BY ED MURRIETA

In this season of fresh-baked Christmas cookies, the creation story of
Uncle Buck’s new line of medical cannabis edibles — hand-scooped raw
cookie dough that can be purchased at medical cannabis dispensaries
and baked at home — has the ring of holiday renewal.

Founded two years ago this February, Uncle Buck’s is a
Sacramento-based maker of medical cannabis edibles — cookies and
crispy treats — that stand out for their quality and
laboratory-tested potency.

Uncle Buck’s founder, Steven Lee, said he ceased operations for three
months earlier this year — not because of any pressure from the
federal government or any local governments that is causing
dispensaries up and down the state to close but because the commercial
kitchen from which he had leased space suffered its own business
difficulties.

Lee said he recently found a new commercial kitchen to work in, but
since this kitchen is certified only as a prep kitchen — there is no
convection oven — Lee was forced to make a change: Instead of selling
baked cookies, Uncle Buck’s now makes and distributes raw cookie
dough. Uncle Buck’s crispy treats (fruity and peanut butter flavored)
are still in production as they don’t require baking.

Uncle Buck’s raw cookie dough was released to Sacramento dispensaries
this month and is available at River City Phoenix (1508 East El Camino
Ave.), Grass (2014 10th St. and 4381 Gateway Park Blvd. Suite #560,)
and All About Wellness (1900 19th St.). Available in three varieties
– chocolate chip ($7), double chocolate chip ($10) and double peanut
butter chip ($10) — each package contains four 1-ounce knobs of
hand-scooped raw cookie dough.

Packages are sold frozen, sealed in air-tight mylar bags. As Uncle
Buck’s very informative labeling information notes, the raw dough
stays fresh in the refrigerator for up to 1 week and stores in the
freezer for up to three months.

Compared to many other medical cannabis edibles sold at dispensaries,
Uncle Buck’s products are a cut above. Not only are they
professionally packaged and informatively labeled but the cookies look
and taste good — on par with some supermarket and bakery product
lines, unlike some raggedy “alternative” products that pass for
edibles at many dispensaries.

For a hand-scooped product, Uncle Buck’s raw cookie dough is uniform
and consistent. I sampled three packages and all 12 cookies looked and
weighed the same.

They’re easy to bake: Thawed to room temperature, the knobs of raw
dough bake in about 10 minutes in a 350-degree oven. Each cookie is
good for at least two bites — so with these cookies you don’t get the
usual edibles warning about eating half and saving the rest for later,
as if anyone eats only a portion of any cookie.

The tops of the peanut butter cookies are scored in a cross-hatch
pattern, inviting and allowing the cookies to develop a surface of
ridges and plateaus as they bake, giving the finished cookies extra
crunch and depth. The chocolate chips cookies are studded with
semi-sweet goodness. The cookies are chewy, crunchy, buttery and only
slightly cannabissy — exactly what you want in a good medical
cannabis edible.

Lee said he uses Hershey’s brand chocolate and peanut butter chips and
Adam’s all-natural brand peanut butter. The butter that serves as the
base for his canna-butter is purchased at Sam’s Club.

As for potency, certified by Steep Hill Analytics Laboratory of
Oakland, each package of the double chocolate chip and double peanut
butter cookie dough contains 100 mg of THC, or 25 mg of THC per
cookie. That’s between 2 and 4 doses per package, depending on your
tolerance for edibles.

Uncle Buck’s regular chocolate chip cookie dough is a cookie of a
different cannabinoid: CBD, or cannabidiol. Instead of THC
(tetrahydrocannabinol), CBD is the star cannabinoid in these chocolate
chip cookies. Whereas THC is the psychoactive cannabinoid that in
higher concentrations can make your mind and pulse race, CBD produces
a milder, more relaxing effect. Uncle Buck’s high-THC cookies are more
likely to help you sleep or be creative, while Uncle Buck’s high-CBD
cookies are more likely to relieve pain and swelling while you remain
wide awake and focused.

