Local News : Ventura County Star
For 20 years, Kent Johnston patrolled the streets of East County, taught defensive tactics at the academy and worked transport for high risk suspects as a deputy for the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.
Six years into retirement, the Thousand Oaks resident and one-time chef, wants to go into business for himself running a medical marijuana dispensary. He’d like to set up shop in Westlake Village.
It’s a location that could serve patients in Ventura County, he said, many of whom drive into Los Angeles County for medical marijuana.
“I’m a businessman,” Johnston said. “I see an opportunity. There’s a niche I want to fill. I want to thrive.”
Sgt. Ken Crocker of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department’s Lost Hills Station, which patrols Westlake Village, said he is not aware of any dispensaries in the area. In Ventura County, a number of cities, including Simi Valley, have blocked dispensaries from opening. The city of Los Angeles has a moratorium in place for new dispensaries until it hashes out recommendations on how to accommodate them. Dispensaries that were in operation and properly licensed before a 2007 deadline are allowed to remain in operation.
Johnston will go before the Westlake Village City Council tonight to ask the council to put the issue on an upcoming agenda so a formal discussion and ultimately a decision on medical marijuana dispensaries can take place. He also hopes the council doesn’t swiftly enact a moratorium blocking dispensaries before hearing out his proposal. Cities throughout the state have enacted temporary moratoriums or temporary bans that prohibit dispensaries from opening.
Simi Valley cited federal law and the potential adverse effects of dispensaries in deciding to ban them in 2006.
Proposition 215 — The Compassionate Use Act of 1996 — encourages “the federal and state governments to implement a plan to provide for the safe and affordable distribution of marijuana to all patients in medical need of marijuana.”
“I would like to get it recognized, legal and licensed by the city,” said Johnston, sitting in the living room of his Thousand Oaks home. “I would ask them where would they like us to be. Where would they like to hide us.”
The Canoga Park model
The dispensary would be modeled after Discount Co-op in Canoga Park, where Johnston works as an apprentice and where he purchases his own medical marijuana for the digestive disease diverticulitis, as well as fibromyalgia and several other conditions, he said he has. Johnston received his first doctor’s recommendation for medical marijuana three years ago and it has been renewed twice.
Medical marijuana users are required to have a doctor’s recommendation and counties are required to issue medical marijuana identification cards to patients who want them.
At the co-op, one of 70 licensed to operate in the city of Los Angeles and owned by Chris Patel, customers buy their marijuana and leave. Johnston is not interested in a cafe- setting, that allows customers to smoke and linger.
The nonprofit Discount Co-op is tucked into the farthest corner in the back of a strip mall with a chicken joint, storefront church and door-maker in a rough-around-the edges neighborhood. The black glass door has “DC” on it and a doorbell rings whenever someone pushes it open.
A man in a black “DC Security” T-shirt buzzes visitors through a locked metal gate and into a waiting room with two overstuffed, brown suede couches, a large screen TV and a table covered with pamphlets about medical marijuana and related magazines. Patients show their original doctor’s recommendation and driver’s license, sign in and are admitted into a room with glass display cases filled with jars of medical marijuana with names like “Purple Master” and “DC Super OG.”
Patel estimates one in five of his customers is from Ventura County.
“Our location is protected like a bank,” Johnston said, adding the dispensary has not been the target of any crimes. “We have everything that a bank has.”
Obtaining a permit
Johnston went to Westlake Village’s City Hall last week, ready to do what was necessary to open his dispensary, preferably tucked into a nondescript, possibly light industrial part of town.
He turned to Westlake Village after reading a news story quoting the mayor saying there was potential for a dispensary to open if it followed the city’s ordinances. The mayor, Robert Slavin, added he was a proponent for state rights.
Slavin did not return a call for comment.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced last month that the U.S. Justice Department would not prosecute medical marijuana dispensaries that follow the laws of the state where they do business. Currently, 13 states have laws allowing the use of medical marijuana.
