Thursday, April 29, 2010
Million-Dollar Oakland Cannabis Dispensary Spat at Climax
Regulation & Legislation David Downs — Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 12:42 PM
Hundreds of Oaklanders who frequent one of the city's four permitted dispensaries may have to go elsewhere this week, as city officials force the closure of the Oakland Patient Center due to a spat over who owns the valuable enterprise.
Oakland official Arturo Sanchez said the city's four medicinal marijuana dispensary permits cannot be bought or sold, but that is what original Oakland Patient Center owners Steven and Stacey Petras did when they turned over operations of the struggling business to veteran dispensary operator Dona Frank in late 2009. When the city learned of the deal, they revoked the permit for the Oakland Patient Center in January, 2010. The Center at 705 Broadway continued to operate, so the city recently threatened the landlord of the facility with $1,000-a-day fines starting this week. Sanchez says he expects the landlord to issue a three-day eviction notice this week, effectively closing the Oakland Patient Center after months of bitter dispute.
Attorneys for current operator Dona Frank say they'll fight the eviction, and have also responded by suing the city to get their permit reinstated. They're also suing former owners Steven and Stacey Petras to gain full control of the disputed dispensary. For their part, the Petrases say they are the victims: a family with serious health problems that forced them to sell a minority share of their dispensary to one person, then another. The new partners were wolves in sheep's clothing, the Petrases allege, and the Petrases were literally locked out of their own club.
The allegations between the aggrieved parties are too complicated to untangle here, but it essentially comes down to money. Frank's attorney Gygax says the rare permit to operate a dispensary in Oakland made the business worth around $1.7 million. Dispensaries likley will be worth many more multiples of that number if cannabis becomes a legal, commercially taxed and regulated product this November. As permit-holders, the ailing Petrases planned on getting paid $60,000 a month while someone else operated their business. How much they got paid became a subject of massive dispute that ended up in the courts and cost them their livelihood.
Dona Frank's lawsuit to restore the permit will continue into the summer, while her lawsuit against the Petrases could be resolved much sooner. Stacey Petras is very ill, the family cannot afford an attorney, and Gygax said they've failed to appear at two recent Contra Costa County Superior Court dates on the matter.
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"In the City of Sausalito, Dona Frank signed an agreement with landlord Egri to be solely a lighting store, but later she opened a competing dispensary against the wishes of landlord Egri and the new dispensary-tenant CCG. Dona Frank signed the lease as American Growers Exchange, but later opened as Cultivating Wisdom and Bayside Organics. Lisa Gygax, attorney for the American Growers Exchange, said there never was such an agreement. She said a judge had ruled the eviction could be carried out because the dispensaries were illegal in Sausalito. In response, the properties power lines were cut and Gygax said she filed an appeal against the eviction, arguing that Egri was aware from the start he was renting the space to a business violating a city ordinance. Dona Frank is the current operator of a medical marijuana dispensary conglomerate. Oakland Organics, Oakland Cannabis Institute, HillCrest Organics, Bayside Organics and Organic Cannabis Foundation are owned and operated by Dona Ruth Frank, and all locations distribute OrganiCann brand cannabis. In the City of Oakland, Dona Frank signed a contract and never paid the owners of an Oakland dispensary more than $1 million, and the city said she purposely avoided going through the process to get a permit. Dona Frank sued the former owners of the Oakland dispensary for misrepresentation of the business and it's cultivation area. Furthermore, gang affiliated security hospitalized a former employee during an Occupy OrganiCann protest in Sonoma County where supervisors are looking to overhaul their medical marijuana rules."
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This comment was deleted because it violates our web site's Terms Of Use. People who repeatedly violate our policies will lose their right to post comments. You can read our entire Terms Of Use here.
Let's see, an article written in April 2010 gets one comment in August 2010, another a month later, one in October 2010 and one in January 2011, then nothing until April of this year. In April, we have one offensive comment deleted by the Editor on the 17th, then a flurry (well, two) comments on April 18th. You stoners are some kind of SLOW! We'll check back in, say, late August for the next fascinating post.
If Steve DeAngelo had been the culprit in this story, eastbay express would of never published it. It is routinely evident that eastbay express is a biased news tabloid with interests in promoting certain marijuana businesses while staking others to posts and lighting the fire.
Welcome to the deeply dishonest for profit business of marijuana dispensaries /coops. These people running these businesses are crooks. Most if not all were illegal street dealers at one point. While others may try to hide behind physical ailments, the law is clear that these operators are not to profit off of or produce product, they still do! They make millions of dollars!!! They also open side businesses with no ties to launder the illegal cash. They must really think California politicians are in their pocket. Are we really that stupid??? I know many many many people who have California medical cannabis recommendations and cards who are not sick in the least, well maybe a couple have had a common cold. Medical marijuana coops are a racket! The only thing that should be illegal about marijuana is under age use and profiteering.
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wow... well I used to work at CARE or OPC as they now call it. Steve and Stacy petras are two people who play sick to get drugs.... the whole feel sorry for me routine is getting abit old. They play and use people to their advantage for money scheming operations... and also its funny to know how shady they really are and how much cash they really hide. Or even funnier how stacy petras came to really own care and its "silent Partners".... whom are not suppose to be affiliated since they themselves are club owners.... or how they didnt have a permit to have a giant grow room in their underground location at 1900 telegraph before they moved to 705 Broadway. the two of them are a joke. its too bad too beacuse the Medical marijuana indusrty already has enough heat as it was, its a shame stacy let steve come in and ruin her business. But at least they have eachother... oh I almost forgot... When they cry they are sick and victims being locke dout of their own club... check out the utube footage of them breakig and entering through the window trying to pirate a business they tried to illegally sell off temperarily while their asses were being sued by multiple people. They thought it would be smart to make it look like they didnt own a business.....
