Earlier this week, the City Council of Laguna Beach, the California town made famous by MTV reality shows in the mid-2000’s, unanimously voted to draft an ordinance that would ban the sale and commercial cultivation of recreational marijuana.
While California voters successfully passed Prop 64, or the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, they also approved a provision in the proposition that gives municipalities the power to allow, or ban, marijuana businesses in their local jurisdiction.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Councilman Robert Zur Schmiede is leading the charge to keep the kush out of Laguna, and said in an interview that “allowing sales of recreational marijuana in the city could attract loitering, criminal activity and increased traffic.”
And while those fears may have little to no basis considering the successful legalization in states like Colorado and Washington, that hasn’t stopped the Laguna Beach City Council from instituting similar bans on medical marijuana storefronts, which have been illegal in Laguna for over seven years.
Currently, Laguna Beach medical patients have to drive 50 minutes to Santa Ana, California to purchase their medicine at a dispensary.
If the City Council is successful in instituting their cannabis ban, adults 21 and older would still be able to grow six of their own plants as long as they are under lock and key and not visible to the public, but entrepreneurs looking to establish grow rooms or retail shops would unfortunately have to look elsewhere to establish their brands.
