Photos: Santa Catalina Island to vote on marijuana dispensary

Mark Malan, owner of the Hermosa Hotel in Avalon, sits on the balcony of his suite, talking about his effort to create the first medicinal pot dispensary in the resort community.

(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

May 31, 2016 7:47 PM PT

Boats dot the calm blue water surrounding the Casino on Catalina Island. Part of the proceeds from the pot shop would go to local schools.

(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

City Councilman Joe Sampson favors the medical pot measure. “Money going to schools and medicine going to sick people---what’s wrong with that?”

(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

A majority of the five-member Avalon City Council signed the petition for a ballot measure on the medical marijuana dispensary.

(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

“Critics say I just want to open a dispensary there because it will attract some of the visitors flocking to the new museum,” Mark Malan says. “You know what? They’re right.”

(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

The Avalon Medical Cannabis Facility Act of 2016 would impose an annual license tax of $10,000 per dispensary and direct 50% of that amount to Avalon Schools, a K-12 complex of 750 students operated by the Long Beach Unified School District.

(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Joe Sampson supports the medical pot initiative.

(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)