Surf City Collective | Los Angeles

Surf City Collective

19142 Beach Blvd., #Y, Huntington Beach, 92648

weedmaps.com/dispensaries/surf-city-collective

(714) 362-0339

What does your
collective offer patients that they can’t find anywhere else?

I’d have to say it’s the staff. I know that that sounds like
what you’re supposed to say, but these employees go through testing, quizzes,
extensive training, and they work out of an employee handbook. They realize
that every single person that walks through the doors comes in for a certain
reason, and it’s all about figuring out why that is. So, it’s really just the
education of the staff that is paramount to everything; the product knowledge,
that’s really where emphasis lies. There are tons of facilities that have
cannabis, but not with staff that is making sure every patient’s needs are met
with the right kind of cannabis, or that is creating a dialogue so that the
patient can actually take charge of treating what they’re going through by
giving feedback on how strains affected them.

How has the cannabis
industry changed since you’ve been in business? Where would you like to see it
go?

When I was younger, I helped somebody with full-blown AIDS who
was dying. I didn’t go to medical school, but there I was, entrusted with essentially
making that person’s last days on Earth bearable and comfortable by treating
themselves the way they wanted to be treated. Through having those experiences
I saw where my calling was.

I hope the industry goes in a direction of understanding. I
feel like right now there are two sides of the table, there’s our side, and
there’s the local politics and the police side. We’re both equal, and we both
have the interest of our communities at heart. Yet we can’t even sit down and
have a dialogue, and that’s the part that crushes me.

What’s the biggest
challenge you’re facing as a collective? . . . Biggest joy?

Our biggest challenge by far is just creating a dialogue
with the city. Twenty years ago, the city voted for medical cannabis by the
largest margin in Orange County, but the fact that we can’t even have a
dialogue at this point is the hardest part.

My favorite part about working in this industry was also the
hardest part. I helped a girl who was about 25 years old and had leukemia. Eventually,
she passed away. Her husband came in and just said, “My wife passed away last
night, and I just wanted to thank you because the last six months of her life, we
were able to have fun and it was bearable.” That was the moment when I knew
what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

If you want patients
to remember one thing about your collective, what would it be?

That we’re there for them. I think when you’re trusting someone
to help you medically, you want to know that they’re going to be there, that they’re
not just going to get a little pressure from the city and fold.