Ron Shinkman 10 February 2010 News 7,669 views No Comment Print This Post  Email This Post

The Safe Harbor Patients Collective lives up to its name.   

Located in a long-converted converted Van Nuys home on a block with a dry cleaners, restaurant and a liquor store, Safe Harbor doesn’t evince the fluorescent-lit, flat-screen TV slickness possessed by many other Los Angeles dispensaries. Its patio entrance is the site for regular barbecues and other outdoor gatherings. Fuzz, a Poodle mix with floppy ears the size of Frisbees, greets visitors with a laidback curiosity. 

The dimly-liy dispensary area, spread through several small rooms totaling less than 1,000 square feet, has a slightly impromptu, bed-head feeling of a college dorm on the weekend. 

“This is like an Elks Club or a Cheers,” says Rich Inman, Safe Harbor’s 35-year-old manager. Inman, a marijuana industry veteran, collected signatures to get Proposition 215 on the ballot in the mid-1990s. “A lot of people know each other.” 

Aside from the dispensary counter, which is in an area not much larger than a bathroom, Safe Harbor has a television room, a music room illuminated by black light and equipped with a bass cello, a piano and other instruments, and a couple of exercise machines in the back. Modernist paintings by some of the patients hang on the walls. 

“This is a place for people to hang out if they don’t want to go home,” says Lety, one of Safe Harbor’s voulnteers. 

Safe Harbor positions itself as a mid-level purveyor, with about 20 products posted on its wall-painted chalkboards. It carries common varietals such as Bubba Kush and Maui Wowie, as well as a handful of tinctures. No prices are listed, but Inman says they start at around $20 for an eighth of an ounce. One edible stands out: baklava, prepared by a patient who is a pastry chef. 

“Given the butter content in baklava, it works very well as an edible,” Inman says. 

Patients can also obtain hand-blown medicine bottles, customized with their name or nickname embedded in the front or bottom. 

Safe Harbor’s patients on a recent evening ranged from their early 20s to well into their 60s. They included a young woman with platinum blonde hair dressed in glam wear, a local rapper and a older gentleman who appeared a cross between a biker and hippie. 

Safe Harbor, which Inman says opened in early 2007 prior to the imposition of L.A.’s moratorium laws, had struggled until recently. “We had predominantly male patients, and a lot of females don’t want to come in if they’re surrounded by men,” he says. 

Inman’s been managing Safe Harbor for an unnamed absentee owner since mid-2009. He began advertising in local medical marijuana publications and brought more female volunteers on staff. He estimates that patient volume has since doubled. 

However, given the new regulations recently passed by the L.A. City Council, Inman says Safe Harbor will be lowering its profile. For instance, its upcoming annual February 15 bash – to celebrate Prop. 215 – will likely be its last. 

“We’re going to be doing a lot fewer parties and outdoor events,” Inman says. 

Safe Harbor Patients Collective

5953 Hazeltine Avenue, Suite B

Van Nuys, Calif. 91401

(818) 902-0015

Hours: Tues-Sat. Noon-8 P.M.