Palm Springs City Council to decide on 4th pot shop
The Palm Springs City Council is expected to decide Wednesday who will get the chance to open the City’s 4th legal medical marijuana dispensary. The Council has 8 applicants to choose from and they’ve all been through a rigorous screening process.
The Palm Springs City Council decided back in February to allow one more medical marijuana dispensary within city limits. Ever since then it’s been a battle for that one spot.
“I think palm springs has done a great job in allowing access in our community,” said Organic Solutions of the Desert general manger Shanden Sessions.
Organic Solutions of the Desert is one of only three places in Palm Springs you can buy medical marijuana legally.
“We are not drug dealers here with a store front. We are here helping people that have serious illnesses, we work a lot with DAP and Eisenhower,” said Sessions.
Following the rules each step of the way, “We get audited by the city,” said Sessions. “They come in and they check our books, they send a third party person that checks all of our revenue.”
City Attorney Doug Holland says those applying for the City’s fourth permit faced just as much scrutiny.
“We know that there is a lot of folks that have an interest in this and the idea is to hopefully make sure that we’ve got the best possible available for the council to ultimately select as an operator in the city,” said Sessions.
Eight businesses have applied, only one has meet all of the rules set out under the City’s ordinance, but even it has a potential issue, the location near Wet-n-wild. Holland says city code classified the water park technically as a private park, but the council could decide it is public.
“That would be something that arguably they would need to be more than 500 feet from but that is for the council to make that decision,” said Holland.
A decision that Organic Solutions of the Desert hopes will help rid the city of illegal operations.
“Issuing the fourth license, I hope they are also working as diligently towards shutting down the illegal dispensaries that are still operating illegally without a license and a lot of the delivery services that have popped up,” said Holland. “If the fourth license helps another 20,000 patients we weren’t able to help, I’m all for it, this needs to come out of the dark and into the light more and we need to get as many patients help as possible.”
One option, is also picking no one, and starting the application process over.
The Palm Springs City Council meeting is underway, we do have a crew there watching and waiting to see what the Council will ultimately decide. Watch CBS Local 2 and News Channel 3 at 11 for the latest.
