Natural Healing Center cannabis shop won’t be allowed to open in SLO, city announces
The city of San Luis Obispo has canceled Natural Healing Center’s commercial cannabis operator permit more than two months after its founder admitted to bribing a county supervisor.
According to a city news release Wednesday, the city pulled the permit because an applicant “submitted false or misleading information about criminal misconduct to city officials in the business’s permit application.”
This means effective immediately, the cannabis business is no longer permitted to operate in San Luis Obispo.
“Natural Healing Center would never have received the permit had we known then what we know now,” Deputy City Manager Greg Hermann said in the release. “We are committed to a fair and transparent process that provides a level playing field for legal commercial cannabis companies here, but operators who participate in illegal activities are not welcome in San Luis Obispo.”
In July, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Natural Healing Center founder Helios Dayspring was being charged with several crimes after admitting to bribing the late county supervisor Adam Hill in exchange for favorable votes, influence over other government officials and confidential information.
Dayspring allegedly paid the late District 3 supervisor $32,000 in cash and money orders in exchange for beneficial votes on issues related to his farms, including those in favor of legislation that allowed cannabis grows to operate before receiving final permit approvals, the department said at the time.
Dayspring was charged with with one count of bribery and one count of subscribing to a false 2018 income tax return.
Following that announcement, the city said it was reviewing Natural Healing Center’s permit and documents.
Their review revealed evidence that Dayspring submitted false or misleading information in order to maintain the operator permit, according to Wednesday’s news release.
In his application, Dayspring told city officials that he had not ever spent money for illegal purposes, falsified any documents or been involved in tax fraud or evasion of taxes.
According to the release, city officials sent a letter to Natural Healing Center on Wednesday notifying them the permit had been automatically disqualified.
Two other brick-and-mortar cannabis businesses are currently operating in San Luis Obispo; city ordinance permits a maximum of three retail storefronts in the city at one time, and NHC had up until today held one of those slots, though the storefront had not yet opened to the public.
Though Dayspring as recently as April was referred to as the owner of the dispensary chain, most of his business interests had been transferred to his girlfriend Valnette Garcia over the past two years.
Garcia is now the CEO of Natural Healing Center, as well as the primary registered agent for the separate Grover Beach, San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay Natural Healing Center corporations, according to filings with the California Secretary of State’s Office.
There is no formal appeals process for an automatic disqualification.
The city says Natural Healing Center has the opportunity to respond if they believe the city’s determinations are in error.
“Ultimately, this is the right thing to do,” Hermann said in the release.
This story was originally published October 6, 2021 at 9:21 PM.
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