Uncle Buck’s high-CBD cookies are made from Harlequin, a sativa strain
popular for its rich CBD and low THC content. The high-THC cookies
contain a blend of cannabis strains. All of the cannabis in Uncle
Buck’s cookies is concentrated into the butter that goes into each
recipe. Lee said he uses both bud and leaf in his cannabis butter, as
cannabis leaf contains significant amounts of CBD.

Since CBD acts in balance with THC, helping moderate THC’s sometimes
unpleasant effects — Feeling over-cannabinated? Try a little CBD. –
Lee selects cannabis strains that contain some CBD for use in his
double chocolate chip and double peanut butter cookies. Each of those
cookies contain 3 mg of CBD per package, or about .75 mg per cookie.
Uncle Buck’s high-CBD cookies, meanwhile, contain 30 mg of CBD and 23
mg of THC per package, or 7.5 mg CBD and 5.75 mg THC per cookie.

In addition to being laboratory-tested for potency, each batch of
Uncle Buck’s raw cookie dough is tested for mold and bacteria,
including E. coli.

Testing for E. coli is a big distinction. A recent Federal Drug
Administration investigation into a 2009 E. coli outbreak linked to
Nestle’s raw cookie dough sold in supermarkets nationwide indicated
that raw flour and not raw eggs was the E. coli culprit.

If you’re one of those people who buy raw cookie dough with no
intention of baking cookies, you’re not alone. The investigation of
the 2009 E. coli cases found that a number of people bought raw cookie
dough intending to eat raw cookie dough.

Uncle Buck’s cookie dough contains no eggs — vegetable oil is used to
give the cookies structure and mouthfeel.

“Although this product has no eggs, baking the cookie product is
optimal for safety,” Lee said.

BY ED MURRIETA

Still not convinced that medical cannabis dispensaries are part of the lifeblood of the communities they serve? Consider that patient members of Orangevale’s Magnolia Wellness Collective gave 25 pints of plasma in last year’s Orangevale Community Blood Drive.

Magnolia, which just became the Sacramento region’s first dispensary to unionized its employees, hopes to double the amount of donated blood this year. To prime the plasma pump, Magnolia will give its registered patients a free medicated edible from Uncle Buck’s Bakery when they donate blood at Friday’s drive. Better than the donuts and orange juice people usually get for donating blood.

Orangevale Community Blood Drive at the
Orangevale Community Center
6826 Hazel Ave., Orangevale
Friday, Oct. 28, 2pm-6pm

Here’s a map for those who want to go from the blood drive location to Magnolia Wellness Collective to get their Uncle Buck baked good.

BY ED MURRIETA

Two cannabis-themed events with “frightful” overtones are planned for Saturday night at two Sacramento medical cannabis dispensaries. One event is a fund-raiser for a group of patients, medical professionals, scientists and concerned citizens promoting safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic use and research. The other event marks a dispensary’s closure as Sacramento County and the federal government put the scare on the industry.

At Common Roots Collective in south Sacramento, the cannabis activist group Americans for Safe Access hosts “Puff Puff Politics.” According to ASA’s flyer for the event, “It’s like a wine tasting but with cannabis.” Three top medical strains will be tasted, and cannabis activists will lead discussions between tastings. There’ll even be a silent auction of jack o’ lanterns carved in cannabis themes.

Tickets are $50 per person; you can buy them online. Attendees are promised swag bags of goodies. Bhang, the top-tier cannabis chocolatier, is among the sponors. The promoter told me today that other sponors, speakers and tasting panelists won’t be revealed until Friday.

Americans for Safe Access is the largest national member-based organization of patients, medical professionals, scientists and concerned citizens promoting safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic use and research. Common Roots is like a farmers market collective, with licensed cannabis growers offering their products directly to patients. No grams over $10. Commom Roots offers art therapy and yoga, and has hosted reggae bands and an African dance troupe in its large warehouse space, which has been blessed by a shamanic healer.

The Farmers Market could use some healing juju. The medical cannabis dispensary on the edge of the old Mather Field in Sacramento County is throwing a party on Saturday night, but instead of raising funds with a frightful holiday event, The Farmers Market, like many medical cannabis dispensaries, is being scared out of operation. Saturday’s customer appreciation party will be The Farmers Market’s last — its last party and its last day of business before it switches to a delivery-only business model.

