The Los Angeles City Council on April 5 moved to speed up the process to apply for a commercial cannabis license. This comes after the council cited it received dozens of complaints about licensing delays, with many complaining they have waited months to receive basic licensing responses from the city. The council unanimously adopted changes to the city’s cannabis ordinance (pdf) in a motion introduced by Councilors Marqueece Harris-Dawson and Curren Price in September 2021. The motion shortens the timeline of the city’s approval process of commercial cannabis license applications. The Department of Cannabis Regulation, which is responsible for processing all cannabis licenses, maxed out its licensing capacity due to COVID-19 staffing shortages, according to the motion. Because of this, the state granted the city $22 million in November 2021 to expedite cannabis licensing. Harris-Dawson and Price said in the motion that the city should act quickly to “maximize the value …