guards and overwhelming smell of pot."I guess I had my prejudices that it was going to have bars on the windows and be something very obvious and unappealing to the public," City Councilman Larry Robinson said.Now the dispensary is about to open a second location, next to a Starbucks.In Los Angeles — the marijuana dispensary capital of the country — about 800 dispensaries are estimated to have opened despite a 2007 order halting new pot operations.The explosion is blamed on a loophole in the City Council’s moratorium. Final regulations are still not in place.The struggle is blamed on the vagueness of the ballot initiative that California voters passed in 1996 legalizing medical use of the drug. The measure makes no mention of how or where the drug can be sold."I think Los Angeles has made this more difficult by not having acted sooner," said Joe Elford, chief counsel for Americans for Safe Access, a pro-medical-marijuana group. "There has been pressure for a long time on the City Council to do something."
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