California cannabis trade group, CMA, threatens to sue Attorney Office
With unlicensed and illegal marijuana businesses still breaking in the Los Angeles market, legal and licensed cannabis operators are finding themselves in a tough spot.
Berate at the city’s lackluster effort, the California Minority Alliance (CMA) is seeking to sue the attorney’s office in a bid to push the city council to have a severe crackdown on such illegal marijuana ventures. This potential act intends to highlight the peril that illegal retailers pose to legal and licensed marijuana businesses.
Backing the minority’s participation in marijuana industries operating at state, the CMA issued a letter to the L.A. City Attorney, Mike Feuer, reinstating that the city wasn’t resorting to ‘easy fixes’ and had been comparatively slow in their steps to curb illegal sales of cannabis.
In the letter addressed to the state, the organization has levied an accusation implying that the city has disregarded or unnoticed unlicensed and illegal Marijuana shops operating in South Los Angeles.
“lack of enforcement has turned safe communities into havens for illicit activity encouraging the proliferation of unlawful cannabis operations.”
If the city fails to upgrade its enforcement measures, the organization, in support of licensed sellers, shop owners, ‘social equity business’ license applicants and L.A. community leaders, intends to file a class action lawsuit against the Attorney office.
The attorney’s office in question and the mayor’s office are yet to comment on the status quo.
Discussing the development, L.A. City Council President Herb Wesson spokesman Michael Tonetti expressed his view stating that the city council is subjected to use every device at its disposal to reinstate law and order, as stipulated by the passing of Measure M by city voters.
The measure M dates back to the year 2017, where it was passed permitting the state to implement new measures against law defiant marijuana dealers and owners including fines of up to a whopping $20,000-a-day.
He added “Proactive enforcement of illegal cannabis shops is critical to the effective regulation of this new industry and the success of the City’s Social Equity Program,”
The United Cannabis Business Alliance (UCBA), representing licensed L.A. cannabis shops, released a statement saying that it pledges full support to measures that are seeking to eliminate law breaking marijuana ventures and sales of products; owing to which they are financing the Assembly Bill 1417.
The bill is slated to eradicate the lifeline of illegal business – Weedmaps which offers advertisement to illegal marijuana operators across Los Angeles.
Amidst the growing concern, the city’s attorney office in L.A. hasn’t exactly been indolent about its position in response to the illegal Marijuana market.
In April, City Attorney Mike Feuer started a wide clampdown on illegal ventures involving a civil lawsuit against an unlicensed marijuana seller and its several associates.
The lawsuit launched the $20,000 penalty measure against illicit and illegal marijuana operations in the city into action for the first time. It’s the same bill which CMDA recommends the city to implement in a wider and more frequent scale against illegal businesses.
Feuer’s office released a statement saying that 217 criminal cases had been filed involving the likes of 172 illicit shops with almost 840 defendants. Accordingly, around 113 illegal shops had been clamped down and shut.
The L.A. City Council also sanctioned a law which pushed for utilities to be taken away at locations privy to selling unlicensed cannabis products.
