Clickable map of Los Angeles area marijuana dispensaries

weeeeed.jpg

A wonderful infographic over at the LA Times of pot dispensaries throughout greater Los Angeles. I love this. You can even see which have licenses, which don't, and how close some of them are to schools, or to other dispensaries.

I live in an LA neighborhood in which there are far more weed dispensaries per square mile than Starbuckses. Almost without exception, the ones around here are shady, creepy and not professionally run. My favorite is either the one where the "clinic" is split into two parts, one of which doles out 420, the other Botox and Juvederm injections (same doctor doing the prescriptions for both, apparently). Or, the other one where bikini-clad, hard-eyed Euro-hos jump right out at you in the street, grab you by the arm, and squeal, "Hiyeee! Doo yoo vant to get leeegal?" No: I want to punch you.

I don't use the stuff at all (I don't drink or use any recreational drugs), but I'm all for straight-up legalizing pot — if only to banish the recent proliferation of these gray-market dispenaries, which I believe are directly linked to a spike in crime and black-market drug activity around my 'hood. It's all I can do to not flip those pot-hawkers the bird when I walk by.

Map: Where's the weed?, and related: Mapping L.A.'s marijuana dispensaries (latimes.com)