THE POT PHARMACY IS OPEN

Valley dispensary is a far cry from '70s 'head shops'

One of the San Fernando Valley's newest medical marijuana dispensaries
sits in a black stucco building, adjacent to the Xposed full nude club.

Racy business cards for the club and next-door bar, The Wet Spot, are
stationed throughout the inside of Collective Caregivers pharmacy,
which opened in Canoga Park in late March.

Inside is "Taylor," a tall brunette with red and blonde highlights, a
nose ring and a deep tan. On a recent day, she was wearing a black
Korn T-shirt knotted to reveal six inches of midriff, a belly-button
ring and a butterfly tattoo on the small of her back.

Once a patient has been cleared, Taylor, who doesn't "do last names,"
presses a button that unlocks the pharmacy door.

They enter a temperate room with two jewelry-display cases, an ATM and
a safe with 4-inch-thick steel. The dispensary sells smokeable leaves
and candy edibles: Peanut Butter Cup, Cannabis Cookie and sugar-free
milk chocolate candy bars. Marijuana buds come in 20 varieties, such
as Tidal Wave, Train Wreck, Organic Grapefruit Haze.

The $10 candy bars, labeled "Keep out of the reach of children," have
several grams of fat and half a gram of marijuana.

The leaves are grown across the state, said Brad Barnes, who
identified himself as the general contractor, and cost $15 to $30 a
gram.

Collective Caregivers is open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 11
p.m., about three hours later than any other dispensary in the Valley.

Barnes insists the co-op is just for those who qualify under state law.

"You can't just say, 'I want to get some bud today' and walk in here,"
Barnes said. "This is a medical office. It doesn't look like you are
walking into a 1970s head shop: There are no beads on the wall, no
orange shag carpet."