Despite impassioned pleas from advocates of medical marijuana, the Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to close a “hardship” loophole in a 2007 moratorium temporarily banning any new pot dispensaries from opening in the city and to extend the ban for six months.

The moratorium, intended to control the proliferation of dispensaries while the city develops permanent regulations for medical marijuana use, was due to expire in September.

The easily-applied-for hardship exemption has been invoked by hundreds of pot dispensaries that opened in LA after the ban went to effect in November 2007, preventing the city attorney’s office from prosecuting any violators.

Public comments during today’s council session (which is viewable on LA Cityview Channel 35) ranged from the ill and their supporters who spoke of improved quality of life benefits derived from access to marijuana for medical purposes to irate residents living near allegedly shady, fly-by-night dispensaries to obvious recreational users hoping to maintain their supply– not that there’s anything wrong with that.

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