As of September 1, 2011, ALL 1,875 retail establishments are prohibited from providing light-weight, single-use plastic carryout bags to customers at the point of sale. MORE

By Jason Islas
Lookout Staff

October 17, 2011 -- In an unusual move, Santa Monica-based RAND Corporation pulled a report that found crime rose around Los Angeles marijuana dispensaries after the city shut them down.

The decision to take down the report from RAND's web site pending further review came after the City of Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office questioned the findings.

“It is unusual for a study to be removed,” said Warren Robak, deputy director of RAND's Office of Media Relations, adding that he did not know when the results of the review would be available to the public.

RAND's report looked at crime levels around closed dispensaries during the 10-day time period before and after the June 7, 2010 ordinance went into effect and compared them to crime levels around those allowed to remain open because they met zoning laws and health and safety codes.

RAND researchers found an increase in crime around those dispensaries the city closed and suggested this may have been the result of “the loss of on-site security and surveillance, a reduction in foot traffic, a resurgence in outdoor drug activity, and a change in police efforts.”

The LA City DA’s office questions the conclusions of the report.

The report "relies exclusively upon faulty assumptions, conjecture, irrelevant data, untested measurements and incomplete results,” said a statement issued by the DA's office.

Frank Mateljan, a spokesman for the office, said the DA has "information from law enforcement as well as anecdotal” reports from neighbors that suggests RAND's findings are wrong.

The DA, however, did not provide law enforcement information contradicting RAND's findings.

"In the end, random numbers do not tell the story, people do," the DA's statement said.

LA officials questioned RAND's assumption that the dispensaries banned by the ordinance all closed on the effective date of the new law.

If crime increased after the dispensaries closed, it was likely due to customers rushing to make last-minute purchases, the DA said in its statement.

"Because of the difficulties and fire sale promotions that arise when any business closes, it is quite possible that member in-fighting, increased traffic to the dispensaries for bargains, and disgruntled clientele who found the dispensaries in a state of transition, accounted for the increase in crime in the 10 days following June 7, 2010."

The use and growth of marijuana for medical purposes has been legal in the state of California since the Compassionate Use Act passed in 1996.

Since 2005, dispensaries have mushroomed and, at their peak, outnumbered CVS pharmacies and Starbucks locations in Los Angeles, according to the RAND report. In response, the city ordered the closure of more than 70 percent of the dispensaries.

The laws about marijuana dispensaries are still somewhat ambiguous, said Mateljan, but they are subject to zoning laws and health and safety codes.

“It's still illegal to sell marijuana in the state of California,” he said.

The medical marijuana law allows for non-profit, collective growers to distribute to medical patients so long as they have approval from their care provider and a recommendation from a physician.

When asked about the nebulous state of the laws regarding medical marijuana distribution, Mateljan said, “What's nebulous is which dispensaries would be allowed to operate.”