‘We knew it wasn’t coming from us’: Legal cannabis businesses blamed for illegal cultivation odors

When police found hundreds of illegally grown marijuana plants in a Palm Springs building, owners of legal cannabis businesses just down the street started to realize they may have been unfairly blamed for its smell.

"We had been smelling it; it was very strong over there and we knew it wasn't coming from us," said Joy Meredith, president of Joy Industries.

Her dispensary is a few doors down from the unlicensed cannabis cultivation facility where police discovered about 1,400 illegal plants Tuesday, in an industrial park off N. Indian Canyon Dr.

"It was having a negative effect on a residential area that's very close to there and now we see who it was that was causing that odor there," Meredith said.

Julie Montante is the vice president of Kings Garden, a facility with more than 10,000 sq. ft. of cannabis cultivation in the same industrial park.

She said despite the expensive filtration and air purification systems there, she's been cited by the city for an odor that may not have even been coming from her business.

"We've gone to city councils where the home owners around the area could've swore it was us," Montante said.

Last year, we spoke about the pervasive odor to Dixie Miller, who lives in the Desert Highland Estates neighborhood adjacent to those cannabis businesses.

"It was an awful smell," Miller said. "You smelt it all the time. Night, morning, all day."

In response, late last year city council approved a zero-tolerance cannabis odor policy with fines up to $10,000 and the threat of losing a permit.

"The odors might very well have been coming from this unlicensed facility that was creating all the problems," Meredith said. "Instead everybody now is faced with these very very stringent rules that are making things very difficult for licensed people."

Two people were taken into custody in connection with the legal grow, Chihjon Ho, 60, and Huilan Ho, 57. Both are out of jail on $100,000 bail.

You can reach Jake on Twitter, Facebook or email him at jake.ingrassia@kesq.com.

Note: A previous iteration of this story misstated Julie Montante's title. She is vice president of Kings Garden.