MEDICAL MARIJUANA ACTIVIST, CANNAHELP OWNER STACY HOCHANADEL FACES LEGAL ACTION

Dispensary Landlord Wants Equipment Back

PALM SPRINGS - Financial troubles continue to mount for desert medical
marijuana activist Stacy Hochanadel.

Earlier this month, Hochanadel's Palm Springs medical marijuana
dispensary, CannaHelp, was evicted from its space at 505 Industrial
Way. Hochanadel now faces a criminal complaint filed by his landlord,
Michael Rice.

Rice says Hochanadel and his employees ripped out $50,000 to $60,000
in electrical and ventilation equipment that should have stayed in the
dispensary.

Hochanadel also owes the landlord $400,000 in unpaid rent and loans
for improvements made to the building to outfit the dispensary's grow
room.

For now, Rice says he wants two air conditioning units and three
electrical boxes Hochanadel and his employees pulled out three weeks
ago.

"I paid for just about everything," the landlord says. "I don't want
him to go to jail. Stacy's broke. I just want the stuff back."

For his part, Hochanadel thought he and his landlord were working
things out - to the point that he might move back into his old space.

Hochanadel first started renting space in Rice's 50-year-old
commercial building in 2008. When Palm Springs closed the dispensary
while city leaders hammered out an ordinance to deal with pot shops,
the landlord actually advocated for his tenant, going to City Council
meetings on CannaHelp's behalf.

"I am for medical marijuana. I believe in it," Rice
said.

Hochanadel faces two other civil lawsuits:

In one case filed last March, a former partner, Steve Kessler, wants
to be paid for nearly $200,000 in lighting equipment.

In a second case filed in August, Daniel McCrae demands that CannaHelp
pay back $757,000 he loaned the dispensary last year. McCrae claims
Hochanadel misled him about CannaHelp's financial troubles.

"We tried to work with Stacy, but he failed to pay back all of the
money," said Rancho Mirage attorney Paul Bojic.

Again, Hochanadel says he still is working with both lenders to
resolve their issues.

"I talk to them on a weekly basis," he says.

Meanwhile, Hochanadel faces criminal charges for running an unlicensed
Palm Desert dispensary raided in 2006.

He still hopes to reopen CannaHelp in the next month, before he loses
his city permit.

"If we have our fair shake, we can do it," he says.