Spliff Twister
New Member
The newest attraction planned for Fisherman's Wharf, this city's most popular tourist destination, has no sign, no advertisements and not even a scrap of sourdough. Yet everyone seems to think that the new business, the Green Cross, will be a hit, drawing customers from all over to sample its sweet-smelling wares.
For some, that is exactly the problem. The Green Cross is a cannabis club, one of scores that sell marijuana to patients carrying a doctor's note. The clubs have sprouted around California in the decade since the passage of Proposition 215, which legalized the use and sale of marijuana to those suffering from chronic pain, illness or infirmity.
San Francisco, a hot spot in the AIDS epidemic, voted overwhelmingly in favor of the proposition in 1996 and now has about 30 clubs that serve 25,000 patients and caregivers.
But none of those medical-marijuana dispensaries, as they are formally known, have been opened in places anywhere as popular as Fisherman's Wharf, where most people come to enjoy chowder, Ghirardelli chocolate or cable cars. Now, with the opening of the new club just weeks away, some residents and merchants are fighting to keep it out.
"The city is saturated with pot clubs," said T. Wade Randlett, president of SF SOS, a quality-of-life group that opposes the club. "Fisherman's Wharf is a tourism attraction and this is not the kind of tourism we're trying to attract."
Emboldened by a series of regulations passed last autumn by the Board of Supervisors, some neighborhoods are resisting new marijuana dispensaries, which they assert attract crime and dealers bent on reselling the drugs. In the debate over the new rules last year, several neighborhoods successfully lobbied to be exempted from having clubs.
Other neighborhoods managed to get clubs closed, including a previous version of the Green Cross, which was forced out of a storefront in the Mission District after neighbors said they had seen a rise in drug dealing, traffic problems and petty crime.
Clubs in San Francisco now must go through a permit process, which includes public hearings, and the proposed dispensary at Fisherman's Wharf is the first to have done so. A hundred people packed a neighborhood meeting on June 13, peppering the club's owner, Kevin Reed, with questions. Outside, fliers were handed out imploring residents to "Stop Marijuana Store!" and listing the planned club's proximity to schools and hotels.
Liz Naughton Moore, 33, a lawyer who lives about a block from the planned location, said she dreaded the thought of walking her 18-month-old son anywhere near it. "Anyone with a modicum of common sense can see this is not an appropriate location," she said. "I understand patients need to have access to it, but I think with 30 locations, they have options."
All of this upsets Reed, who founded the first Green Cross in 2004. He said he had spent tens of thousands of dollars on security and other expenses to make his club a model for marijuana dispensaries. "I've changed so much and brought so much professionalism to the movement, but the public can't see that," he said. "I took it from the 1960s into the 20th century."
The unopened dispensary at Fisherman's Wharf has all the trappings of modern retail: high-speed Internet access, high-tech security cameras and high-end merchandise. An ounce of marijuana will sell for $300, and Reed's outlet will have a whopping 55 varieties.
"I would love to offer it out of a hospital, I would love to offer it out of Walgreen's, but the truth is, they're not allowing that," said Reed, who uses marijuana himself to ease the pain of a back injury. "So somebody has to open a place like this and show that it can be done right."
What that includes, he said, is abiding by a batch of new rules. Chief among those is a stipulation that forbids clubs from opening within 1,000 feet of a school or a community center. "This wasn't our original location, nor was it our ideal location," Reed said, adding that tourism at Fisherman's Wharf had nothing to do with his decision. "But it was really hard finding legal areas."
One of those legal areas happened to be at the wharf, which is zoned primarily for commercial use. But Christopher Martin, whose family owns the Cannery, a three-story retail and restaurant complex a block from the proposed club, said that the neighborhood had been trying to become more upscale and residential, and that a pot club did not figure into those plans. "We are trying to build a more stable, more interesting community here," Martin said.
What local merchants said they feared most was the clientele's smoking in the neighborhood, congregating on the sidewalks or clogging streets with double- parked cars. Reed said that his security personnel would prevent loitering and that 16 security cameras would constantly monitor the club and the area.