I had the pleasure of attending The Farmers Market’s two previous customer appreciation parties in the past month. Both were fun and informative, featuring food — grilled hot dogs and polish sausage one night, a do-it-your-self nacho bar the other night — and soft drinks and snacks. One event featured edibles makers who not only offered samples of their products but offered insight into infusing cannabis into water — a simple prodedure with powerful effects. Of course, both nights offered heavy doses of bonhomie — people talking, sharing, enjoying themselves and enjoying each other’s company, the things that happen in clean, comfortable social settings. Many people were enjoying cannabis — in joints, in pipes, and vaporized in elaborate bongs that cried out to be shared, if only for their conversation-piece value.

The Farmers Market bills Saturday’s event as a Harvest Party. But, really, given the cannabis crackdown, the party marks anything but a harvest. What Sacramento County is doing — spitting in the face of a voter-approved state initiative, turning its back on jobs and tax revenue — amounts to burning your fields in the face of famine. What the federal governent is doing — withholding cannabis research approval, threatening to seize property and prosecute landowners, ensuring ever-larger profits for the pharmaceuticals industry — is a fright worth fighting.

Puff Puff Politics, a fund-raiser for Americans for Safe Access: Oct. 29, 7 p.m.-midnight, Common Roots Collective, 3039 52nd Ave., Unit B, Sacramento. Tickets: $50.

The Farmers Market Harvest Party, 7 p.m.-midnight, 3791 Bradview Drive, Sacramento.

One dispensary operator says this US Attorney, Benjamin Walker, scares everybody.

BY ED MURRIETA

The cities of Sacramento and Eureka are cowering as the federal government intensifies its war on medical cannabis. As the 15th anniversary of the passage of the voter-approved ballot initiative that legalized cannabis for medicinal use in California approaches, Sacramento and Eureka retreat.

The city of Sacramento, unnerved by a federal crackdown on dispensaries, abruptly suspended its process for issuing permits to dispensaries, the Sacramento Bee reports.

“As a result of the uncertain climate on medical marijuana, I have directed staff to freeze or halt the processing of applications for medical marijuana,” City Manager John Shirey said in a memo to the City Council. “As of this time, we will not accept any new applications or set future hearing dates until we receive further direction … on the legal viability of the city’s medical marijuana ordinance.”

In a memo, obtained by the Bee, Shirley cited the specter of federal action against dispensaries as a reason for suspending the permitting process. Shirey also noted a recent state appellate court ruling that found a Long Beach ordinance regulating dispensaries runs afoul of federal law, which regards marijuana as an illegal drug, medical or otherwise.

Meantime in Eureka, the largest city in cannabis-producing Humbolt County, the city council is backing down after standing up. Just weeks after opting to stay the course in the face of threatened federal action regarding its medical cannabis ordinance, Eureka is now rethinking its strategy, citing the Long Beach case.

”We will probably talk about a moratorium, at the very least,” Councilman Mike Newman told the Eureka Times-Standard, adding that the legal landscape of medical marijuana cannabis has shifted notably since the council declined to institute a moratorium on the issuance of the permits at its Oct. 4 meeting.

Eureka’s decision to reconsider its ordinance leaves one dispensary’s conditional use permit application in the lurch. In Sacramento, 33 dispensaries are in various stages of the city permit process, and only four dispensaries have been issued operating permits.

As the Bee reports, the city’s “temporary freeze” doesn’t mean that the 38 dispensaries operating in the city will have to close.

Closing the dispensaries would cut off an annual infusion of $1 million the city had counted on from a 4 perccent tax on medical cannabis dispensaries’ receipts. So far, the city has collected $280,000 in voter-approved dispensary taxes.

Even though it’s halting the permitting process, the city will continue to tax medical cannabis dispensaries — not just the four dispensaries that have been issued permits (Fruitridge Health & Wellness, All About Wellness, El Camino Wellness and Unity Non Profit Collective) but all the dispensaries whose long-term business prospects are threatened while their operating permits are in limbo.

Besides uncertainty over federal actions, including threats to seize properties of landlords who lease to dispensaries or medical cannabis cultivators, the Bee notes that cities are concerned about an Oct. 4 ruling by the state’s 2nd District Court of Appeal.

The court ruled that Long Beach’s dispensary plan –- with permitting rules similar to Sacramento’s -– was an “obstacle” to federal drug law. The ruling departed from an earlier decision, by the state’s 4th District Court of Appeal, that the city of Anaheim couldn’t simply use federal law as grounds for banning dispensaries.

The Long Beach ruling came down the same day Eureka stood up to a letter from U.S. Northern District Attorney Melinda Haag, who wrote to say that her department was concerned about Eureka’s “creation of a licensing scheme that permits large-scale industrial marijuana cultivation, processing and distribution.” As the Times-Standard reports, the warned that if Eureka were to proceed with licensing dispensaries under the ordinance, the U.S. Attorney’s Office would consider taking action, including pursuing injunctions, fines, criminal prosecutions and forfeitures.

The Eureka city council, in its Oct. 4 vote, said it would stay the course in the face of this threat. The council now says it voted before it heard the news of the Long Beach ruling. Now that it’s heard the news, the city council wants more discussion on the issue.

“Had that information been placed before us (on Oct. 4), the discussion probably would have turned a different way,” councilman Newman said.

Some legal observers say the Long Beach ruling throws many cities’ ordinances into question.

“That damned U.S. attorney,” one Sacramento dispensary operator told the Bee. “He just scares the heck out of these people.”

One of my contacts in Redding sent me a copy of a letter his dispensary’s landlord received from US Attorney Benjamin Wagner, a little reminder that the government can, could and just maybe will seize the property of citizens in the feds’ war on medical cannabis.

My contact said the landlord offered to sell the building to the dispensary. Stay tuned for real estate news.

Here’s the US Attorney’s letter. It appears to be a digital image of a fax. Redactions appear to be Photoshopped, not done with one of the federal government’s brown markers.  Click on the images to view them full size.

BY ED MURRIETA

CBD is like salt.

Add a pinch of cannabidiol to tetrahydrocannabinol and, suddenly, that THC in your system responds like a tomato sprinkled with sodium — richer, balanced, complete.

“It’s a yin-and-yang relationship,” said Al Coles, founder of Alta California, a Stinson Beach company that makes medical cannabis tinctures centered on THC and CBD, two of more than 80 cannabinoids in the plant. “THC is the female: It takes you in and expands the mind. CBD is the male: It takes you out and focuses the mind.”

CBD is a non-psychoactive cannabinoid that acts as both calmer and catalyst to THC, the psychoactive cannabinoid that stimulates (and can over-stimulate) the mind and appetite. While both cannabinoids mitigate many ailments — seizures from MS and Parkinson’s disease, nausea in people with AIDS, cancer and Crohn’s disease, as well as chronic pain and depression in many people — THC is the cannabinoid that “messes with your head.” CBD, meanwhile, is body-centered and moderates the mind-racing and heart-racing effects THC can cause while also enhancing THC’s more pleasurable euphoric effect.

“It’s a better high,” Coles said. “That’s why I don’t do pure THC anymore.”

Holding up half-ounce bottles of tinctures high in THC and high in CBD during an interview last week at Magnolia Wellness, the Orangevale medical cannabis dispensary that carries his line of Alta California tinctures, Coles said, “There’s a whole new world of experience to be had by combining these two. I’ve been able to have a real good high feeling at much lower doses by having a little CBD in my system. A lot of people keep smoking pot while their high is going away. They say the THC is psychoactive but there’s no euphoria. CBD will bring back the euphoria.”

Alta California tinctures come in three versions: 99 percent THC and 1 percent CBD, labeled Euphoria; 80 percent CBD and 20 percent THC, labeled Healing; and 50 percent THC and 50 percent CBD, labeled Tranquility.

