City Taking Steps To Shut Down Illegal Marijuana Dispensaries

The doors of a Palm Springs medicinal marijuana dispensary Thursday were still closed.

The Holistic Collective of Palm Springs was raided by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Wednesday for illegally selling and producing marijuana.

The city said it played no role in the raid but that it has been trying to close the dispensary down for months.

The city filed a lawsuit against T.H.C. several months ago, and both sides are currently in litigation.

The city claims T.H.C. is violating its land use ordinance and zoning code, and there are more dispensaries in the same situation.

“We hope to have these cases resolved as quickly as we can and have these closed as well,” said Doug Holland, City Attorney for Palm Springs.

In the past year, Palm Springs has filed seven separate lawsuits against seven medicinal marijuana dispensaries operating illegally within city limits.

Over the last six months, four of them have closed down.

Three are still in operation: the California Collective of Choice, the Collective Apothecary of Prescription Services, otherwise known as C.A.P.S. and T.H.C.

“We need court orders,” said Holland. “We cant just go in and close a facility, go out there and put a, ‘do not enter’ sign — this is called due process. They opened illegally. They just went out, they signed leases and they opened up.”

Holland said the dispensaries never applied for permits with the city.

Five pounds of pot, 100 food products made with marijuana and several ounces of hash were seized from T.H.C. by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Authorities claim the owners of T.H.C. have facilities in other cities which were also served with search warrants and raided by the sheriff’s department.

Authorities said T.H.C. is operating as a for-profit business which according to state law and the Palm Springs ordinance on medicinal marijuana dispensaries is illegal.

“They have the attitude that they’re nothing more than a CVS and that they should be treated as a pharmacy,” said Holland.

C.A.P.S. released a statement to News Channel 3 that reads, “C.A.P.S. is not a for-profit collective. It’s the first collective to open in Palm Springs over four years ago and received initial support in the voting for a third license from city leaders.”

The owners of C.C.O.C. could not be reached for this report.

“We’re invoking the judicial process to get court orders to compel people to close their shops,” said Holland.

The Palm Springs Police Department is also working on four separate cases against four other illegal dispensaries.

It is in the process of handing those cases over to the city attorney who said he plans on filing criminal charges against all four.