Dope Man

'I'm the Dope man, yeah boy, wear corduroy/ Money up to here but unemployed.'
-- NWA, 1987*

You may have heard on the news, there are 'medical' marijuana dispensaries all over Los Angeles. And I mean everywhere, rich neighborhoods, poor neighborhoods, by the train tracks and in strip malls. It's a HUGE problem because - duh - these storefronts attract violent criminals as well as docile potheads. Like most well-meaning California statutes, the law allowing these dispensaries was grounded in good intent but the execution was severely flawed.
   Back in 2005, when this was first allowed, Pasadena passed an ordinance banning 'medical' marijuana shops. So we ain't got 'em, which means we don't have to put up with all the antics that Los Angeles does. Score one for the good guys.
   However...
   I was driving this morning and I noticed a big green cross with '420' on it, right across the street from the DMV office on Rosemead. For those of you not hip to the sub-culture, the green cross is the co-opted symbol for the 'herbal remedy' crowd, as are the numbers 420. The building they occupy is not in Padadena, the city limits stop a few hundred yards to the West. This little bit of land is actually unincorporated LA County, even though it doesn't look any different from Pasadena or Arcadia, the city immediately to the East (like two blocks away, seriously).
   So despite the best efforts of the Pasadena City Council, we do - in effect - have at least one 'medical' marijuana facility. And because it's in unincorporated LA County there's not a whole lot Pasadena can do about it. There's no real LA County authority willing or able to do anything about these places.
   Here's my prediction: in the next two years, as the furniture stores and psychics and roofing supply places on that part of Rosemead close up shop, we're going to see more and more 'medical' marijuana places move in. That area is already sketchy, but right now it's not nearly as bad as parts of the Valley, say, or even much of Los Angeles. In two years time, though, I guarantee it's going to be the hub in a great wheel of criminal enterprises.
   Here's hoping I'm dead wrong on this one.


* Man, has it really been 23 years since NWA dropped their first CD? Wow, I'm old.