MedMen, three other West Hollywood marijuana shops get stays of execution

Be at the forefront of cannabis and psychedelics science and innovation. Register by March 14 & Save $100 on tickets to The Emerald Conference by MJBiz Science, April 1-3 in San Diego.


Four longstanding cannabis shops in West Hollywood were granted a reprieve on Tuesday by city officials and will be allowed to remain open until the end of the year instead of being forced to close this summer.

Under a previous decision by the city, the four existing shops – all previously medical marijuana dispensaries – did not win local business licenses in a competitive bidding process.

All four – including MedMen’s flagship store’s license – would have expired by the end of July, forcing them to close unless their permits were extended.

But according to WeHoVille.com, the West Hollywood City Council decided on a 3-1 vote to allow the four shops – Alternative Herbal Health Services, Los Angeles Patients and Caregivers Group, Zen Healing and MedMen WeHo – to remain open until Dec. 31.

All four will receive extensions for their temporary retail licenses, WeHoVille.com reported.

The city granted retail licenses to eight businesses to operate in West Hollywood last year, but none of the four existing shops made the cut.

That meant if none of the existing shops were allowed to continue operations, there would have been a gap between when the four legacy shops closed and the eight newcomers opened for business, which is why the Council was persuaded to let the four shops remain open temporarily.

It’s not clear whether the city will decide to permanently grandfather in the four shops, but some of the eight license winners objected to the move and said it was an end-run around last year’s bidding process.