Snoop Dogg draws thousands in Ontario for marijuana dispensary grand opening

Thousands of people crowded Hotbox Farms in Ontario Saturday for the dispensary's grand opening.

People not only showed up for the product, but to see artist Snoop Dogg perform live.

Hotbox Farms is the third dispensary to open in Ontario, Oregon. Owner Steven Meland, who also owns a Hotbox Farms in Huntington, tells CBS 2 it's been a long time coming.

“Here at Hotbox we really are a community-based business," Meland said. "Everything we do here is for the community. We don’t exist without this community. For one, they had to vote for us to be here."

A way to give back, Meland says, is with this concert "to come in with a bang".

The "No Cost" event triggered a major incident response protocol and operations plan from Ontario Police, due to the level of celebrity of the guests and the influx of visitors to the area.

Ontario Police say they found out about the event Friday, met with Meland, and found out that the dispensary only filed permit applications for fireworks, food catering, and a beer garden.

At the time, police say Meland hadn't been granted a "Special Events" permit or a Noise Variance.

So without time to prepare and come up with a plan, there was concern for crowd safety and parking.

"It’s kind of funny, but if 5,000 people show up where are they going to park," said Sgt Dave Walters, Ontario Police. "How are they going to get in and how are they going to get out? If they clog the streets to the point where we can’t get medical in if there’s a medical emergency, how are we going to respond to help people out?"

Sgt. Walters tells CBS 2, if the proper permits were filed, they would've had the time to prepare.

"If something happens how are we going to help people," Walters said. "We just, we can’t, we won’t be able to. If 5,000 people show up on a 2-acre lot, what are we going to do and how are we going to do it."

In response, Meland says, “the show must go on”. And, it did.

The opening comes as Oregon Governor Kate Brown announces a temporary ban on flavored vaping products.

“I’m glad the governor has chosen not to do a flat out ban on vape," Meland said. "The reason for that is that we’re actually seeing the issues with vape pens are coming from the black market, the unregulated market."

But, Meland is confident this ban won't affect his business.

“We only sell one vape pen brand that’s select strains," Meland said. "The reason for that is we know exactly who’s sourcing our product, we know exactly who’s trading our product, and we don’t have to worry about these issues. When we see the definition release for vape pens, we won’t pull a single skew off our shelf."

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