Where can you expect to find a pot shop in LA next year

LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 19: Dave Warden, a bud tender at Private Organic Therapy (P.O.T.), a non-profit co-operative medical marijuana dispensary, displays various types of marijuana available to patients on October 19, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. Attorney General Eric Holder announced new guidelines today for federal prosecutors in states where the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes is allowed under state law. Federal prosecutors will no longer trump the state with raids on the southern California dispensaries as they had been doing, but Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley recently began a crackdown campaign that will include raids against the facilities. Cooley maintains that virtually all marijuana dispensaries are in violation of the law because they profit from their product. The city of LA has been slow to come to agreement on how to regulate its 800 to 1,000 dispensaries. Californians voted to allow sick people with referrals from doctors to consume cannabis with the passage of state ballot Proposition 215 in 1996 and a total of 14 states now allow the medicinal use of marijuana. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

As the legalization date for selling pot approaches, Los Angeles is taking steps to shape how and where cannabis retailers will be allowed to open and operate their businesses.

On Thursday, the city’s planning commission backed laws that would prevent new cannabis retailers from opening near schools, public parks, libraries, rehabilitation programs and other competing pot shops.

The regulations – if approved by the Los Angeles City Council – also require retailers to get a state license and city approval before opening. While industry groups are optimistic that the city is moving forward with official guidelines on zoning, they are concerned with some of the limitations.

Host Larry Mantle checks in with David Ambroz at the Los Angeles City Planning Commission, Donnie Anderson from a cannabis trade group, as well as Richard Close of Sherman Oaks Homeowner Association on the future of recreational pot shops in Los Angeles.

Guests:

David Ambroz, president of the Los Angeles City Planning Commission

Donnie Anderson, chairman at California Minority Alliance, a cannabis industry trade group

Richard Close, Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association President