LA Council Takes Another Shot at Illegal Dispensaries

Utilizing a tactic it also employed last October, the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday adopted a new ordinance prohibiting medical marijuana dispensaries from obtaining new business tax certificates.

The measure now needs the mayor’s signature to go into effect.

The move is the latest attempt by Los Angeles officials to crack down on the hundreds of illegally operating dispensaries within city limits.

Though Proposition D, a law passed by voters in 2013, allows for 135 dispensaries to operate in the city, last year alone Los Angeles collected taxes from 447 dispensaries, according to the Los Angeles Daily News. That figure only includes businesses that have paid taxes and not those that really operate on the fringe.

The new ordinance would prohibit city finance officials from issuing business tax certificates to any dispensaries, since those that are in compliance with Proposition D would have had to be in existence in 2007 and would have already had certificates.