LOS ANGELES, July 24 (UPI) -- The Los Angeles City Council voted 14-0 Tuesday to outlaw medical marijuana dispensaries and order the city's 762 dispensaries to shut down immediately.
The measure does not outlaw medical marijuana entirely -- it allows patients and caregivers to grow and share pot in groups of three people or fewer, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Medical marijuana activists in attendance at the council meeting booed after the vote and authorities summoned police to quiet the protest, the newspaper said.
Medical pot advocates say most people lack the ability to grow marijuana on their own. A dispensary owner testified before the council that patients would have to spend at least $5,000 to cultivate marijuana in their homes.
Councilman Jose Huizar assured people who have complained about problems in their neighborhoods associated with dispensary traffic that "relief is on the way."
Huizar criticized a separate council vote Tuesday to direct city employees to develop an ordinance intended to allow about 170 dispensaries to remain in operation. Those dispensaries had registered with the city several years ago, the Times said.
Councilman Paul Koretz, who voted in favor of the ban after opposing it, said the ordinance passed Tuesday means the city has "shut off almost every way that a normal person can get access to marijuana."