How can a dispensaries bottom line go up with the addition of the permit if p19 is going to bring down the price? Also, how can a place be non profit and be SOLD for a profit at the same time? I think there is just a lot of duplicity and dishonesty in this scene.
Organic Cannabis Foundation (Dona Ruth Frank)Share
In the Marvin's Gardens case, a judge ruled Sonoma County's ordinance illegal sparking a spur of new dispensaries. After an appeal by the county, the ordinance was reinstated until the case is resolved, and the county stated it will allow OrganiCann to continue operating while others have been raided.
During the lawsuit that stemmed from the attempted purchase of Oakland Patient Center, Dona Frank claims to have lost $6M in illegal profits. Dona Frank forced the purchase agreement that would allow her to take physical possession of the dispensary and grow without actually having to pay for it. This became apparent to me through statements and actions made by Dona Frank who has a history of civil suits and deception. Dona Frank is operating as Oakland Cannabis Institute, is fighting a cease and desist order at 705 Broadway and is currently purging financial records to be kept for 7 years.
CCG in Sausalito would like to sue Dona Frank for unfair business practices. Dona Frank explicitly lied to their landlord about her use after he informed Dona that he was already leasing to a dispensary tenant (CCG) and did not want any conflict. Now there are two dispensaries operating in the same building, in addition to Sausalito's ban on dispensaries.
Dona Frank neglected to pay taxes, fired her attorney and is suing the advising attorney. She plans to tell the IRS to go after her former attorney.
Pure Analytics was her cannabis testing company that lasted less than a month before the lab partners bailed over client disputes...
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To All it may Concern,
My name is Steven Petras, my wife and I currently hold one of the four special use permits to dispense cannabis. We are located at 705 Broadway, straight across from the main police station in Oakland. We have over a decade of experience in the medical cannabis field. We are directly responsible for drafting the current plant limits and patient growing guidelines that the City adopted in 2002. We were the first permitted cannabis dispensary in the city of Oakland, and have operated without incident through the years of being permitted. It is Stacie’s health. She had her pancreas removed with an auto is let cell transplant in October, 2007; and lived with acute chronic pancreatitis since age eleven. I have lived with intractable chronic nausea (cyclic vomiting). When life after Stacie’s surgery turned out to be more complicated and tenuous, we were put in the position of needing to find someone to care for the community of patients the same way that we did. We were assured by Ken Sampson that he would be the one to carry the torch. He would care for the patients the same way we did. He lied to us, he stole from us, he wasn’t able to keep the business afloat. When he abandoned the company and the patientsin August 2009, we had to come back in 72 hours after being gone for about 18 months. We then tried again, with Dona Frank. She too assured us that she would do right by us and the patients. This also turned intoa bad situation to which we are steeply paying the price.
This information is in regards to Dona Frank. She currently owns Organicann, Cultivating Wisdom and Hillcrest Organics the Cannabis Dispensaries in Sonoma, Sausalito and San Diego. She has been illegally transporting and dispensing cannabis under another company name in the City of Oakland. She was under her own impression that she held a permit. Those circumstances are very complicated and well documented. Dona Frank never obtain a permit because none were available and she did not comply with her duties to allow her to be added to our current permit. Stacie and myself never approached the City to request her to be added. Her intent to do wrong was evident from the beginning.
She tried to introduce herself to Barb Killey [the endorser of our permits] as the new owner of the OCI Oakland Cannabis Institute. The permit is issued to the Oakland Patients Center, formally known as California Advocate Relief Exchange (C.A.R.E.).There is no permit for the OCI. Our contract with Donna has been misinterpreted. We had intentions of introducing Dona to the City and adding her once we cleared up some issues and felt comfortable with her ethics and business practices. We expected this would take approximately one year. This never happened. That is why the Purchase Agreement written on August 3 says that Donna Frank should not contact the City. The status of the current permit lists Oakland Patients Center with names Steven Petras, Stacie Petras and Ken Sampson[the person who we were trying the work out the issues, this was criminal and complicated all in itself].
This permit is to expire June 2010 and currently stands to be revoked on January 7, 2010; because of Dona’s non-compliance with City conditions and even with simple business practices such as paying proper taxes, holding proper licenses in correct names, purging financial information that is to be stored for seven years…the list goes on.
Dona Ruth Frank
Bayside Organics, Cultivating Wisdom LLC (Sausalito)
Hillcrest Organics, formerly raided HillCrest Compassion (San Diego)
Oakland Cannabis Institute, LLC (Oakland)
Organic Cannabis Foundation, LLC (Sonoma)
American Growers Exchange, LLC (Sonoma)
Pure Analytics (Sonoma)
LLCs are for profit business models unlikely to be considered legal when mounting an affirmative defense
Oakland Takes Hard Line Against Cannabis Dispensary
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/Legalization…
Medical marijuana dispensaries face off
http://www.marinscope.com/articles/2010/01…
New York Times - Medical Marijuana: No Longer Just for Adults
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/health/2…
Sonoma County: Pot clubs must seek operating permit
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100…
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