CannaHelp owner Stacy Hochanadel said his dispensary storefront, at 505 Industrial Place, will open at 10 a.m. Tuesday to local medical marijuana patients, after the space received its final city inspection approvals Thursday.
The dispensary has 4,000 patients signed up for its services, Hochanadel said.
“I hope 4,000 people don't show up in one day,” he said, adding that CannaHelp will have 12 staff members on hand for the opening. “It's going to be a madhouse — you can guarantee it. If there are long lines, people will have to be patient and wait.”
Representatives of Palm Springs' other city-approved dispensary, Desert Organic Solutions, at 19486 Newhall St. in north Palm Springs, say it aims to open May 29.
Palm Springs is the only valley city to pass an ordinance allowing a limited number of medical marijuana facilities. It allows for two dispensaries to operate as collectives or cooperatives. City officials are taking steps to allow a third under the ordinance.
In March, at least four unlicensed dispensaries were open in Palm Springs. The city is suing them to close their doors.
Hochanadel's facility also ran into problems. Police, fire and code officials locked down and red-tagged CannaHelp's building on March 4 — days before the dispensary originally was to open, after they found health and safety hazards, and hundreds of marijuana plants already growing.
The inspectors encountered what Hochanadel described as an ambitious, nearly 9,000-square-foot indoor growing operation already under way. It involved more than 100 lights, meant to simulate sunlight, about 46 tons of air-conditioning equipment, a system for 3,600 gallons of water per week and electrical changes.
CannaHelp is still working to obtain final approval on the giant on-site cultivation area and estimates it will be ready in about 60 days, Hochanadel said Thursday.
“It was really new to (city officials), too. We had to work side-by-side to figure a lot of this out. They did their best to fast track it,” he said.
In the meantime, CannaHelp will provide medical pot from its supplies stored at a collective in Lake Elsinore ever since CannaHelp's space was red-tagged, Hochanadel said. It also will draw on covenants with that collective, he said.
Voters will decide in November whether to make California the first state to legalize marijuana for recreational use. Recent polls show voters almost evenly divided on the proposal.
Source: The Desert Sun
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