This is not another weed ad in the Reader

Since La Mesa voters on November 4 rejected a proposition to authorize and regulate medical marijuana dispensaries, the City of La Mesa will notify three dispensaries that they have ten days to "stop their business activities," assistant city attorney Greg Lusitana told the city council on November 12.

"We have been actively and aggressively going after not only the businesses but the property owners [too]," Lusitana said. "We are in the process of distributing demand letters and threatening to sue them if they don't stop those business practices."

Councilman Ernie Ewin requested a report on the matter, writing in a memo that he wanted to know the "status/effect" of the defeat of Proposition J "on related businesses that opened illegally."

La Mesa voters cast 7231 “no" votes and 6211 “yes" votes on the proposition, according to the San Diego County Registrar of Voters count on November 15.

Prior to the council meeting, a Google search of "La Mesa + medical marijuana dispensaries" led to weedmaps.com. There were listings for four or possibly five dispensaries in La Mesa. Natures Leaf Collective 2 and EliteMeds shared the same address in a suite on the 7100 block of University Avenue. Greener Side Wellness was located down the street on the 7600 block of University Avenue.

In addition, two dispensaries were located at two addresses on the 7300 block of El Cajon Boulevard: Premium Grade Products and EliteMeds. However, the listing leads to the University Avenue location; that site is near the intersection of University and Massachusetts avenues. A "Proposition J" sign stood there the day of the November 12 council meeting.

At the November 12 session, no information was given about which dispensaries that the city will target. Other than Lusitana, Ewin was the only person who spoke on the issue. He said, "The way to change [a law] is through due process, and the citizens here have spoken."

In an interview after the meeting, Lusitana was asked the names of the businesses. He referred the Reader to Allen Edwards, city code compliance officer.

The Reader left a message for Edwards on November 13 and contacted the dispensaries by email on November 14.

Edwards said in a November 14 interview that the city worked with addresses, rather than business names. He gave addresses on El Cajon Boulevard and University Avenue that corresponded with three weepmaps.com listings. Edwards also said businesses were reported by residents who learned about them from ads in the Reader.

No dispensaries responded by press time.