America\u2019s attitude toward marijuana has changed considerably since Ray Taylor first smoked a joint in 1969.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing to me that I went from worried about getting life in prison with a buddy from Vietnam to talking with the city attorney about how to shut down illegal shops to protect my legal one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Taylor opened the doors to his legal medical marijuana dispensary called The Healing Center in March, and will host a grand opening May 21 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the parking lot of the building that houses his 400-square-foot shop, located at 3703 Camino del Rio South, Suite 215A.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just want to throw a little party for everybody and we\u2019re the only business in the building that operates on Saturday so we won\u2019t be interfering the other businesses,\u201d he said, adding that there will be a DJ and free tacos, beverages and samples from vendors, including edible marijuana products.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody will have to go through the dispensary to get the free samples; you just can\u2019t hand them out in the parking lot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In an earlier article in Mission Valley News, Taylor said he aimed to open The Healing Center in November. However, getting the shop up to the strict codes required for marijuana dispensaries delayed the opening longer than expected.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think the city necessarily went, \u2018We\u2019re going to pick on medical marijuana places.\u2019 It\u2019s just that all their rules and regulations that apply to what we\u2019re doing are very costly and very time consuming.\u201d<\/p>\n Those regulations included having to redo the entire parking lot at the building to create two more handicapped parking spaces to be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The entire shop also had to be bullet resistant \u2014 the glass alone cost $40,000, Taylor said.<\/p>\n Lighting had to be upgraded and alarms systems installed. A security firm was hired to comply with a rule that the shop must have two guards on duty during operating hours and one when the shop is closed \u2014 costing $700 per day.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re determined to do everything by the book, and that\u2019s expensive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Although the added costs for security have prohibited The Healing Center from being profitable just yet, Taylor said business is picking up.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve tripled in sales since we opened, which is nice and we\u2019re helping a lot of people, which is kind of cool.\u201d<\/p>\n Taylor said so far his clientele has mostly been older people \u2014 especially mature women. He credits that to the fact that his shop is in a nice neighborhood and is extremely secure. His shop is also located in a medical building where the doctors specialize in pain management, so that also has helped bring in customers.<\/p>\n \u201cWe pride ourselves on educating people when they come in because we get a lot of people who are coming to a dispensary for the first time,\u201d he said. \u201cMaybe because we\u2019re in Mission Valley and it\u2019s a more central area. And we do get an older demographic than a lot of other places.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Ray](\"https:\/\/missionvalleynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Cover-A-photowebtop.jpg\")
<\/a><\/a>