Coles said Euphoria works well for patients seeking relief from depression or insomnia and is especially popular with “the cannabis culture and people looking for the THC type of experience.” Healing, he said, is popular with patients who seek pain relief. And because CBD is an appetite suppressant unlike THC, Coles said his Healing product line is popular with women. Tranquility, he said, is popular with MS and Parkinson’s patients who suffer seizures and require the maximum benefits of both cannabinoids.

Recommended dosage, based on body weight, ranges from one-half milliliter (half an eye-dropper) to 6 milliliters. The tincture can be swallowed orally, placed under the tongue or may be infused into your beverage of choice. Each half-ounce bottle of tincture costs $40 — about $2.50 per dose.

As Coles described it, medicating with Alta California tinctures is like being your own alchemist and finding the balance of cannabinoids that work for you.

“High is a subjective assessment,” Coles said. “High is your symptom telling you it feels good, it’s got what it needs.”

Noting that THC in high doses can cause anxiety and paranoia, Coles said CBD is the natural, calming antidote.

“CBD deactivates the mind,” Coles said. “The active mind that people want to go away, it goes away. THC is the one typically that helps you sleep but a lot of people have been finding sleep benefits from CBD because their minds were so active — they’re Facebooked out, they’re always going, they need to shut it up. CBD does.”

Coles offered chemotherapy patients as another example of CBD’s beneficiaries. The memory of a previous chemotherapy treatment, he said, can trigger physical illness in patients en route to appointments. CBD, Coles said, prevents that physical illness by keeping the active mind in check.

“That’s what they call memory extinction,” Coles said. “Some people need just enough to keep that dominant memory, whatever it might be, at bay. And if you go too far with CBD, which is, the active mind is gone completely, you can take THC and it will kick it back.”

Coles said Alta California’s tinctures are made using whole cannabis plants — a version of the Harlequin strain for the high-CBD tincture and an Afghani and OG Kush for the high-THC tincture. Neutral grape spirits — 190-proof ethanol, made from organic grapes grown in Northern California — are used to extract and preserve the active cannabinoids, and to speed up their absorption in a person’s body. Honey and mint oil flavor the tincture, and propylene glycol, a food-safe stabilizer, binds and thickens. While each half-ounce bottle contains an amount of alcohol “equivalent to a quarter-shot of tequila,” Coles said his product doesn’t induce alcohol effects.

“Alcohol speeds up the bio-availability of the cannabinoids into the liver,” Coles said. “That means you get the medicine faster and you can judge if you have it right. If you have to wait an hour, you can’t judge.”

WHERE TO BUY
Alta California tinctures are available at these medical cannabis dispensaries in the Sacramento area. The cost is $40 per half-ounce bottle.

Magnolia Wellness: 9198 Greenback Lane, Orangevale; (916) 865-7351

Unity Non Profit Collective: 1832 Tribute Road, Sacramento; (916) 564-1824

1 Love Wellness:  1841 El Camino Ave., Sacramento; (916) 231-5683

One U.S. Attorney says medical cannabis ads like those in this Sacramento News & Review publication, are illegal.

The federal government’s pot pogrom is about to extend to the Fourth Estate — targeting newspapers, radio stations and other media outlets that carry advertisements for medical cannabis dispensaries, California Watch reports.

U.S. Attorney Laura E. Duffy, whose district includes Imperial and San Diego counties, said medical cannabis advertising is the next area she’s “going to be moving onto as part of the enforcement efforts in Southern California.” Duffy said she could not speak for the three other U.S. attorneys covering the state but noted their efforts have been coordinated so far.

“I’m not just seeing print advertising,” Duffy said. “I’m actually hearing radio and seeing TV advertising. It’s gone mainstream. Not only is it inappropriate – one has to wonder what kind of message we’re sending to our children – it’s against the law.”

Duffy said she could not speak for the three other U.S. attorneys covering the state but noted their efforts have been coordinated so far.

In Northern California, medical cannabis advertising has been a boon to many newspapers, particularly weekly newspapers like Sacramento’s News & Review, which earlier this year launched a special section just for medical cannabis advertising. The region’s leading daily newspaper, the Sacramento Bee, started its own medical cannabis advertising section in September. (Disclosure: Pot Appetit  is a paid content contributor to the Bee’s medical cannabis advertising section.)  Channel 40, a Fox affiliate, runs commercials for medical cannabis dispensaries.

