Is it too late for California to regulate medical marijuana?

Monday morning, Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer and Police Chief Charlie Beck will announce an effort to help property owners and real estate agents comply with Proposition D, which banned all but about 100 medical marijuana dispensaries that opened before 2007.

Proposition D was essentially a compromise between medical marijuana advocates and City Hall to impose some regulation on pot shops in the city after previous attempts to control the industry were blocked in court.

L.A.’s convoluted attempts to control medical marijuana are by no means unique. When voters passed the Compassionate Use Act in 1996, there was little guidance on how the state should facilitate patients’ use of marijuana as a treatment. In the absence of state regulations, the availability of medical marijuana has essentially led to legalized recreational use.

Now the League of California Cities and the California Police Chiefs Assn. have proposed a bill, introduced by Sen. Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana), that would create a system to license growers and dispensaries, as well as track doctors’ recommendations. The goal is to clamp down on the recreational use by trying to regulate marijuana as a medicine.

But are cities and the police chiefs too late? Their legislation would develop a comprehensive regulatory system, which would take a while to get up and running. In the meantime, California voters may consider legalizing marijuana for recreational use in November or -- more likely -- in 2016. Over the weekend, the California Democratic Party made legalizing marijuana part of its platform. By the time California develops the systems to regulate medicinal use, marijuana may be available to every adult.

Is that a reason to give up trying to regulate medical marijuana? No, not necessarily. But it’s a reminder that a comprehensive regulatory system would have been a lot more effective 10 or 15 years ago. And any attempt to legalize marijuana going forward should learn from that mistake.

Must-read headlines from L.A. to CA:

Democrat-vs.-Democrat races intensify divide in California party, San Francisco Chronicle

With just three months until voters begin casting ballots in the June primary election, the increasingly intense debate in overwhelmingly Democratic California regarding which candidates are “real Democrats” has emerged from the new “top two” primary system that will be tested in statewide races for the first time.

Water fight pits farmer against farmer, Los Angeles Times

San Joaquin Valley growers’ demand for water conflicts with the needs of delta agriculture.

Does downtown need Frank Gehry? Huffington Post

The question is whether Gehry and the other mega projects can, starting from scratch, capture the magic Downtown is already generating. Will they selfishly corral pedestrians? Will they be bunkers and monoliths? Will L.A. commit the same old errors?

Ambitious goals laid out by new Los Angeles DWP chief, Los Angeles Daily News

(Marcie Edwards) said the agency has to be more honest with its customers about problems such as with the billing system when they come up to restore any level of trust and confidence by the public in the utility. Beyond that, she said, her focus will be to get a grip on how the agency performs. “You can’t have a government that’s been in place as long as this agency has been here without it becoming a layered bureaucracy,” Edwards said. “It will take someone to ask why we are doing today what we did 10 years ago.

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