Zen Healing Collective, one of the city’s larger marijuana dispensaries, doesn’t have to close permanently but will have to close its doors for two weeks per a decision from the West Hollywood Business License Commission.
Zen faced the threat of having its license revoked in the wake of former owner Andrew Harrison Kramer pleading guilty to a number of criminal charges.
The Business License Commission previously asked for proof that Kramer and his family were no longer involved in the business prior to making a decision about the business license. That documentation was supplied, according to WeHo code compliance manager Jeffrey Aubel.
Although the commission did not revoke the license, it did issue a 14-day suspension because of violations. Aubel said that those violations included not having a licensed manager on-site and not having a properly certified security guard on-site. There was also a citation made when Zen would not let a code enforcement officer onto the premises, Aubel said.
There is a 15-day period during which that suspension can be appealed, Aubel said. If it is not successfully appealed, Zen will then have to close its doors for two weeks. The business will also be on probation for a year, according to Aubel.
A resolution from the Business License Commission stipulates these operating conditions:
• Zen must post an additional certified security guard in the rear parking lot during all business hours and must “prevent patients from medicating on the property and remind patients to keep noise down while using the parking lot.”
• Zen can’t deny access to sheriff’s deputies or code compliance officers.
• Zen must hold quarterly neighborhood meetings to address neighbors’ concerns.
• Zen must post signs with the name and phone number of a manager available to field complaints.
Among the 26 charges to which former owner Kramer pleaded guilty were conspiring to rob his former landlord’s Beverly Hills home, to stalking and attempting to burn that home and to hiring others to attack the landlord, George Lanning, and members of Lanning’s family. He also pleaded guilty to hiring others to throw Molotov cocktails onto an apartment roof above the Sunset Super Shop dispensary at 8921 Sunset Blvd. near Hilldale that Lanning owned.
