A church in Antioch which offers cannabis as part of its healing rites has been issued a cease-and-desist letter by the city.

Oklevueha Native American Church (ONAC) of Antioch is being told to halt its cannabis operation because it violates the city’s cannabis ordinance which specifies which parts of the city cannabis sales are allowed.

The church owner, Stephen Roper, says his church may not practice like a typical church but claims it is a place of healing and not a dispensary.

We do sell herbs and CBD oil,“ said Roper.

I’ve never been to a church where a security guard stands outside and checks your ID to see if you can come inside,” said Antioch City Councilmember Lamar Thorpe.

ONAC of Antioch was served with a 10-day cease-and-desist notice by the city attorney to halt its cannabis distribution, said Thorpe.

It’s in violation of our cannabis ordinance and they seem to be operating outside of the green zone and close to schools Thorpe said. “We are going to pursue this to the extent of the law. We have to protect the interest of the residents of Antioch who have allowed cannabis and we have to protect businesses interests who are operating in a fair manner in which they have gone through a process to operate here legally.“

Roper said he believes this was all a misunderstanding, and the church has no current plans to end its cannabis distribution. “No, no – if our attorney tells us otherwise, we will. But until then, no, we do not.”

I think the misunderstanding started when they didn’t bother to check in with City Hall to see how they could operate legally,” said Roper.

ONAC is based in Oakland and previously had a branch in San Jose, which was closed down in December 2017 for selling marijuana without a permit. Police raided two other establishments with the ONAC name in San Diego three months earlier.

Alhambra outlawed marijuana dispensaries, but at least two self-proclaimed churches are selling it

Despite the fact that Alhambra banned marijuana dispensaries in September, several have cropped up in the city since then, all of which have billed themselves as churches.

From Valley Boulevard, Alhambra Faith and Unity looks like a small, new church in the shadow of the Pyrenees Castle.

The banner on the building at 2387 W. Valley Blvd. bears the “folded hands” emoji, which look like two hands clasped in prayer, with rays of light emanating from behind it.

But just inside, parishioners won’t find a chapel — instead, there’s a dimly lit waiting room thick with the scent of marijuana and a blacked-out receptionists window behind which someone asks, “First time or returning patient?”

Despite the fact that Alhambra banned marijuana dispensaries in September, several have cropped up in the city since then, all of which have billed themselves as churches.

Since Californians voted in 2016 to legalize recreational marijuana use and sales, many cities have established local laws to govern which commercial cannabis activities they will allow.

In September, Alhambra banned all recreational marijuana land uses and only allowed the delivery of medical marijuana to a patient’s primary caregiver in Alhambra, though new regulations enacted by the State Bureau of Cannabis Controllast week bars cities from preventing the delivery of marijuana or its related products on public roads.

The website that tracks marijuana businesses and their pricing, lists two dispensaries in Alhambra — Alhambra Faith and Unity and Cali Releaf Church of Mien Tao.

Alhambra Faith and Unity bills itself as a Rastafarian church whose sacrament is marijuana. Cali Releaf professes no such faith on its website, which describes it as an 

Unlike Alhambra Faith and Unity, Cali Releaf, 425 S. Garfield Ave., does not advertise itself on its building and instead has kept signage from the previous business — a SAT-prep tutoring center — on its papered-over windows. The building does not feature an entrance on Garfield, and a security guard approaches anyone who heads toward the entrance ad the rear of the building

Representatives from both organizations did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

As far as the city is concerned, the two are simply illegally operating marijuana dispensaries, and the city is treating them as such, City Manager Jessica Binnquist said.

“When only medical marijuana was legal, a dispensary might pop up here or there, but they’d usually move on eventually,” Binnquist said. “Dispensaries are being much bolder these days, going so far as to name themselves churches instead of trying to hide their presence.”

Similar operations across Southern California, such as the Vault Church of Open Faith in Jurupa Valley, have attempted to use the church label as a protection against being shut down but have seen little legal support.

In August, a Riverside Superior Court judge gave Jurupa Valley the legal authority to shut down the Vault Church of Open Faith, which also claimed to distribute marijuana as a religious sacrament.

“(The judge) didn’t understand why we had to have cannabis,” lead minister Gilbert Aguirre said in August. “It’s like asking Catholics to worship without bread and wine.”

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department raided a similar operation, Jah Healing Kemetic Temple of The Divine Church, in April.

With legal precedent and best practices for shutting down unpermitted marijuana dispensaries still being developed, Alhambra has taken a more methodical approach to addressing the so-called churches, Binnquist said.

The city’s code enforcement staff has partnered with Alhambra police in an attempt to shut the dispensaries down as unpermitted businesses. That approach was successful in forcing out two businesses, including one called the Alhambra Church of Cannabis. Code enforcement staff went as far as to change the locks on the business, and while the operators changed the locks again in October so they could continue, they eventually gave up and left the city, Binnquist said.

Those same tactics haven’t worked with Cali Releaf, Police Chief Timothy Vu said. The business keeps coming back despite Alhambra Police Department’s best efforts, and the matter is working its way through the court system, Vu said.

“It’s very frustrating,” Vu said. “We’re trying to do what we can under the law to get them to shut down, but the case is stuck in the legal system right now.”

The city is looking to change its approach when handling the more recently opened Alhambra Faith and Unity in an effort to expedite the process of shutting it down, Vu said.

“We have been aggressive and will continue to be aggressive to make sure they shut down and move on,” Binnquist said.