Culver City Observer -

Culver City, CA - Sweet Flower is planning on going big and bold. The proclaimed cannabis lifestyle brand is fast making inroads into Southern California communities. With locations already set in place in Westwood, Studio City, and in Los Angeles, Sweet Flower appears to be making all the right moves in expanding its brand.

Now the company is hopeful that cities such as Culver City and Pasadena will be added to their portfolio. As it pertains to Culver City, Sweet Flower is one of three applicants vying for a city retail license, a goal they have already achieved in Pasadena. The council gave Sweet Flower its blessing to move forward this summer.

"Our selection by both Culver City and the City of Pasadena validates our vision, our team and our execution, and demonstrates our ability to obtain premium licenses in the most competitive of markets and to compete with anyone, including large multi-state operators. Our team of seasoned professionals, from companies such as Google, Snap, Equinox and Time Warner, is focused on building the premier Southern California cannabis retail brand, with stores in premium locations, providing best-in-class service, education and experience to our rapidly growing customer base," said Tim Dodd, CEO of Sweet Flower.

Dodd went on to add: ""It's a privilege to be building and operating a responsible, licensed premium cannabis business in the largest legal market in the United States. We look forward to working together with Culver City, the City of Pasadena, the City of Los Angeles and neighboring cities to expand our independently owned and responsibly operated cannabis business, and to deepen our engagement with our customers and the communities we serve."

Sweet Flower cleared their first big hurdle when the City Council whittled down the application bidders from 23 down to three. In order for Sweet Flower or the two other applicants in the running for the city's business permit storefront retail license to snag that coveted license, part of the process is conducting public hearing to educate and alert residents about their products and listen to any concerns they may have.

Sweet Flower held one of their proposed three public hearings on Tuesday at the Veterans Memorial Park. Dodd and his team fielded questions from the packed room. Jamie Wallace has been a resident of Culver City since 1994. Wallace said she decided to come out and attend the meeting to see how Dodd and Sweet Flower were addressing issues that are major concern to residents.

"I'm curious to know how they're responding to community concerns," Wallace said. "I have found out that using cannabis products have been very helpful to me for joint issues, muscle issues, back issues...it's very, very useful. I would like to be able to have some place that's local that I can walk to that is run well. They're very well run and are very knowledgeable people, and I appreciate that."

Wallace admitted that she is a routine user of cannabis products. After she injured her back, Wallace said she tried many health applicants to help her ease the pain. Nothing worked, so she turned to using cannabis as a last resort. It turned out that using cannabis was the right product to use all along, Wallace said.

"I never used anything my entire...the occasional drink," Wallace said. "Every time I was around people smoking pot, I would get a headache, and I hated it. It's not something that I ever did. My back went out and I had some major joint issues. Within half an hour of putting on the rub, I had relief."

Dodd said he thought that the response from the public hearing was balanced.

"I think it was great," Dodd said. "I think we got a strong and diversive news. People asked questions they were concerned about. The good news was that I don't we got a lot of pushback about cannabis, but we were concerned about the community. At Sweet Flower, we try to things that responsive to the community that we're in and sensitive to their values. I understand. I'm a father and I'm a long-term...my focus is the greater Los Angeles community. We have other stores nearby in L.A. that are also close to a community and part of a community. So we try to establish ourselves as part of the community. That's part of our whole thing."