Marijuana Dispensaries in Encino - update 2

With the news this week of killings at marijuana dispensaries in Hollywood and Echo Park, we are seeing the predictable reactions. Opponents argue that the cash at dispensaries makes them gang targets – and that’s the legal ones! So they’d rather see them all closed down. This doesn’t make any sense – the law of unintended consequences means the black market and crime will proliferate.

Since the City ordinance kicked in earlier this month (previous story here), most dispensaries have closed and some have switched to lawsuits and home delivery. Puzzling through the maps in the LA Times, in Encino it appears Kind Meds was notified they had to close (they don’t appear to have done so), while The Healing Touch, just west of Newcastle, has notified the City it plans to stay open - in defiance, I assume. If you want to see the City Planning map whereby we get zero dispensaries in Encino, click here (opens as a pdf).

The home delivery approach is the bigger deal here since it skirts the ordinance and how on earth can law enforcement police this? The answer is: they can but only by neglecting more serious crime.

The right answer is sensible regulation like in Colorado, not a “War on Drugs” approach. It’s also another nail in the coffin of retail since home-delivery services parallel the online shopping revolution, literally driving customers away from the business district. Oh, and it’s really too bad opponents can’t imagine a more mellow Encino where our aggressive A-type personalities blaze away in smoke instead of temper tantrums at Starbucks or AYSO…