Activists Fighting To Keep LA's Marijuana Dispensaries Open

A month after the Los Angeles city council announced it would close all medical marijuana dispensaries, activists have come forward with fifty thousand protest signatures in an attempt to halt the ban and let citizens vote on the issue in the upcoming election. Officials are expected to begin the rigorous process of verifying the authenticity of the signatures against voter registrations later this week. If they’re able to do so, the dispensaries will remain open for the time being.

According to The Los Angeles Times, the city council has struggled in recent years trying to figure out how to balance the need to regulate medial marijuana with laws prohibiting how much or little the state allows government officials to get involved. Eventually, the council decided to let people grow the marijuana themselves, but because of the difficulty of such an endeavor and the resulting closure of dispensaries, the decision caused much outrage in Los Angeles.

At some point, a workable system will be found. A majority of the public is in favor of sick people getting their marijuana as safely and easily as possible, but until the federal government and states and cities are on the same page, these bumps in the road will continue causing confusion and pissing people off.

We’ll let you know if enough of the signatures prove authentic to keep the dispensaries open.