L.A. dispensaries submit signatures for ballot question

A coalition of Los Angeles medical cannabis dispensaries has turned in over 100,000 signatures to support their bid to get an initiative on the city ballot that would give licensing priority to 135 storefronts.

The UCBA Trade Association, which is comprised of roughly 40 dispensaries that have been operating since before September 2007, needed only 61,500 signatures to make the March ballot, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported.

The initiative is intended to get out in front of an expected ballot measure by the city council to bring the city MMJ licensing system into line with state MMJ regulations that will go into effect at the beginning of 2018.

While the city council’s initiative is still being crafted, and may not give priority to longstanding dispensaries such as those that comprise the UCBA, it’s likely to have more widespread industry support than the UCBA’s measure, because there are hundreds – if not thousands – more cannabis businesses in Los Angeles.

Currently, all dispensaries in Los Angeles are illegal, given that a voter-approved law from 2013 called Proposition D grants “limited immunity” to up to 135 dispensaries.