ACE Hardware (left) and 4th Street Long Beach Natural Care (far right) in the East Village. Photo by Greggory Moore.

UPDATED Friday, 2:00PM | Trent Barnes, co-owner of the ACE Hardware franchise in the East Village, contacted the Long Beach Post early Friday to express that he and his brother Tyler are against neither medical-marijuana patients nor dispensaries, and that today’s protest is about only against 4th Street Long Beach Natural Solutions, the dispensary located across the street from their store.

“First of all, we are not against medical marijuana,” Barnes said. “I voted for it. I may need it some day. We’re pro-dispensary that are located at other locations. […] We want patients to get their medical marijuana. They should be able to get it relatively easy. But there’s a group of bad eggs. Some of these [dispensaries] are misplaced [and don’t operate] with a good set of standards. […] We don’t want to make a case against medical marijuana. We don’t want to make a case against legitimate dispensaries. […] The whole thing’s been mischaracterized that ACE Hardware is against medical marijuana and patients. Totally ridiculous!”

Barnes said that while he and his brother helped organize the protest, they have done so in conjunction with other property owners and residents, and that they have not done so in their capacity as ACE Hardware franchise owners.

“ACE Hardware has zero to do with this,” he said. “This [protest] was started by a group of property owners and residents. Most of the people who will be [at the protest] today will be mothers and fathers with children. They’re the main people complaining, along with other property owners.”

Barnes said that 4th Street Long Beach Natural Solutions opened four weeks ago without City approval—which is clearly the case, since the City of Long Beach currently has a ban in place against all medpot dispensaries—and that there are two schools located within 1,000 feet of the location.

“It’s not good here with the two schools,” he said. “We’ve seen a lot of young people purchasing marijuana.”

Barnes referred to various other issues with the dispensary, such as its selling excessive amount of marijuana to supposed patients, patrons smoking either inside or near the dispensary (“We can smell the smoke across the street,” he said), and patrons using and littering in the ACE parking lot.

Regarding the flier, which seems to target not just 4th Street Long Beach Natural Solutions but dispensaries in general—”POT SHOPS EQUAL TROUBLE!” reads a picket sign in the upper right quadrant—Barnes was apologetic.

“We could have used our words more carefully, because we’re not against medical marijuana,” he says. “We’re not against dispensaries that are located properly and opened up legally. […] We apologize for the flier, [which] might have been a little bit overstated. […] We should have put more thought into it. We’re not against patients. We’re not against legitimate dispensaries. […] We’re against this particular dispensary, which is causing problems. The owners of [this] ACE Hardware [franchise] are absolutely not against medical marijuana. I hope people understand it. It’s this particular store. It’s not a good location.”

UPDATED Thursday, 12:40PM | The time of Friday’s counter-protest by the Committee of Patients in Long Beach (see below) has been changed to  4:30PM, so as to coincide with the protest.

ORIGINAL Thursday, 8:30 AM | What does ACE Hardware have to do with medical marijuana? The answer to that may be easy to see Friday in the East Village Arts District, as the ownership of the ACE franchise at 4th St. and Olive Ave. is organizing an afternoon protest rally in front of a medical marijuana dispensary across the street—though not before a morning pro-medpot counter-protest in front of ACE itself.

At least, that’s where things stood Wednesday evening, after ACE franchise owner/site manager Trent Barnes was reported to be passing out fliers in the neighborhood urging residents to attend a protest rally against “the Olive Ave. Marijuana Sales Shop,” a reference to 4th Street Long Beach Natural Solutions.

While Barnes was not reachable in his store Wednesday afternoon and did not immediately reply to the Long Beach Post‘s request for comment, store employees confirmed to the Post and others throughout the day that Barnes had passed out the fliers and was organizing the rally.

Employees at the ACE location reported being inundated with calls Wednesday from individuals upset with the planned rally. Video of one such call was posted to YouTube, during which an employee confirms that owners “Trent and Tyler” are sponsoring Friday’s rally. [1]

“I really didn’t even want to get involved with it,” the employee says when questioned by the caller about why the owners are sponsoring the rally. “That’s their thing that they’re doing. I have no idea why they’re doing it.”

The misgivings of ACE employees were apparent during the Post‘s attempt to obtain a copy of a flier from the store. When reached by telephone late Wednesday afternoon, a clerk confirmed that the store had fliers at the front desk and would put aside one for me. However, upon my arrival 10 minutes later I was first told that they did not have any fliers, then that the fliers were locked in the owner’s office. Finally employees admitted that they did have fliers at the front desk, but that in the 10 minutes between my phone call and arrival Daniel Velasquez, who identified himself as a manager, had decided they would not be distributing the fliers.

“We’re not involving ourselves in the issue,” said Velasquez, who then politely told me he would be happy to help me if I were interested in purchasing some paint or other hardware products.

The Post eventually located a copy of a flier at the 4th Street Long Beach Natural Solutions, where I was told patients had brought copies throughout the day. A management member at the collective explained that no one at ACE Hardware had contacted them directly, and that they were unclear on why the ACE owners were protesting the collective.

“We try to do everything right,” the management member said. “We tell all of our new patients to be respectful of the neighborhood. […] But everyone’s entitled to their opinion. There’s only so much you can do.”

According to Cheri Sicard, community leader for the Los Angeles County chapter of the NORML Women’s Alliance, the Committee of Patients in Long Beach claims to be organizing a counter-protest in front of the ACE Hardware location to be held Friday at 9AM. The protest rally against 4th Street Long Beach Natural Solutions is slated to begin at 4:30PM.