City Cracks Down Hard on Medical Marijuana Dispensaries
Host:
Produced by:
Subscribe to this Podcast:
Listen to/Watch entire show:
Years after Californians legalized medical marijuana, the LA City Council finally got around to writing an ordinance. Hundreds of dispensaries melted away, but 169 applied to operate under new regulations. Yesterday, the city approved just 41, and operators who claim they did everything right are outraged. Also, what does the LAPD mean by "predictive policing?" On our rebroadcast of today's To the Point, with American combat in Iraq now over, soldiers are coming home in unprecedented numbers. We look at what can happen after the happy returns.
Banner image: Lev Goukassian, owner of the Nirvana Pharmacy, a medical marijuana shop in Los Angeles, California, works on his products on March 24, 2010. Photo: Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images
Main Topic
The Pot Crackdown: From 400 to 41 ()
During years when the City Council was otherwise occupied, hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries sprung up all over Los Angeles. When the Council finally passed a restrictive ordinance, 169 applied to stay in business. Yesterday, the City Clerk announced that just 41 will be eligible. We hear from the president of a local medical marijuana collective and from the city attorney who helped draft the ordinance and is defending it in court.
Guests:
- Yamileth Bolanos: President, Greater Los Angeles Collectives Alliance
- Jane Usher: Special Assistant City Attorney, City of Los Angeles
Reporter's Notebook
Predictive Policing: Next Frontier of High-Tech Crime Fighting? ()
Powerful computers tell WalMart that when the weather turns bad, customers want strawberry pop tarts -- not just any pop tarts, but strawberry. When a tropical depression occurs on the ocean, WalMart has strawberry pop tarts on store shelves before the storm hits the Florida coast. The LA Police Department thinks that kind of computer-generated predictive analysis can be applied to law enforcement.
Guests:
- Sean Malinowski: Lead Officer, LAPD's Crime Analysis Unit
- Craig Uchida: President, Justice and Security Strategies
Main Topic
Coming Home from the Iraq War ()
From the deep South to the Midwest to California and Washington State, military bases and surrounding towns are bulging these days with the last combat soldiers coming home from Iraq. "The returns are moments of celebration and relief, but tension and peril can lie ahead." That’s according to a report co-authored by James Dao in the New York Times.
Guests:
- James Dao: National Correspondent, New York Times
- Charles Engel: Director, Deployment Health Clinical Center
- Willy Berry: Veteran, US Army Reserves
- John Schluep: Founder, Warriors Journey Home Ministry
- Thomas Childers: Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania
Underwriters
Which Way L.A.? is made possible in part by the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, and the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, which supports study and research into policy issues of the Los Angeles region.
Engage & Discuss
Further the conversation with your thoughts and comments. Agree, disagree, present a different perspective -- engage.
For information and guidelines click: Terms of Service | Privacy Policy
Please note, comments are moderated. KCRW reserves the right to edit and or remove posts deemed off-topic, abusive or not in accordance with KCRW's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
BROUGHT TO YOU BY
