The Geography of Pot in Los Angeles

12 September 2009 - 9:00am

The Los Angeles Times has mapped the city's medical marijuana dispensaries, and found many that fall within a proposed buffer that would keep the outlets away from schools, parks and libraries.

There are 966 dispensaries registered in the city.

"[B]y plotting the addresses of the pot dispensaries, The Times has made another finding: At least 260 of them fall within 1,000 feet of a school, a library or a park. The distance is significant because it's the buffer in a proposed law the Los Angeles City Council has been kicking around for a couple of years. The ordinance is still pending, with no vote yet scheduled, while council members figure out how to shield their constituents from too much underground pot culture without trampling the dispensaries' legal right to exist."

Source: Los Angeles Times, September 10, 2009
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Even if the report overestimates the costs by a factor of two and underestimates the tax-benefit by a similar amount, the conclusion would be pretty much the same: destination resorts cost local government and taxpayers money.