Thanks also for the First Amendment notes on the Thanksgiving thread.

Duncan is himself falsely depicted by the LA Weekly as part of their own KFI-like biased spin on facts, in the current article by Patrick Range McDonald on “Weed, Weed” (didn’t check exact title) of the same date, and there are almost 80 comments, many taking him to task for depicting Duncan as some unethical profiteer who’s leading Reyes by the nose. (Dennis Romero had a similar article a few days ago: as always with Jill Stewart, whether it’s anti-Bratton or anti-Weiss and of course, always anti-Antonio, or pro-Trutanich and Cooley, if a topic is worth spinning once, it’s worth doing a half-dozen times.)

Then there’s the Mensch case that Trutanich/ Cooley refer to as banning sales, but it doesn’t, it only limits who can be a legally-sanctioned “caregiver,” since that’s been used so loosely it can apply to someone buying pot for lots of people they have no other connection to – that’s it. (I’ve actually been reading up on some of this including from the blogs of the ASA – Americans for Safe Access – whose head also has another blog, aboutmedicalmarijuana.com.

Then there’s one that was even reprinted in the conservative NC blog, L A CityWatch (waronme.blogspot.com) – which carries some of yours too, like that Trutantich, Taggers, and the Madness of Really Bad Injunctions.

They also had the YouTube of Trutanich screaming at and making crazy-sounding threats and arguments to a female patient trying to refute his claims that Calif. pot was laced with toxins and Mexican fire ants. SHE was at the hearing yesterday, too, describing this incident, about how he went right upto her face and she could literally see Trutanich foaming at the mouth, and feared what he’s capable of especially to women, with his anger management issues. IF I were part of their advocacy community, I’d also do a YouTube of that.

Another compelling patient who regularly appears is a Cheryl — whose blog waronme.blogspot.com (the one I saw in CityWatch) is well-argued and sincere, and emphasizes the disappointment with Trutanich – who they call FALSETanich – in using their labor and money to campaign FOR him while all along planning to throw them under the truck. Cheryl likens their advocacy community with Laura Chick and the Controller Issue on this. (And throws in the shakedown of AEG counter to contractual obligation as another case where Trutanich is as fierce and grandstanding as he is wrong.)

Koretz made some good points, like objecting to the notion that which shops would be allowed to continue, should be chosen at random, instead of giving priority to those 186 (about 120 still in business) which opened early on, not the ones who snuck in misusing “hardship extensions.”

It’s nuts that Cooley and Trutanich want to turn these people into felons – as you note in the earlier link to Zine’s comments, not too consistent at a time when the state prisons are releasing many on early parole because they’re over-crowded. (INTERESTING to remember how Zine asked the feds to lay off the shops in his district, but he’s since become joined at the hip to fellow Republicans Cooley and Trutanich. EXCEPT he again seems to have backed off their extreme position, trying to take credit for some “middle ground” he cooks up and names after himself with a motion, like he did with SO40. Ah, the political machinations make the head spin.)

There’s no doubt there are WAY too many shops now and many in the wrong places, e.g. allegedly 13 on a stretch of Melrose between Fairfax and Highland, in walking distance to Fairfax and Hollywood Highs. BUT throwing out the baby with the bathwater at this point as “the only sure way to solve the problem,” as Carter and Usher argued, is wrong and guarantees class-action lawsuits on a number of fronts from shops that have been operating for years with permits.

As to how many is “right,” Koretz questioned Huizar’s wanting to limit them to 70, 2 per each community plan area, saying that would result in too few “large Costco’s of dispensaries.” But right now a few council districts, mainly Hollywood and Westside, have 50-60, often on one street like Melrose or Sepulveda. And maybe large places aren’t all bad: the one featured in the LATimes up north, which had Tai-chi, yoga, acupuncture, chiropractor and other mainstream treatment options under one roof, along with plenty of private security, looked pretty professional and appealing.