LOS ANGELES (AP) - Despite new rules that say only about 140 medical marijuana dispensaries are eligible to stay open, more than 450 have filed renewals to pay Los Angeles business taxes this year.
Records show more than 1,100 medical marijuana collectives are actively registered to pay taxes in the city, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday (https://lat.ms/1jAUXQA ).
However, it’s unclear if that many medical marijuana dispensaries are actually operating. A business may obtain a registration certificate but never actually open or it might also close but fail to notify the city. Also, some shops might have never registered to pay taxes.
City Attorney Mike Feuer told the newspaper it’s impossible to know for sure how many dispensaries remain open, but, he said, the numbers are much lower than estimates from before Proposition D passed last spring.
Feuer called the new figures “a sign of continued progress.”
Proposition D limits dispensaries to those approved in 2007. Before the passage of the law, police estimated there were roughly 700 dispensaries - though others put the number much higher. Fewer than 140 medical marijuana dispensaries are eligible to stay open under the new rules, according to city estimates.
After registering, Los Angeles businesses are required to file an annual renewal to report their taxable gross receipts. So far this year, 457 medical marijuana collectives have filed a renewal, according to Office of Finance General Manager Antoinette Christovale.
The city has continued to register new medical marijuana collectives to pay business taxes. Earlier this year, the Office of Finance reported that after the new law went into effect, it had registered nearly 200 pot shops with no previous records in the tax system.
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Information from: Los Angeles Times, https://www.latimes.com
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