Pubdate: Tue, 06 Apr 2010
Source: Desert Sun, The (Palm Springs, CA)
Copyright: 2010 The Desert Sun
Contact: http://local2.thedesertsun.com/mailer/opinionwrap.php
Website: http://www.mydesert.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1112
Note: Does not accept LTEs from outside circulation area.
Author: Marcel Honore
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/topic/Dispensaries

CHALLENGES TO CANNAHELP GROWING

Palm Springs' process to select the Coachella Valley's  only two 
approved medical marijuana dispensaries isn't  done yet, even though 
a months-long selection process  wrapped in February.

City officials are recommending the City Council on  Wednesday 
suspend -- and in May consider rescinding --  the permit for one of 
Palm Springs' two chosen  dispensaries: CannaHelp.

"There's been some questions raised on a number of  fronts," City 
Attorney Doug Holland said Monday.

They include health and safety hazards, and hundreds of  marijuana 
plants already growing when city building  inspectors visited 
CannaHelp's 505 Industrial Place  location last month, according to Holland.

Police, fire and code officials locked down and  red-tagged the 
building on March 4 -- days before the  dispensary was to open.

The building's other tenants since have been let back  in, but 
CannaHelp remains locked down, dispensary owner  Stacy Hochanadel said Monday.

The inspectors were stunned when they encountered  CannaHelp's 
ambitious, 8,000-square-foot indoor growing  operation already under 
way -- involving more than 100  lights to simulate sunlight, about 46 
tons of  air-conditioning equipment, a system for 3,600 gallons  of 
water per week and electrical changes, Hochanadel  said.

"No one has ever done anything like this" to grow  indoors at such a 
scale, Hochanadel said. The setup  enabled CannaHelp to reap harvests 
of medical pot  year-round, he added.

"I don't think they really knew what it takes to grow  these plants," 
and city planners had not seen any plans  for the growing operation 
before the inspectors  arrived, he said.

Hochanadel said he should have been more "proactive" to  inform city 
planners how his indoor operation would  work, but he still felt he 
had been treated unfairly.

Another problem was the plants: Hochanadel should not  have been 
growing or dispensing prior to CannaHelp's  opening, Holland said.

The safety hazards and plant issues could prompt the  City Council to 
reconsider one of the other finalists  to replace CannaHelp at a 
proposed May 5 hearing,  Holland added.

"It's very stressful. I've put my heart and soul into  everything 
we've done," Hochanadel said.

The state attorney general's guidelines allow him to  grow the plants 
prior to opening, Hochanadel said. He  added that he wasn't 
dispensing to valley patients, but  rather to six San Diego-area 
collectives based on  agreements set with those operations more than 
a year  ago.

Those agreements are completed, and the 400 plants that  police and 
city officials encountered were meant to  supply valley medical pot 
patients, he added. The  plants were transported to a Lake Elsinore 
facility  after the building lock-down.

Hochanadel soon will submit plans for the indoor  growing operation, 
and it would take up to two weeks to  fix the space once the city 
issues a construction  permit, he said.

Desert Organic Solutions Collective, the other approved  dispensary, 
still hasn't opened at its north Palm  Springs building, according to 
its phone recording.  Desert Organic representatives couldn't be 
reached  immediately on Monday.

As of last month, four other dispensaries were  operating in defiance 
of Palm Springs' city ordinance.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom