Photo courtesy of Adobe
By GABRIELLA BOCK | Reporter
Marijuana, the recreational drug that has launched both culture movements and mass hysteria, is officially legal in the Golden State, but that doesn’t mean pot shops will be popping up on every Palisadian street corner—or at least not anytime soon.
Although the California electorate voted to permit the sale and cultivation of recreational marijuana for adults over 21 in November 2016, marking the nation’s biggest state to legalize the psychoactive plant thus far, marijuana still remains a tricky issue.
Los Angeles is a prime example of the new challenges imposed by the law: City Council voted to permit the sale of recreational marijuana last month, yet local lawmakers are still scrambling to fine-tune business applications and sales provisions, causing a delay of weeks, potentially months, in recreational shops from opening their doors to the public.
But despite the city’s long and daunting march ahead, some regulations have been cemented into place: Residential neighborhoods will be off-limits to incoming dispensaries, and 700-foot restriction zones are to be set up around daycares and schools, public parks and libraries—meaning that a pot shop would be barred from leasing a storefront in The Village, but, some suspect, could find a home in Castellammare or parts of Upper Marquez Knolls.
In other parts of the state—like Bakersfield and its surrounding areas—county officials have voted to completely ban commercial activity altogether, including medical sales, citing that the drug has had a destructive impact on local communities.
Similar presentiments have sprung up at Pacific Palisades Community Council meetings: Last year’s strenuous battle to approve Palisades Village’s incoming restaurants and retailers with liquor licenses, a fight that was eventually won when PPCC voted to approve 17 to one, ended the once-sober Methodist town’s long dry spell, and such moral anxiety may soon return once pot entrepreneurs begin scouting out new distribution areas for the growing market.
Until then, Palisadians looking to light up will have to make the trip to the nearest dispensary in Santa Monica or Malibu.
Now that a new state law has made driving in a vehicle under the influence of marijuana illegal, locals may feel encouraged to take advantage of Prop 64’s permission to grow up to six plants at home.
Or perhaps Palisadian pot smokers will just have to keep getting their stash the old-fashioned way—from the neighbor down the street.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
