Despite Citywide Pot Shop Ban, SC Dispensary Vows to 'Keep Doors Open' for Enfeebled Patients

The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to ban storefront medical marijuana dispensaries, but allow primary caregivers and patients to grow and transport marijuana.

Two or three patients would be able to collectively grow and share cannabis in homes or apartments, but not storefronts.The measure includes exemptions for hospices, licensed clinics, and other facilities where patients get "medical care or supportive services."

Perennial Holistic Wellness Center, situated in a corner strip mall at the intersection of Ventura Boulevard and Colfax Avenue, looks unsurprisingly similar to the hundreds of storefront medicinal marijuana dispensaries scattered throughout the Los Angeles city limits.

There's the obligatory "green cross" signage, and Perennial Holistic had that well-covered, with their own trademark green-and-yellow crosses plastered on several sidewalk sandwich signs that announced "free valet parking" for their patrons.

Then there's the obscured picture windows and doors that needed to be buzzed in. 

And of course, there's that 'familiar scent' wafting in the air. Among the visited dispensaries, some emanated stronger odors than others. 

The difference between Perennial Holistic and its nearby competitors was that the owner, Sam Humeid, was readily available at the location when Patch visited. Patch went to three other nearby "dispensaries" looking for reactions to the City Council's vote banning their existence, but at each of these places, the employees there essentially said that their bosses or owners were "not on the property at the time."

Humeid was accommodating and allowed Patch to photograph inside his dispensary, and even brought out live marijuana plants to be photographed.

Humeid was asked what he thought about the City Council's vote to shut down places like his.

"The City Council took clearly what was the easiest way out in the most offensive possible way to go," Humeid said. "They went on the offensive to clearly eliminate medical cannabis and safe access to it in Los Angeles, in one fell swoop."

According to the City Council, the ban will take effect 30 days after it is signed by the mayor. Once the ordinance is in effect, the city will send out a letter to 762 dispensaries registered to pay taxes to the city notifying them of the new law and asking for compliance. The city will then ask a judge for closure orders, starting with the "bad actors," the dispensaries that have generated the largest volumes of complaints from residents.

Humeid voiced his frustration. "They could have had the chance to regulate properly, recognize the good apples from the bad apples, and lay down foundations that would allow for safe access to maintain, while they eliminate the bad elements from this industry." 

Humeid believes that the City of Los Angeles is just trying to rid itself of litigation. "The problem is everytime they (city goverment) turn around there is another batch of lawsuits that come from either direction. They're upsetting somebody no matter what they do."

Humeid was asked about the earlier City Council decision on pot shops, the "gentle ban," and what the city told him to do back then.

"That's the one thing that left us (dispensaries) in the dark. Even though they unanimously voted to enforce the gentle ban, they never made any discussion in how they were going to enforce the gentle ban."Humeid said.

Inside the dispensary, the receptionist was busy answering phone calls from the shop's patients. He can be overheard telling a caller that nothing has changed yet since the ban was decided, and Perennial Holistic is stiill open for business. At the end of the call, the receptionist suggested to the patient to come in and get the prescription filled.

Then another call is answered, with another concerned patient on the line.

My patients are up in arms. Absolutely up in arms." Humeid said.

At the City Council meeting, residents of Studio City, Eagle Rock, Boyle Heights and elsewhere expressed support for the ordinance, pointing to a proliferation of dispensaries in recent years that they claim has eroded quality of life, hurt local businesses and led to multiple dispensaries on the same block in some cases. Regulating the pot shops has proved troublesome, prompting some cities to effectively zone them out of existence or ban them outright.

Humeid said his biggest problem is being lumped in with "weed shops." He emphasized that Perennial Holistic is not a place for people to come and get a discount product to show their friends. "Look what I got, this is the coolest stuff in the world!" Humeid mocked, in an animated voice.

Humeid said that out of the dozen medicinal marijuana storefronts around him, a majority are "weed stores." He defined these shops as being very loose on the regulations, very loose on who "gets to come in." 