Federal law prohibits people from placing ads for illegal drugs, including marijuana, in “any newspaper, magazine, handbill or other publication.” The law could conceivably extend to online ads; the U.S. Department of Justice recently extracted a $500 million settlement from Google for selling illegal ads linking to online Canadian pharmacies.

Duffy said her effort against TV, radio or print outlets would first include “going after these folks with … notification that they are in violation of federal law.” She noted that she also has the power to seize property or prosecute in civil and criminal court.

William G. Panzer, an attorney who specializes in marijuana defense cases, said publishers may have a reason to worry. Federal law singles out anyone who “places” an illegal ad in a newspaper or publication. Nevertheless, Panzer said he is not aware of a single appellate case dealing with this section of the law.

“Technically, if I’m running the newspaper and somebody gives me money and says, ‘Here’s the ad,’ I’m the one who is physically putting the ad in my newspaper,” he said. “I think this could be brought against the actual newspaper. Certainly, it’s arguable, but the statute is not entirely clear on that.”

In the federal law, an exception is made for ads that advocate the use of illegal drugs but don’t explicitly offer them for sale or distribution. Newspapers, Panzer said, could argue that they have a right under the First Amendment to run the ads, and any “prior restraint” before publication is itself illegal.

Duffy said she believes the law gives her the right to prosecute newspaper publishers or TV station owners.

“If I own a newspaper … or I own a TV station, and I’m going to take in your money to place these ads, I’m the person who is placing these ads,” Duffy said. “I am willing to read (the law) expansively and if a court wants to more narrowly define it, that would be up to the court.”

Ngaio Bealum, editor of West Coast Cannabis, said he receives a significant portion of his revenue from dispensary ads. Bealum said it was “misguided for the Department of Justice to come after people who are following state law and doing well for the economy in a recession.”

Jeff vonKaenel, CEO and majority owner of the Sacramento News & Review, said he was “stunned by that interpretation of the First Amendment.” He said his publications “receive quite a bit of revenue from (dispensaries) and it would have a detrimental impact” if he was forced to stop publishing the ads.

What the federal government doesn’t claim, Sacramento County will. Already, nine medical cannabis dispensaries that regularly purchased advertising in Sacramento newspapers have closed and no longer purchase ads – quarter-page ads starting about $500, full-page ads from $1,500 to $2,000 each.

BY ED MURRIETA

The federal government’s war on cannabis in California yielded indictments against four Sacramento men accused of operating a cannabis-growing operation “for straight-up drug deals.”

California Department of Justice agents, supported by Sacramento County sheriff’s deputies, raided an industrial building in South Sacramento this morning, Sacramento TV station News 10 reports. A DOJ spokeswoman said seven locations were raided in conjunction with this operation. Agents were also seizing luxury cars and boats.

Four men have been indicted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in this case: Peter Holzmann, Thomas Holzmann, Joseph Andrade and Jonathan Sherman.

State DOJ spokeswoman Michelle Gregory said the suspects were not claiming medical cannabis immunity. “They are straight-up drug dealers,” she said.

The federal government announced last week that’s it’s cracking down on what the U.S. Attorney dubbed pot “profiteers.”

Auburn Health & Organics on Auburn Boulevard.

BY ED MURRIETA

A former Assistant U.S. Attorney speaking in favor of the federal government’s pot pogrom said recently that a letter from the U.S. Attorney warning medical cannabis dispensaries and the landlords who rent to them is a good thing.

“This letter is the best news that marijuana growers have ever received from the federal government because this letter is a courtesy that most people don’t get,” Bill Portanova said.

In the courtesy vein, but on the opposite side of the battle, Auburn Health & Organics, one of scores of medical cannabis dispensaries operating without the required business and zoning permits that Sacramento County refuses to issue in the first place, is giving its patients (along with the county and federal forces counting scalps) the courtesy of a heads-up: It’ll close Nov. 15, another casualty in the $1 million war that the Board of Supervisors borrows to finance.

