In a weekly update, Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer discussed his ongoing commitment to rooting out black market marijuana.
“Since recreational use of marijuana became legal in 2018, we’ve been prosecuting 394 cases involving 313 unlicensed locations, shut down 197 of them and taken on 1,462 defendants,” he said in his video message.
Additionally, Feuer spoke about the dangers of unlicensed, untested weed and what consumers can do to protect themselves. As a start, they can view this list of licensed marijuana businesses in L.A. to ensure they’re using legitimate products.
Despite recent crackdowns, Los Angeles remains a hotbed for California’s black market pot trade. Hundreds of unregulated dispensaries continue to operate — sometimes after being shut down. An investigation from earlier this year by the Los Angeles Times found that 60% of the cannabis shops advertised on Weedmaps weren't on the city’s list of approved dispensaries.
“This is really a Los Angeles phenomenon … I can’t tell you where there would be an unlicensed dispensary operating in Oakland or San Francisco,” Dale Gieringer, director of California’s branch of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, told the publication.