"They don't care about the product (quality) as long as they make their bottom dollar." Humeid said.

Humeid went on to differentiate his shop from the weed stores. He said he caters to a demographic of 30 to 40-year-old females, who are established, and who were not known to be frequent or habitual cannabis consumers before signing up at his place. Humeid said his patients are seeking another way to heal their pain. "They need something systematically different from what they're getting from their pharmaceuticals."

Humeid made sure that Patch noticed that the words, "holistic" and "wellness" have actual meaning, and are not just empty words in the company's name.

"They end up coming here explaining their situation to us: they suffer from fibromyalgia, have lupus, are going through cancer or menopause... you name it." Humeid said. "And they know they can come to a store like mine and get actual, factual advice that's going to guide them in the right direction."

Opponents of the ban said it will prove tragic for patients with terminal illnesses who cannot grow marijuana on their own because it is costly and requires extensive training.

"Forcing us to (grow our own) does not magically grant us the talent, skill and ability to grow marijuana, just as many of us would not be able to grow our own food if we did not have the option of a grocery store tomorrow," Raj Jawa told the council.

Another activist told the council a low-end growing operation would cost at minimum $5,300.

Humeid was asked about "grow your own."

"For me it's terrible. My patients are not of the capacity to grow their own, to have to deal with a collective cultivation project with two other people. We're talking about people who do not have ambulatory ability, they're stuck in a wheelchair, they're not able to reach three feet let alone six inches from their chair, to try to reach something that's bad on the plant. They're forcing a lot of innocent people to go to the black market." He said.

Humeid went on to quote a section of Prop. 215, SB 420.  

To make a point about how vague the law is. 

"They allow for collective cultivation of marijuana for medicinal use. And they're very ambiguous as to what line that cultivation stops (and becomes illegal)."

A state appellate court recently ruled that municipalities cannot completely ban medical marijuana outlets without providing an alternative distribution method. The same court also ruled that a ban on storefront dispensaries while providing for collectives of three or fewer would not violate state law.

"Is it just three people? Is it 500 people relying on one person?" He asked. "It could be anything. There needs to be huge strides in defining what that is."

Humeid said that he understands a legal collective is three people or less collectively working together to cultivate marijuana for their own medicinal needs.

Humeid said he believes that legalizing medicinal marijuana had impacted the illicit market and their profits."So when the city had their pants down with the multitude of ordinances and lawsuits back-and-forth, a lot of these big trafficking organizations found a loophole in the law that basically allowed them to go wholesale to the public."

"Are they paying their taxes? I don't know." He said with frustration. "The prices I have to charge versus some of the places where 'nothing's over thirty-five dollars in our store' kind of place. Where you can tell by looking at their books there's no way a place like that can survive or exist without circumventing the law somehow."

Councilman Ed Reyes raised concerns about the resources it would require to shut down the dispensaries. He asked the LAPD, the City Attorney's Office and other city officials to report back with a plan for closing dispensaries.

Humeid was asked, If the city came here to enforce this ban, would you close up your business?

"Technically, yes... even though we're one of the first (medicinal marijuana dispensaries) in the City of Los Angeles. But if we're put in a position where we had to close... whether we close our doors or not is still a point of contention."

"It's not about my livelihood, I'm only 37 years old, have a whole lifetime ahead of me, to be able to remake whatever I'd lose in this opportunity." He said.

"However, the patients I deal with, the ladies who are in their 60s and 70s dealing with cancer, my AIDS patients, and all the people who depend on me on a daily basis- whether or not they're coming for medication, they just need someone to talk to or a shoulder to cry on, that's the reason I'm keeping my doors open," Humeid vowed. 

"If the police are going to drag me away, kicking and screaming to jail, breaking civil law, because I'm protecting the health and welfare of my most enfeebled patients... then so be it."

City News Service contributed to this article.