So far,  here’s an unofficial tally of confirmed closures:

Sunnyfields.

One Solution.

City of Trees.

California Holistic Care.

Fort Kush.

The Reserve.

Citizen Collective.

PACC Group.

All-Natural Solutions.

PACC Group on Auburn Boulevard.

The sign on the door at Fort Kush on Florin Road.

The sign you see from Florin Road may need updating.

For more pictures, click here.

Johnny Zonneveld, a Marines combat veteran who uses medical cannabis to fight post-traumatic stress disorder,addressed the Carmichael planning council in July. Photo by Patch.com

BY ED MURRIETA

With more than $5,000 in code violations and the threatened closure of two adacent businesses, Johnny Zonneveld conceded a skirmish in Sacramento County’s war on medical cannabis dispensaries and closed Sunnyfields Collective on Thursday.

Sunnyfields joins One Solution, City of Trees, California Holistic Care, Citizen Collective, The Reserve, PACC Group and Fort Kush among the confirmed casualties in the $1 million war that Sacramento County is borrowing to wage on medical cannabis dispensaries, jobs and tax revenue be damned.

Now hold on to irony. The case of  Johnny Zonneveld, a U.S. Marine combat veteran who uses medical cannabis to battle post-traumatic stress disorder and the events leading up to the closure of a medical cananbis dispensary that serves more than 200 military veterans who also suffer from PTSD, is about to sound like a 21st century Catch-22:

Zonneveld was fined, on zoning violations, for operating a type of business that Sacramento County does not recognize and will not permit.

“In violation of operating a medical cannabis dispensary,” Zonneveld said. “Non-permitted use, basically. Nusiance.”

Then Zonneveld was fined, on building code violations, when he constructed a wall inside the dispensary without a permit from the county, which would not issue such a permit to a business that does not already have a permit to operate as a legally recognized business.

Zonneveld recalled his trip to Sacramento County’s building department.

“I wanted a permit to construct a wall,” he said.

“The guy from the county said, ‘What’s your use?’

“I told him straight-up what I was doing.

“He said, ‘You’re never gonna get that approved.’

“I said, OK, I’ll take the fines for the walls.”

After fines topped $5,000, Zonneveld retreated.

“I couldn’t pay my employees,” he said. “We just couldn’t stay open.”

The liquor store and the tattoo parlor at this Fair Oaks Boulevard address remain in business. The medical cannabis dispensary closed.

Zonneveld threw his 8-month-old medical cannabis dispensary on a grenade. The survivors include a tattoo parlor and a liquor store in a ramshackle 1950s-era strip mall.

“It’s partially why I decided not to mess with the county,” Zonneveld said. “There are two other businessiness there. Basically, if you have a building code violation in a building, they can close that building down because it’s considered a safety hazard.  The landlord wasn’t willing to fix the different things that are wrong with the building, and the county wouldn’t approve the permit for me to get things up to code.”

Zonneveld, who served in the Marines infantry and performed tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2000 to 2004, is preparing a new front:

Sunnyfields Collective, Zonneveld said, will continue to dispense medical cannabis to qualified patients — but only by appointment and only to existing patients or to new patients who are referred by existing patients.

“We have a private location that members can come to,” Zonneveld said. “But we’re not advertising we have a storefront. We’re not advertising as a delivery service either.”

Zonneveld says he’s not deterred by the county’s response.

“I don’t really care what the hell the county thinks of it now,” Zonneveld said. “I’m not doing this for the county. I’m doing this for the people who need cannabis.”

As for the county?

“Basically, they’re telling me what I’m doing is wrong or illegal yet Prop. 215 passed in 1996 and 15 years after the law actually passed they still don’t have an ordinance written. That means they haven’t done their job,” Zonneveld said. “If anybody should get any kind of fine for doing something illegal, it should be the county Board of Supervisors for not doing their jobs, for not doing what the voters actually voted for.”

Sunnyfields Collective
sunnyfieldsgrow.org
916-572-7213