Like it or not, state law (voted in by the voters) allows collectives to be formed to dispense marijuana for medicinal use only.
Using that state law, many, many collectives have opened in Los Angeles County and specifically in Long Beach. As a consequence of no local law regulating these collectives, they have managed to open and operate without business licenses.
The City Attorney has drafted an ordinance that allows the City to regulate these collectives and to restrict them to non residential areas and away from schools. Additionally the ordinance would not allow the importation of marijuana from outside the city. Marijuana could not be grown except in areas zoned for growing agricultural crops.
Unless we approve the regulation of these collectives, the City will be unable to make certain that only those qualified under state law operate.
This ordinance gives law enforcement the tools they have needed to make certain that the state law allowing medical marijuana is not exploited for illegal purposes.