"Criminals that deal drugs don't want to come into a store where they are being recorded," he said.
The pot clubs themselves, which are usually cash businesses with ample amounts of product, are sometimes targets of crime. Four in San Francisco were robbed in 2005, and a club downtown was robbed last weekend during the Gay Pride Parade.
What both sides can agree on - in classic San Francisco fashion - is that the problem is really Oakland's fault. In 2004, the smaller, less glamorous city across the bay banned most of its cannabis clubs, pushing many to reopen in San Francisco. Many other cities in the state followed with bans or restrictions.
Reed's proposed dispensary also comes at a time when medical marijuana's legal standing is murky. Last summer, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld federal authority to prosecute the possession and use of marijuana for medical purposes, despite voter-approved laws that allow medical marijuana in California and nearly a dozen other states.
That decision prompted California to stop issuing identification cards to patients, for fear of opening state workers to federal charges of abetting a crime. (Patients, who need a doctor's recommendation to get marijuana, can still be issued cards by San Francisco and other California cities.)
The rising neighborhood opposition to the clubs also stands in striking juxtaposition to the personal political beliefs of many in a city that prides itself on a progressive attitude. "Every single person I've ever spoken to and every meeting I've ever went to, if there was any opposition at all, the first words out of their mouth is, 'I voted for this,'" Reed said.
Martin concurred: "Both the merchants and the residents - though philosophically we don't have a problem with medicinal marijuana being available, we all voted for it - we think customers are going to be better served in another location. We just think it's the wrong time, wrong place."
Tourists seemed unaware of the controversy. "I think it's a pretty eclectic neighborhood anyway," said Tony Accardo, 54, a financial analyst from Dallas. "My only concern would be if it attracted clientele that might affect the neighborhood. You know, riffraff."
Newshawk: Akornpatch - 420Times.com
Source: International Herald-Tribune
Author: Jesse McKinley, The New York Times
Copyright: 2006 International Herald Tribune
Published: July 2, 2006
Contact: letters@iht.com
Website: Breaking News, World News & Multimedia
For some, that is exactly the problem. The Green Cross is a cannabis club, one of scores that sell marijuana to patients carrying a doctor's note. The clubs have sprouted around California in the decade since the passage of Proposition 215, which legalized the use and sale of marijuana to those suffering from chronic pain, illness or infirmity.
San Francisco, a hot spot in the AIDS epidemic, voted overwhelmingly in favor of the proposition in 1996 and now has about 30 clubs that serve 25,000 patients and caregivers.
But none of those medical-marijuana dispensaries, as they are formally known, have been opened in places anywhere as popular as Fisherman's Wharf, where most people come to enjoy chowder, Ghirardelli chocolate or cable cars. Now, with the opening of the new club just weeks away, some residents and merchants are fighting to keep it out.
"The city is saturated with pot clubs," said T. Wade Randlett, president of SF SOS, a quality-of-life group that opposes the club. "Fisherman's Wharf is a tourism attraction and this is not the kind of tourism we're trying to attract."
Emboldened by a series of regulations passed last autumn by the Board of Supervisors, some neighborhoods are resisting new marijuana dispensaries, which they assert attract crime and dealers bent on reselling the drugs. In the debate over the new rules last year, several neighborhoods successfully lobbied to be exempted from having clubs.
Other neighborhoods managed to get clubs closed, including a previous version of the Green Cross, which was forced out of a storefront in the Mission District after neighbors said they had seen a rise in drug dealing, traffic problems and petty crime.
Clubs in San Francisco now must go through a permit process, which includes public hearings, and the proposed dispensary at Fisherman's Wharf is the first to have done so. A hundred people packed a neighborhood meeting on June 13, peppering the club's owner, Kevin Reed, with questions. Outside, fliers were handed out imploring residents to "Stop Marijuana Store!" and listing the planned club's proximity to schools and hotels.
