I'm sure they thought they were doing the right thing. Or, perhaps more cynically, I'm sure they thought that it looked like they were doing something. But the lack of foresight that Mayor Villaraigosa and City Attorney Carmen Trutanich have shown in their decision to close down hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries reveals an alarming inability, or unwillingness, to think through the consequences of their decisions.
On a superficial level, closing dispensaries must have seemed as simple as repairing a pothole or cleaning graffiti off a building; just a little urban blight removal. But dig a little deeper, peel a layer off the onion, and this "no brainer" has some far reaching and deadly consequences.
By ordering the closure of more than 400 dispensaries, the Mayor and his City Attorney have made the few dispensaries left standing extremely valuable pieces of real estate. That in itself might be the cause of this recent string of murders as unscrupulous individuals jockey for a slice of an incredibly lucrative industry. But I believe these attacks on the existing dispensaries might be part of a wider scheme to get all dispensaries in Los Angeles shut down. Why? Who stands to profit from these closures? The answer is obvious: the people who sell marijuana illegally. The gangs and drug cartels.
The California State Board of Equalization reports that they currently collect between $50 to $100 million dollars a year in taxes from Medical Marijuana dispensaries. The lack of an exact figure is due to the fact that dispensaries can file under "retail" or "pharmacy" or "other" categories when paying taxes. This doesn't take into account the local sales tax and other fees that cities collect. Using DEA estimates California NORML (National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws) puts the market for legal cannabis at over $1 Billion a year. And that is just a small piece of the pie. Add in the illegal market and you've got an almost $3 billion dollar a year business in Los Angeles alone. It's easy to see why dispensaries would be an easy target for organized crime and Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca has already suggested that the current string of assassinations at dispensaries might be drug cartel related.
Al Capone was famously outspoken against repealing prohibition because he made millions of dollar selling bootleg liquor. Is the current prohibition on marijuana any different for organized crime?
In their desire to grab headlines and put political expediency over clear-thinking and vision, our Mayor and City Attorney might not have blood on their hands, but they are playing into the hands of the drug cartel and gangs. Our leaders don't seem to have the will or the vision to deal with this problem, but perhaps California voters do. This November Proposition 19, the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010 will be on the California ballot and we, you and me, can take the profit out of the hands of the drug cartels, smugglers, and end the violence both here and across the border in Mexico.
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As for Al Capone, he only difference is that today it is MS-13, and international drug cartel that started right here in Los Angeles. It's profits were way down and there was a corresponding decrease in recruitment of younger kids into the drug gangs. Like all other businesses, when the market dries up, they stop hiring.
One of the best things about the Medical Marijuana shops is that wise doctors wrote enough prescriptions so people did not have to buy from the criminals. But how does the City justify not cutting the LAPD budget when the crime rate is down? The LAPD's size is dependent on a higher degree of gang activity and thus they have a secondary reason to keep pot illegal. The other reason is that selling pot is another way for cops to make money. Thus, the Medical Marijuana shops hit the LAPD institutionally and personally.
These deaths are on the mayors hands and there is more to come...
I'm a liberal make it legal and tax the crap out if it.
we'll need tax money to convert prisons into something usefull.
"Prop 19 won't save the world, but, on the other hand, it ain't a bad first step."
There's the slogan for your legalization initiative, free from me to you.
Freeway Ricky Ross....Air America in Laos and Cambodia.....Manuel Noriega....and now the poppy fields of Afghanistan and the Karzai family's protection. Our CIA controls the drug dealing in the world. They get caught again and again, and nothing happens. Why else would a plant, that our last three presidents, and at least our first three as well, used, that was legal until 1937, and an ingredient in almost 50% of over the counter medicines sold in the US at that time, remain illegal? It makes no sense at all. Follow the money.
The idea that a city council composed of a bunch of finger waving busy bodies can decide that even though the state has legalized medical grass they can keep those same voters from accessing it in their hometowns is pure, unadulterated bs.
Its a big emotional world for GOP politicos and this is one of those issues that can keep the emo factor high for them...
No. It is organized crime on the behalf of the prison industry.