Santa Ana's top news & views blog

Santa Ana's top news & views blog

Tag Archives: cannabis

A gigantic marijuana superstore is coming to Santa Ana

Posted on by Posted in Business, Drugs, Marijuana, Santa Ana 3 Comments

Planet 13 Holdings Inc., a leading vertically-integrated Nevada cannabis company, announced today it has signed a binding letter of intent (“LOI”) to acquire a cannabis sales license and lease for a dispensary (the “Dispensary”) in Santa Ana, California, a part of the Greater Los Angeles Region – home to 13.2 million people – from Newtonian Principles, Inc. (“Newtonian”). Planet 13 will pay Newtonian $6 million in cash and 2,039,808 Class A Restricted Shares valued at $4 million upon Planet 13 receiving final state and local regulatory approvals to transfer the operating entity after Newtonian opens its dispensary. As of March 31, 2019, Planet 13 had $20 million in cash, leaving it well capitalized to execute on growth opportunities.

“We are pleased to announce the extension of the successful Planet 13 brand into California,” said Larry Scheffler, Co-CEO of Planet 13. “Our team considers many factors when determining the feasibility of a Planet 13 style store, with the location being the single most important criteria. After a thorough and deliberate search, we identified this excellent site located three miles from the South Coast Plaza Mall, which hosts 24 million visitors a year1 and is just a short ten-minute drive from Disneyland, with 18 million visitors per year2. Since opening in November 2018, next to the Las Vegas Strip, Planet 13 has successfully created Nevada’s top concentrate brand in TRENDI3 and accounted for ~9.1% of all cannabis dispensary sales in Nevada in March 20194. We look forward to sharing the Planet 13 experience with our customers in California.”

“We expect our 40,000 sq. ft. Santa Ana location to be one of the largest cannabis dispensary complexes in the world, behind the Planet 13 Las Vegas SuperStore,” said Bob Groesbeck, Co-CEO of Planet 13. “There are approximately 1.5 million people that fly from the Los Angeles basin to Las Vegas every year, with many more making the short four-hour drive. This is a natural brand extension for us. Planet 13 is all about creating a differentiated cannabis experience, blending top-shelf products with unique experiences and entertainment. We intend to introduce our Medizin, TRENDI, and Leaf and Vine brands into the California market, and to replicate the Las Vegas experience with a California feel, creating a must-see destination in Southern California.”

Assemblyman Solorio comes out against legalizing and taxing cannabis

Posted on by Posted in california, Crime, Democratic Party, Drugs, Elections, Gangs, Jose Solorio, Latinos, mexico, Politics, Santa Ana, Working Families, Youth Activities 2 Comments

Say it ain’t so Jose!  I came across an item on Facebook tonight, which you can see in the graphic above, indicating that our favorite Assemblyman, Jose Solorio, is supporting the campaign against Prop. 19, called Public Safety First, which proposes to regulate and tax cannabis sales.

Prop. 19 would pour millions into California’s empty coffers.  More importantly, it would be a first step in ending the drug war that has killed over 23,000 people in Mexico and put so many minorities in jails here in the U.S.

Check out this quote from the Drug Policy Alliance:

Although African Americans comprise only 12.2 percent of the population and 13 percent of drug users, they make up 38 percent of those arrested for drug offenses and 59 percent of those convicted of drug offenses causing critics to call the war on drugs the “New Jim Crow.” The higher arrest rates for African Americans and Latinos do not reflect a higher abuse rate in these communities but rather a law enforcement emphasis on inner city areas where drug use and sales are more likely to take place in open-air drug markets where treatment resources are scarce.

And check out these excerpts, from the L.A. Times:

Saying that prohibition takes a heavy toll on minorities, leaders of the NAACP’s California chapter announced Monday that they are backing passage of a marijuana legalization initiative on the November ballot.

The war on drugs is a failure and disproportionately targets young men and women of color, particularly African-American males, said Alice Huffman, president of the NAACP’s state conference.

Here is a damning fact – the Facebook page in support of Prop. 19 currently has 110,741 fans, while the Facebook page that Solorio likes, which is against Prop. 19, has only 68 fans!  No bueno!

According to a new column by my friend Judge Jim Gray:

People are beginning to understand that many of the problems with youth gangs, such as shootings, drug sales, and even the recruitment of young people to that dead-end lifestyle, are directly traced to drug prohibition. Police can disrupt the drug trafficking of gangs only to a limited degree, but, they like Al Capone and other such thugs in the alcohol distribution business before them, can only really be put out of that lucrative business by a pronounced change in policy.

Should Solorio be opposing a law that will help the people of California, and especially the people in his 69th Assembly District?  I don’t think so.  If you agree, please click here to send a message to Solorio.

And click here to donate to Prop. 19.