Liz Naughton Moore, 33, a lawyer who lives about a block from the planned location, said she dreaded the thought of walking her 18-month-old son anywhere near it. "Anyone with a modicum of common sense can see this is not an appropriate location," she said. "I understand patients need to have access to it, but I think with 30 locations, they have options."
All of this upsets Reed, who founded the first Green Cross in 2004. He said he had spent tens of thousands of dollars on security and other expenses to make his club a model for marijuana dispensaries. "I've changed so much and brought so much professionalism to the movement, but the public can't see that," he said. "I took it from the 1960s into the 20th century."
The unopened dispensary at Fisherman's Wharf has all the trappings of modern retail: high-speed Internet access, high-tech security cameras and high-end merchandise. An ounce of marijuana will sell for $300, and Reed's outlet will have a whopping 55 varieties.
"I would love to offer it out of a hospital, I would love to offer it out of Walgreen's, but the truth is, they're not allowing that," said Reed, who uses marijuana himself to ease the pain of a back injury. "So somebody has to open a place like this and show that it can be done right."
What that includes, he said, is abiding by a batch of new rules. Chief among those is a stipulation that forbids clubs from opening within 1,000 feet of a school or a community center. "This wasn't our original location, nor was it our ideal location," Reed said, adding that tourism at Fisherman's Wharf had nothing to do with his decision. "But it was really hard finding legal areas."
One of those legal areas happened to be at the wharf, which is zoned primarily for commercial use. But Christopher Martin, whose family owns the Cannery, a three-story retail and restaurant complex a block from the proposed club, said that the neighborhood had been trying to become more upscale and residential, and that a pot club did not figure into those plans. "We are trying to build a more stable, more interesting community here," Martin said.
What local merchants said they feared most was the clientele's smoking in the neighborhood, congregating on the sidewalks or clogging streets with double- parked cars. Reed said that his security personnel would prevent loitering and that 16 security cameras would constantly monitor the club and the area.
"Criminals that deal drugs don't want to come into a store where they are being recorded," he said.
The pot clubs themselves, which are usually cash businesses with ample amounts of product, are sometimes targets of crime. Four in San Francisco were robbed in 2005, and a club downtown was robbed last weekend during the Gay Pride Parade.
What both sides can agree on - in classic San Francisco fashion - is that the problem is really Oakland's fault. In 2004, the smaller, less glamorous city across the bay banned most of its cannabis clubs, pushing many to reopen in San Francisco. Many other cities in the state followed with bans or restrictions.
Reed's proposed dispensary also comes at a time when medical marijuana's legal standing is murky. Last summer, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld federal authority to prosecute the possession and use of marijuana for medical purposes, despite voter-approved laws that allow medical marijuana in California and nearly a dozen other states.
That decision prompted California to stop issuing identification cards to patients, for fear of opening state workers to federal charges of abetting a crime. (Patients, who need a doctor's recommendation to get marijuana, can still be issued cards by San Francisco and other California cities.)
The rising neighborhood opposition to the clubs also stands in striking juxtaposition to the personal political beliefs of many in a city that prides itself on a progressive attitude. "Every single person I've ever spoken to and every meeting I've ever went to, if there was any opposition at all, the first words out of their mouth is, 'I voted for this,'" Reed said.
Martin concurred: "Both the merchants and the residents - though philosophically we don't have a problem with medicinal marijuana being available, we all voted for it - we think customers are going to be better served in another location. We just think it's the wrong time, wrong place."
Tourists seemed unaware of the controversy. "I think it's a pretty eclectic neighborhood anyway," said Tony Accardo, 54, a financial analyst from Dallas. "My only concern would be if it attracted clientele that might affect the neighborhood. You know, riffraff."
Newshawk: Akornpatch - 420Times.com
Source: International Herald-Tribune
Author: Jesse McKinley, The New York Times
Copyright: 2006 International Herald Tribune
Published: July 2, 2006
Contact: letters@iht.com
Website: Breaking News, World News & Multimedia