California’s 1996 voter- approved act allows patients with a variety of illnesses to legally use marijuana medicinally, provided they have a doctor’s authorization. State lawmakers passed SB 420 that went into effect in 2004, which clarifies Proposition 215 by limiting where medical marijuana can be smoked. It also established a statewide voluntary identification card system and addresses parameters for patients growing medicinal marijuana and possessing it.
Johnston, along with dozens of others, called or visited Westlake Village and quickly learned the city does not have ordinances on the books regarding medical marijuana. The city’s municipal code has categories of uses, such as retail services, that are allowed in particular zones. If a use is not listed, the planning director can determine if it can fit into an existing use.
“The city’s official position is this is a non-permitted use,” Senior Planner Scott Wolfe said. “And until the City Council wants to change this, that is the approach we have to take.”
Wolfe has immersed himself in a crash course on medical marijuana dispensaries since the city began receiving a deluge of calls from interested, would-be proprietors. In the past four years, the city has received one or two calls about opening a dispensary. Following Holder’s announcement, the calls increased to two or three a week and then exploded to five or six calls a day following the mayor’s comments.
‘I never went into narcotics’
Johnston has an attorney at the ready and is lining up a real estate agent, he said.
“I should put my career where my heart is,” Johnston said. “I am good at identifying, caring for and selling marijuana.”
He first smoked marijuana at 13 and described himself as an occasional user when he applied to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Academy. Johnston said he didn’t smoke for the 20 years he was with the agency.
“I kept myself in a position where I never had to go against my beliefs,” Johnston said. “I never went into narcotics.”
Johnston stood behind the counter holding a large jar of marijuana under a bright magnifying light for Moorpark resident Nyssa Dunning, who works for an eating disorder treatment center. Dunning said she has polycystic ovarian syndrome and gastroesophageal reflux disease. She was taking up to six prescription pills a day to control her heath problems, including a medication to control vomiting, which can cause serious muscle spasms. She experienced a spasm while in Mexico.
It was after that incident that Dunning said she began talking to her doctor about medical marijuana.
“I couldn’t take it anymore. My liver was shot. I was throwing up,” she said, adding she supported Johnston’s efforts for a dispensary that would be closer to her home. “You know you are dealing with a legitimate business. Something like this is really vital for me.”
For now, Dunning continues to travel to the San Fernando Valley. While smoking medical marijuana hurts her throat, Dunning said she no longer experiences the harsh side effects of the other medication she was on and it has alleviated her symptoms.
Westlake City Council Meeting
VenturaCountyStar.com
Retired sheriff’s deputy and fledging entrepreneur Kent Johnston of Thousand Oaks didn’t get the welcome he hoped for Wednesday night when he went before the Westlake Village City Council to inform officials of his intent to pursue opening a medical marijuana facility within the city.
While the city does not specifically have an ordinance or moratorium on medical marijuana facilities, Planning Director Robert Theobald said this type of issue has surfaced several times before and the city’s municipals codes do not allow for those types of establishments.
“The city’s policy and position has been that such facilities are not permitted by our zoning ordinance,” Theobald said. “If you see the zone you are talking about listed as a permitted use either generally or specifically, you can do it. If it is not listed as a specific use, it is prohibited.”
City attorney Terence Boga reiterated Theobald’s assertions, citing court cases in Corona and Anaheim.
“The courts have upheld ordinances such as ours that exclude these types of uses from the jurisdiction,” Boga said.
Johnston looked to Westlake Village as a possible location for a dispensary after reading a news article that suggested Westlake Village Mayor Robert Slavin, a proponent of states’ rights, was open to the possibility of this type of establishment if it was in line with the city’s ordinances.
“Politically, I don’t like Washington dictating items to the state. I am a strong believer in local control and community standards,” Slavin said. “That is not to be interpreted as an endorsement of a cannabis club. People try to make a connection between the two when one does not exist.”
When asked if he sees a facility like the one proposed by Johnston coming to fruition in the city of Westlake Village, Slavin said it didn’t seem likely. “Whatever our municipal code dictates is what we have to follow,” he said. “After hearing our city attorney and planning director the only way this could happen is if we change the municipal code. My sense is that the community and the council would not be in favor of this.”
