DISPENSING CANNABIS: AN INSIDE VIEW

What's offered over the counter at a medical marijuana dispensary
isn't limited to bud, or even starter plants, as evidenced by the
array of products available at one of Mendocino County's newest
dispensaries.

Nestled in downtown Hopland, Collective Conscious Apothecary sells
smokable, edible and topical forms of medical marijuana -- adamantly
called cannabis by the staff.

"We want to show that there are all different forms of cannabis
available as medicine without having to smoke it, and without a
psychoactive reaction," dispensary CEO John C. Oliver said.

With local regulations looming on the horizon for Mendocino County's
roughly 10 medical marijuana dispensaries, Oliver offered The Daily
Journal an inside view of his operation.

How it works

Oliver and the dispensary staff grow much of the bud the dispensary
sells, all of it inspected for safety and tested in-house for quality.

"Going forward, we're just now establishing cultivation agreements
with farmers we're developing relationships with, and most of the
medicine will be produced by collective members, patient farmers,"
Oliver said.

Cultivation agreements would entail a certification process the
dispensary is still developing, he said.

The edibles and topical solutions come from local producers, part of
an effort to keep his stock local.

The dispensary is a mutual-benefit corporation that operates on a
not-for-profit basis, complying with state law and the state Attorney
General's guidelines concerning buying, selling and profit, according
to Oliver.

"It doesn't actually say in the law that you're not allowed to profit,
but nowhere in this law does it say you can profit. So it's implied,
essentially," Oliver said.

Excess profit is "distributed back to the collective's members and the
community," he said.

The dispensary pays state sales tax and federal income tax, but isn't
allowed, as other businesses are, to deduct for certain operating
costs, including payroll tax and other standard deductions. That
contributes to what some patients perceive as high prices at most
dispensaries, according to Oliver.

"We just want to be treated like any other business," Oliver
says.

Inside the dispensary

Walk through the door of Collective Conscious Apothecary and the first
thing you notice is the unmistakable smell of marijuana in the
establishment's small waiting room.

A clerk stands at a counter behind shatter-proof glass. Patients are
asked to produce doctors' recommendations and identification, then
told to wait while dispensary staff checks to see that they are valid
and current.

Once that's done, patients are allowed through a locked door into a
retail area where smoking supplies, hemp clothing and books sit on
shelves and behind glass. No cannabis is visible yet, in any of its
forms.

The product is in an adjoining room: everything from trays of starter
plants three to six inches high to myriad creams, lip balms and salves.

Ranged on a small shelf that spans two walls of the room are small,
clear plastic boxes holding 20 or 30 different strains of bud. Each
box has a magnifying glass in the top and holes in the bottom so
customers can inspect and smell the samples.

"Folks can see them and smell them and not feel rushed," Oliver says.
"Most dispensaries have an ice cream-style display, where you come in
and ask for each flavor. I just felt rude after three or four tries; I
found this to be a lot more effective."

The smell that hits the nostrils just inside the dispensary's door is
the one most commonly associated with the plant: pungent, bitter-sweet
and skunky. The samples inside the small, clear boxes carry a wide
array of other aromas that occur naturally in the varied strains:
blueberry, strawberry, lemon, orange.

Oliver has his medical marijuana cultivation permit under the county's
medical marijuana cultivation code, 9.31. Most of the strains offered
were grown by dispensary staff under state and local regulations, he
says.

Venturing further into the room reveals an even wider array of
cannabis-based products. There is a refrigerated counter displaying
edibles that include flavored tinctures a patient would add to food or
drink: everything from raspberry to honey to orange cream. Lollipops
top the display. Cannabis-infused white chocolate pieces and pot
brownies are individually packaged and labeled inside to warn the user
to keep the food away from children and pets. Each brownie, according
to Oliver, contains three to four doses.

"You want to watch your tolerance," he says.

The labels also tell patients how much Sativa versus Indica strain the
food contains.

"Generally Indica strains are associated with a more narcotic effect,"
Oliver says. "It induces more sleep and appetite. More Sativa-dominant
varieties are going to have much more of a euphoric effect, much more
of a calming effect, or much more of an uplifting and energetic
effect, depending.

"Cannabis has as varied an effect, if not a more varied effect, than
wine and champagne does ... especially with the way modern breeding
has gone over the last 40 years."

Not just bud and brownies

But of course, not all of the products the dispensary offers have any
psychoactive effect.

Oliver points to a jar of locally-made salve behind an open glass
display case atop the room's counter, which he says he uses himself
for chronic neck pain.

There are a variety of these, all from local producers, as well as
sprays, lip balms and even bath salts for muscle pain. But the uses
don't stop with pain, he said, as he's seen lately that the topical
applications have been used for a variety of ailments, breast cancer,
eczema, malignant skin cancer and other skin conditions among them.

Pot for thought

Education is a focal point for the new establishment, according to
Oliver, with speakers and Oaksterdam-style seminars planned for a
stage area still under construction just beyond the locked door where
only patients can go, according to Oliver.

"We're going to try and offer courses that will help people to find a
niche, find a way to earn a living through their excess medicine in
terms of cooking, in terms of chemistry and cultivation," Oliver said.

The Oaksterdam-style seminars, he said, would use a "top-down"
approach, teaching topics that start with a historical perspective and
progress to creating dispensaries, collectives and
cooperatives.

"Most importantly, (we would be) making people aware of the current
state of the law," Oliver said. "Surprisingly, a lot of people don't
have a whole lot of understanding of what that is."

Growing acceptance

Part of the reason Oliver chose to establish the dispensary now is
that there is an attitude of general acceptance in the community, he
said. He hasn't encountered much opposition in putting his storefront
collective in downtown Hopland.

"Everyone's been very supportive; everyone in local government has
wished us luck, and has been happy to see what we've done with the
building," Oliver said. "A lot of dispensaries can't say the same,
especially in areas such as San Jose and Los Angeles."

Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman said that "the only time we
receive complaints is when one is (established) in a neighborhood, but
we don't have any policies restricting where they can and cannot go. I
don't want to sound like an advocate or an opponent of dispensaries;
my job is to make sure that if one goes into a neighborhood the public
safety quality of life isn't decreased. So far it hasn't been."

The regulation discussion

The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors recently agreed to discuss
the idea of developing regulations for dispensaries. Oliver said he'd
like to be part of the discussion to promote safe access for patients
and oppose heavy restrictions, such as a cap on the number of
dispensaries the county can have.

Allman has visited most of the dispensaries he knows about,
encouraging owners to use high-end security systems, not operate at
night and report any suspicious people.

"When you have a high-money business on a main drag, that increases
the potential for criminal opportunity," Allman said. "We have casinos
with wonderful surveillance systems, and dispensaries have similar
systems."

As for the starter plants, Allman says the county's
25-plant-per-parcel limit on the numbers of plants isn't triggered
because the clones aren't flowering female plants.

State law, according to Oliver, says the dispensary can have a number
of plants that is reasonable for its membership, based on a list of
its members that can be provided to law enforcement on request.

"We want to make sure they don't have pounds and pounds of marijuana
in there, and we want to make sure they don't have stacks of cash in
there, because I don't want criminals to target dispensaries for large
amounts of cash and marijuana," Allman said.

Regulations he'd like to see include permits for dispensaries,
possibly law enforcement inspections, background checks for employees
and a way to ensure patients have current recommendations.

"We can't have this discussion without acknowledging that some
recommendations are questionable," Allman said. "But then the question
is, who questions a recommendation?"