Like established medical marijuana dispensaries in California, West Hollywood's oldest shops figured they would profit from Prop 64. The city had other ideas.
The businesses —Beck’s AHHS, Zen Healing of West Hollywood, Los Angeles Patients & Caregivers Group and a store that later became a MedMen outlet — have since banded together under the banner “West Hollywood Originals” in the hopes that a public awareness campaign might cause the city to rethink their status. Employees from each dispensary could be seen sporting items with the alliance’s logo — a rainbow-streaked marijuana leaf — at the L.A. Pride event earlier this month.
But if the council approves the recommendation, the owners of the original dispensaries say the city would effectively be voting to put them out of business. All the storefronts would then be restricted to selling only medicinal marijuana, a market which experts say is dwindling statewide. While industry experts characterized the city’s decision not to grant preference to its original operators as bizarre, city officials said they were simply responding to demand. More than 300 businesses applied for the right to either operate a dispensary, consumption lounge or delivery service in West Hollywood last year, fighting over just 40 licenses, according to city records.
Frustrations among the original operators have only deepened as the license winners have been slow to set up shop. Among the eight businesses awarded licenses to sell recreational marijuana, one described itself as a wellness center and promised to staff “dietitians, naturopathic physicians, bodyworkers, and acupuncturists.” Another said it hoped to house its store in a “multi-unit commercial building with performance space, a restaurant, bud bar, retail store, museum, and art gallery,” records show.
Leonard said that while none of the license winners have previously owned cannabis businesses in West Hollywood, some of the owners have run dispensaries in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
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