Social Cannabis Cafes Approved in West Hollywood

The City of West Hollywood recently announced the names of eight social cannabis cafes that are approved for licenses and will open in early 2019. There were over 120 applicants for social cannabis cafes after West Hollywood passed a local ordinance allowing eight licenses for each of these categories adult-use retailer, medical marijuana dispensary, delivery services, social cannabis cafes for smoking, vaping, and edibles, and edible only cannabis businesses.

WeHo Evaluation Committee

After a lengthy screening process from the Evaluation Committee, chosen by the West Hollywood City Manager, eight social cannabis cafes were selected based on the thoroughness and creativity of their business plan. Each of the five committee members scored the applicants independently and their scores were averaged to determine the best eight applicants in each category.

The cannabis businesses approved by the committee will now have to seek their licenses from the City and should be notified of the results within the next few weeks. After reviewing over hundreds of applications, the Evaluation Committee released a statement about their determination.

“We were truly impressed by the quality and caliber of the applications that the City received.  Many of the proposed businesses were unique, innovative, and world class. We also want to say how excited we are to soon have consumption lounges in the City, many of the top concepts will be the first of their kind in the country, if not the world.  We want to express our sincere gratitude to all of the applicants for wanting to locate and do business in the City of West Hollywood, your participation and support of this process has helped to make it successful, and solidify the future success of the cannabis industry in West Hollywood.”

West Hollywood released the top picks for each category that are listed below:

Adult Use Cannabis Retailers

• Aeon West Hollywood, Inc. (Aeon)

• The Artist Tree, LLC (The Artist Tree)

• CALMA Weho, LLC (CALMA)

• Essence Weho, LLC (Essence)

• J&P Consulting (Budberry)

• PDLP JV, LLC (Greenwolf West Hollywood)

• Pleasure Med, LLC (Pleasure Med)

• Redwood Retail, LLC (Lord Jones)

Social Cannabis Cafes

• Aeon West Hollywood, Inc. (Aeon)

• The Artist Tree, LLC (The Artist Tree)

• Essence Weho, LLC (Essence)

• Flore Flora, LLC (Flore)

• HAH 10, LLC (Have a Heart)

• PDLP JV, LLC (Greenwolf West Hollywood)

• Pleasure Med, LLC (Pleasure Med)

• Vanguard Concepts, LLC (Chroma)

Cannabis Edible Lounges

• The Antidote Restaurant (The Antidote)

• The Artist Tree, LLC (The Artist Tree)

• ASHE Society, LLC

• Door Number Six, LLC

• J&P Consulting (Budberry)

• Muthatree, LLC (Muthatree)

• Ovest, LLC (Los Angeles Patients and Caregivers)

• Where Eagles Fly, LLC (The Fantom Flower)

Cannabis Delivery Services

• The Artist Tree, LLC (The Artist Tree)

• CALMA Weho, LLC (CALMA)

• Essence Weho, LLC (Essence)

• J&P Consulting (Budberry)

• PDLP JV, LLC (Greenwolf West Hollywood)

• Pleasure Med, LLC (Pleasure Med)

• Redwood Retail, LLC (Lord Jones)

• Zen Healing Collective Corporation (Zen Healing)

Medical Marijuana Dispensaries

• Aeon West Hollywood, Inc. (Aeon)

• The Artist Tree, LLC (The Artist Tree)

• Pleasure Med, LLC (Pleasure Med)

• PDLP JV, LLC (Greenwolf West Hollywood)

Since there is some overlap with a few businesses being selected in multiple categories, these businesses have the potential to be extremely profitable. This is great sign that there is progress being made by the Los Angeles Department of Cannabis Regulation and cannabis businesses are finally seeing their hard work realized. West Hollywood will likely experience a significant boost in tourism as it will be one of the few places in the U.S. where social cannabis cafes are permitted.