Marijuana Shop To Open In West Hollywood Standard Hotel

WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA – Standard International, a boutique hotel group, and Lord Jones, a cannabis-infusion company, have announced a partnership that includes opening a retail shop in the lobby of the West Hollywood Standard hotel, it was reported Friday. There are also plans to create co-branded THC-derived products and expand to the hotel's downtown Los Angeles location and beyond as regulations permit, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Robert Rosenheck, founder and chief executive of L.A.-based Lord Jones, said the 2-year-old brand's first retail flagship will take up about 300 square feet facing Sunset Boulevard just to the right of the hotel's main entrance.

It will be stocked with the company's full range of THC-derived edibles – gourmet gumdrops, caramels and chews – and topicals, some of which contain THC, others made with hemp-derived CBD, along with what he describes as a very tightly curated assortment of best-in-class products, including smokable product by other brands.

There are still some complications to sort out. Marijuana is illegal under federal law, and although California voters legalized adult recreational use a year ago, state and local laws pertaining to sales of THC-containing products are still in the process of being formulated and won't be in place until next year, according to The Times.

Rosenheck said that with neither the West Hollywood nor California regulations in place, negotiating the permitting and licensing process required to open the boutique sometime in early 2018 was akin to "sort of building the airplane on the runway."

City News Service and Patch staffer Emily Holland contributed to this post; Image via Shutterstock