Ruben Honig's Rousing Rebuttal to LA's Anti-Cannabis Crusade

Ruben Honig's guest editorial in today's Cannabis Business Executive crashed into our inbox like a brilliant meteorite. Or maybe we were already white-hot over what the City of LA is trying to pull over on a potentially humungous business sector.

The article's title says ‘It’s Time to Rise and Shine’, but that's just because Ruben is such a nice, elegant guy. Our message would have tilted toward "Wake Up and Smell the Coffee!", (which is probably how he got to be Executive Director at the Task Force...)

As Honig rightly points out, in 2016 the voters of the State of California overwhelmingly approved Proposition 64, legalizing recreational cannabis. This was fully 20 years after legalization was approved for medicinal cannabis in 1996, so it was about time. A few short months later, City of LA voters overwhelmingly supported Measure M with 80% voting Yes on M. We've written about this here and here.

Mandate much?

Sorry suckas, says City Hall. Recently proposed regulations would not allow cannabis businesses to receive business licenses (instead, Compliance Certificates), and effectively perpetuate a criminal status for cannabis businesses with a guilty-until-proven-innocent approach that puts the burden of proof of on the business - the opposite of what other legal businesses enjoy.

LA legislators, please!

We'll let the story speak for itself: "For over a year, the council has publicly said they want regulations that are a model for the country, and that our industry can help restore L.A.’s manufacturing and industrial zones. They know that cannabis creates good paying jobs and capital investments, and that for too long these benefits have bypassed mainstream city planning. And I’m betting – even though nobody has said this aloud – that cannabis revenue is key to bridging the city’s $245 million structural budget deficit. Plus – those police pensions aren’t going to pay for themselves."

Nicely said, Ruben.