Pot Dispensary Fight in San Diego Led by Adult Entertainment Vet

SAN DIEGO—Waldon Randall Welty, 64, is not just the leader of the Patient Care Association, a coalition of 63 medical marijuana dispensaries in San Diego fighting the city to keep their doors open. He also is the owner of the Flesh Club, an “Inland Empire cabaret locked in years of legal battles with the city [that] defiantly bore the banner ‘The pride of San Bernardino,’” according to signonsandiego.com. In addition to gentlemen’s clubs in San Bernardino, Upland and the City of Industry, Welty has owned an adult bookstore and arcade and was the owner of Rock Opera, a racehorse that Laffit Pincay Jr. rode to victory in the Oceanside Stakes First Division at the Del Mar Racetrack in 2002. He also has a rap sheet that includes a charge of assaulting his wife with a baseball bat in 2008. It's a colorful past that made him an odd choice to head such a politically sensitive campaign as one to keep pot dispensaries in business, but according to writer Christopher Cadelago, it was precisely those experiences, and more specifically his success fighting city hall, that made him the right man for the job. “He’s not afraid of a good fight,” said attorney Jessica McElfresh, who represents marijuana dispensaries across Southern California. “But above all, he wants the same thing we all do, which is safe access and reasonable regulation.” Not all the pot activists are as positively inclined toward Welty, however. Members from the San Diego chapter of another activist group, Americans for Safe Access, expressed their reservations during a meeting with the association to discuss campaign tactics. “I am really upset that [Welty] is trying to project himself as the face of medical cannabis in our community,” said one activist, Terrie Best. “When you get in the same room with this guy, you want to take a shower afterward.” Welty’s history indicates he is more or less immune to such criticisms, and certainly never backs down from a fight, especially if it’s with a municipality trying to tell him what to do. "He opened Flesh Club as a topless bar in 1994, and it was shut down a year later under a local zoning ordinance. Authorities said Flesh Club provided sanctuary for paid sex, which Welty denies," reported signonsandiego.com. “A court found the city’s rules to be illegal, and the establishment reopened in 1999. A jury later awarded Welty $1.4 million for lost profits. The city is appealing the award.” The current battle with San Diego to keep the dispensaries open could be just as combative. In April, the city ratified an ordinance that required the estimated 160 dispensaries located within its jurisdiction to shut down and apply for permits. Dispensaries would be limited to commercial and industrial zones located at least 600 feet from one another, as well as from schools, playgrounds, libraries, child care and youth facilities, parks and churches. The ordinance is considered a thinly veiled attempt to reduce the number of dispensaries and people’s easy access to them. Despite the uphill battle and his controversial past, Welty is optimistic. “I have learned my lessons over 40 years and I know how to win fights,” he said. “I am going to win this one in San Diego.”