CANNAHELP OPENS AFTER LONG STRUGGLE

For the first time in Palm Springs history, local medical marijuana
patients can freely access a dispensary licensed under a city ordinance.

California Newspaper Publishers Association

The long-awaited CannaHelp dispensary, one of two allowed under a Palm
Springs medical cannabis ordinance, officially opened its doors
Wednesday -- registering patients and distributing medical marijuana.

The dispensary's opening has been a long time coming for CannaHelp
owner Stacy Hochanadel.

"It's a profound day," he said. "We finally got there.

CannaHelp is not Palm Springs' first dispensary. A handful of others
have opened outside of the ordinance and the city says they're illegal.

By the most recent count, four dispensaries are operating. An attorney
for two of those says state law allows them to operate. The city is
suing the dispensaries to close.

CannaHelp's opening wasn't the only Palm Springs medical pot-related
move Wednesday. The Planning Commission voted 6-0-1 to recommend
allowing a third dispensary under the ordinance. The City Council is
expected to take up the matter next week.

The second licensed dispensary, Desert Organic Solutions, is expected
to open by month's end in north Palm Springs.

About a dozen patients, including some coping with cancer and
arthritis, visited CannaHelp in its first two hours.

Palm Springs resident Elsa Weiss, 59, showed up for medical pot to
help her cope with cancer. Weiss said she also supports a November
state ballot initiative to legalize pot for recreational use.

"If alcohol can be used for recreation" then marijuana "absolutely"
should be allowed too, she said.

However, law enforcement groups such as the California Police Chiefs
Association oppose the ballot measure.

Covina police Chief Kim Raney, a member of the association's executive
board, last month called it "a recipe for disaster" that would lead to
more people driving under the influence.

For Hochanadel, 33, CannaHelp's opening is the latest step in a
journey that started in 1994 when he was about to graduate from Palm
Springs High School.

Hochanadel said he had secured a scholarship to play football at the
University of Colorado but a severe parasite infection he contracted
while swimming in Lake Havasu left him bedridden for more than two
years and without most of his large intestine.

"I'd gone from being a jock athlete ... to a loner person on his
deathbed," Hochanadel recounted.

Heavy doses of steroids and Vicodin he took for his condition
eventually began to do more harm than good, he said.

In 1996, the same year California voters approved pot for medical use,
Hochanadel said friends introduced him to marijuana for the first
time, as an alternative to his prescriptions.

He said he's used it to cope with his ailments ever since, and it led
him to work to make medical pot more accessible for Coachella Valley
patients.