LA Prop M puts minorities first and is a new measure being considered in Los Angeles, California that aims to regulate, tax and enforce medical and recreational marijuana – order that’s much needed to bring order in the quasi-legal Los Angeles dispensaries.
The choice turns to the voters with Proposition M on March 7. Voting ‘yes’ on M would give the City Council more authority and control over the sales of legal cannabis.
L.A cannabis is complicated – there are more than one-hundred medical marijuana dispensaries operating in the ‘grey area’ due to a 2013 measure called Prop D, that gave “limited legal immunity” to those operating without a proper license.
City Council drafted Prop M. The measure would rebuild the cannabis market with a solid legal foundation for businesses, and also help more minorities get into California cannabis.
Virgil Grant and is co-founder of Southern California Coalition. The group represents minorities in the cannabis space. In an interview with the LA Times, Grant expressed his frustrations with a system that keeps out well-intentioned business people that happen to have a record – often from being victims of the failed drug war.
“We said, we are no longer going to have the City Council take meetings with hundreds of other organizations,” Grant said to the LA Times. “I didn’t go to the City Council with an ‘ask.’ I went with a demand: This is what needs to be done, and it needs to be done right. We don’t get a do-over. We need smart and sensible regulations, licensing mechanisms and enforcement.”
The state still has the right to deny licenses based on past marijuana felonies, but LA Prop M Puts Minorities First.
Proposition N will also be on the ballot, however, it was written by those quasi-legal dispensaries, who have since lent their allegiance to Prop M.