Helping Hands Wellness Center, Santa Barbara - Got Raided...

Seaghost

Active Member
After reading the article it appears that they were operating illegally. By that I mean if you are running a dispensary you must meet certain guidelines, this is per my lawyer here in SD.

1 Operate as a non-profit, this still allows for setting of salaries of officers and employees.
2 Incorporate
3 Pay taxes

Under the law if you operate this way you are safe from prosecution at the state level, the feds are another matter.

A clue as to their operating in an illegal fashion is the large amounts of cash, any true non-profit deposits their sales receipts on a daily basis and most now accept credit/debit cards to lower the amount of cash on hand.

Since I operate legally I find it offensive when others don't and I fully support law enforcement on doing their job. The main lesson here is don't do the crime if you can't do the time, nuff said.

Peace out :weed:
 

stoneebro

Member
I find it hard to believe Helping Hands or Choice were doing anything illegal. They operated as a non-profit, payed taxes, always checked ID's, Dr.'s recs and provided security. What this was really about was measure T, in Santa Barbara if measure T passed, it would ban all dispensaries in Santa Barbara! So less than a month before we got to vote on the issue, the Santa Barbara Sheriffs Department decides to target Helping Hands and Choice dispensaries in effort to stir up the anti-marijuana voters...DISGUSTING! I wish the Sheriffs Department would respect the rights of patients and THE LAW!, it is so hurtful to see good people who are helping sick people become targets for this political charade!!
My hopes are that Helping Hands (and Choice) are found innocent of these B.S. charges and are able to reopen(again!) Innocent until proven guilty!!! Oh yeah...measure T didn't pass!!! We the people have spoken...again!!...Santa Barbarians want safe access to medical marijuana despite what the SB Sheriffs department tells you!!
I also read that the San Diego location of Helping Hands got raided the same day as the one here, but at that location the pigs put on HH employee shirts, ran the dispensary for an hour, and harassed patients as they came in for medicine!!SICK!! If any one has details on this please share!!
 

Seaghost

Active Member
Never heard about that down here in SD and I go to helping hands here all of the time due to their great specials. And I know the owner of that location and he was very helpful in helping me setup this business model that I am using now so I would say that is hearsay, especially since there was nothing here in any of our papers about it. But when I go tomorrow I will ask him about that.

And any dispensary operating legally does not keep that much cash on hand, unless that very day you are expecting to make a buy of product. It just appears very fishy but the great news on this was that no other drugs were found, just MMJ. And I'll bet unless certain Federal laws were broken there will be no prosecution.

Peace out :weed:
 

Seaghost

Active Member
Hey thanks a ton for that! Damn our UT rag here, of course they never said a peep in the paper about this! That was definitely a new low and a prime reason I myself don't want to run a dispensary with a store front, way too visible. Delivery is fine by me, lower $$ but much safer!

+ Rep, way to go!!

Peace out :weed:
 
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