UPPER LAKE ? With the county government scheduled to consider two different proposed ordinances regarding medical marijuana next week, one dispensary manager said he agrees with the need for regulations, as long as they”re fair and allow certain dispensaries to continue operating.
“The dispensaries are a good thing, if they”re doing it for the right reason,” Jon Hanson, owner of MJ”s Place in Upper Lake, said. “They need to keep the good ones and get rid of the bad ones, just like any business.”
On Tuesday, the Lake County Board of Supervisors (BOS) will discuss a recommended ordinance aimed at regulating medical marijuana dispensaries operated by collective or cooperative organizations in the unincorporated county.
The ordinance suggests allowing five such dispensaries in the county”s jurisdiction, as well as imposing a number of operating conditions, including setbacks from schools and churches, no onsite smoking and stringent prescription verification.
Two days after the BOS meeting, the Lake County Planning Commission will consider a drafted ordinance proposing regulations on medical marijuana cultivation in the county.
Hanson, who has spoken at several of the county”s medical marijuana public hearings, said some of the proposed regulations are necessary to ensure dispensaries and their members conduct themselves properly.
MJ”s Place operates with many self-imposed regulations, such as requiring employees to be members of the cooperative and not have a felony conviction, not allowing loitering outside the store, and making all members sign a rules-agreement form before purchasing marijuana, Hanson said.
The recommended ordinance does propose several rules that Hanson questions. While he agrees the number of dispensaries should be limited to a low number, Hanson said five locations in a spread-out county could negatively impact medical marijuana users.
He also doesn”t think the Lake County Sheriff”s Office should be charged with monitoring dispensaries. “I feel like they”re making us into criminals,” he said.
One setback requirement could force MJ”s Place, as well as the other dispensary on Main Street in Upper Lake, to shutdown or relocate.
There is a church across the street from MJ”s Place and the recommended ordinance would require dispensaries be located at least 500 feet away from churches.
Relocating in Upper Lake outside of the business district could be unsafe because the parcels in the other allowable zones would present security risks, such as poor lighting and less foot traffic, which could lead to burglary attempts, Hanson said.
MJ”s Place hasn”t had many security problems since opening at the end of 2007 and has received generally good feedback from neighboring businesses during that time, according to Hanson.
Hanson named the store after his daughter, Mary Jane Hanson, who died at the age of 2 in 2004 from hydrocephalus, a disease causing excess fluid on the brain. “It has nothing to do with marijuana,” he said of the store name.
The cooperative now has roughly 700 members, 200 of which are Lake County residents, according to Hanson, who is a member with a doctor”s recommendation because of anxiety and depression.
Employees stringently check each individual doctor”s recommendation, not allowing potential customers to even look at the marijuana until their prescription has been verified, Hanson said.
That”s the way MJ”s Place has always operated and will continue to operate, if allowed by a adopted county ordinance, according to Hanson, who said he wants to give tours to the BOS, sheriff, district attorney and other government officials to show them how his dispensary functions.
MJ”s Place divides itself into two main sections: the storefront and the medical marijuana area.
People are not required to have marijuana recommendations to enter the store, but they must be at least 18 years of age. The back of the store, where the marijuana is stored and sold, is not visible to customers from the storefront.
In order to enter the area where marijuana is dispensed, people must show a valid California identification card, a valid recommendation and sign the rules waiver. Once the prescription is verified, the patient or primary caregiver can pass through the door to the back of the shop.
Any adult can purchase items from the storefront, which offers T-shirts, posters, plant-growing materials, smoking pipes, tobacco and collectibles.
Only cooperative members can look at or purchase medical marijuana. MJ”s Place offers several strains of processed marijuana, cloned plants and some edibles, which are primarily made by Hanson and his wife.
Hanson currently has a smaller amount of marijuana on site, roughly 2.5 pounds, and thinks dispensaries should be limited to about five total pounds at any time.
All of the medical marijuana originates from Lake County members, Hanson said.
Members who grow their own medical marijuana sell some excess plants or processed marijuana back to the cooperative, which Hanson then turns around and offers to other members for purchase.
Hanson said he is aware of people with valid recommendations who cultivate marijuana solely to sell to cooperatives, not to personally consume. MJ”s Place denounces that practice, according to Hanson, who said, “If you don”t use the medicine, I”m not going to buy from you.”
There is no profit realized from the marijuana transactions, but profits are made from the storefront sales, according to Hanson. “That”s how we make a living,” he said. “It takes both of them in order to operate.”
Because MJ”s Place combines not-for-profit cooperative transactions and storefront sales, Hanson considers it a business and himself the business owner.
Issues surrounding profits at MJ”s Place contributed to a law enforcement investigation of Hanson, who was arrested in early 2010 for felony cultivation charges.
Investigators claim Hanson informed them during a 2009 interview that MJ”s Place made a profit from its marijuana sales, according to court documents.
Hanson, who also works as a school janitor in Upper Lake, denies saying that to investigators, claiming he told them the entire operation makes a profit because of the storefront sales.
“If I was making a lot of money here, I wouldn”t be a janitor at the school,” he said.
Hanson is scheduled to stand trial later this year for a charge of unlawful possession of marijuana for sale, for which has pleaded not guilty.
“If I”m breaking the law, why am I still in business?” Hanson asked. Come Tuesday, the BOS could provide an answer to that question.
Contact Jeremy Walsh at jwalsh@record-bee.com or call him at 263-5636, ext. 37.
