CORRECTION: Ed Esters is no longer involved with 805 Beach Breaks.
San Luis Obispo County’s first brick and mortar marijuana dispensary operating under California’s new pot legalization law opened its doors to customers on Saturday.
805 Beach Breaks, located at 1053 Highland Way, held a daylong grand opening, which included a ribbon cutting and a concert with multiple DJs. Customers lined up to make medical marijuana purchases.
The new pot store sells marijuana flowers, as well as other cannabis products, including edibles. 805 Beach Breaks currently operates strictly as a medical marijuana dispensary. However, the city of Grover Beach plans to amend its rules in order to allow pot shops to also sell to recreational marijuana customers.
Although 805 Beach Breaks is the first of Grover Beach’s pot shops to open, the business, which has a controversial co-founder, did not initially qualify as a top tier prospective marijuana store. Grover Beach city staff ranked 805 Beach breaks as a second-tier prospective pot shop, outside of the top four that were slated to receive permits to operate.
But last October, Mayor John Shoals and Councilman Jeff Lee broke from staff recommendations and selected 805 Beach Breaks as one of the four dispensaries that will open in Grover Beach.
Ed Esters, one of the co-owners of 805 Beach Breaks, has a controversial past and is presently listed in California’s sex offender registry. Esters was convicted in 1997 of drugging, raping and sodomizing a female victim. He was released from prison in 2001.
During the Grover Beach dispensary application phase, Esters touted his experience in the pot industry. Esters previously founded a dispensary in San Jose.
Following the Grover Beach council vote in October, a reporter questioned Shoals as to why he voted for an applicant who is on the sex offender registry for a violent crime. The Grover Beach mayor raised his palm in the reporter’s face and walked away.
Shoals and other council members were present Saturday at the 805 Beach Breaks ribbon cutting.
I just received this timely reply from Grover Beach Councilwoman Mariam Shah regarding the issue of Mr. Esters continued involvement in 805 Beach Breaks:
Mariam Shah:
To my knowledge, the story you are quoting is just the same recycled and incorrect claim. Nothing has changed. Ed Esthers has no affiliation with. As a rule, I have found articles on that website to be salacious and un-fact checked, so thank you for trying to confirm the truth.
Sailfish:
Again, I ask that Cal Coast Times investigate this matter more fully and either provide evidence that Mr. Esters is either a co-owner or still associated with 805 Beach Breaks or print a correction retracting that part of the article.
Please advise.
I’m unsure why my copy/paste quote from Ms. Shah was changed; although, I accept that the fault was mine. Below is her corrected statement.
Mariam Shah:
To my knowledge, the story you are quoting is just the same recycled and incorrect claim. Nothing has changed. Ed Esthers has no affiliation with 805. As a rule, I have found articles on that website to be salacious and un-fact checked, so thank you for trying to confirm the truth.
Lastly, this debate is occurring on the neighborhood social media platform, Nextdoor.com. If someone at Cal Coast Times lives in Five Cities, I encourage them to subscribe to that platform and review the thread (link below) where this issue was explained in detail.
(Admin edit: Your nextdoor link was using your email as a login, also we don’t link to closed to the public/private sites.)
“and the Mr. Esters is a co-owner and was NOT fired”
should be
“and that Mr. Esters is a co-owner and was NOT fired”
When the history of Mr. Esters rape conviction and his association with 805 Beach Breaks was first reported by Cal Coast Times, 805 Beach Breaks claimed that they were unaware of his past crime and that upon finding it out they stated that he was NOT a co-owner and was immediately terminated.
This article seems to suggest otherwise. Has Cal Coast Times determined that neither of these conditioned occurred and the Mr. Esters is a co-owner and was NOT fired?