Update, Alert & Request

> Subject: Marijuana Fight Envelops Wharf in San Francisco
>
>
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/03/us/03green.html?ex=1309579200&en=c1eaaf6bf8a68e30&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
>
> July 3, 2006
> Marijuana Fight Envelops Wharf in San Francisco
>
> By JESSE McKINLEY
> SAN FRANCISCO, July 2 — The newest attraction
> planned
> for Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco'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 the region
> to sample its pungent wares.
>
> For some, that is exactly the problem.
>
> The Green Cross is a cannabis club, one of scores
> that
> sell marijuana to patients with a doctor's note.
> They
> 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 has about 30
> clubs, serving some 25,000 patients and caregivers.
>
> But none of San Francisco's medical marijuana
> dispensaries, as they are formally known, have been
> located 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, the president of SF SOS, a quality-of-life
> group that opposes the planned 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
> fall
> by the city's Board of Supervisors, some
> neighborhoods
> are resisting new marijuana dispensaries, which they
> say 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 new clubs.
>
> Other neighborhoods managed to get clubs shuttered,
> including a previous version of the Green Cross,
> which
> was forced out of a storefront in the city's Mission
> District after neighbors said they had seen a rise
> in
> drug dealing, traffic problems and petty crime, a
> charge the Green Cross denies.
>
> The proposed dispensary comes at a time when medical
> marijuana's legal standing is murky. Last summer,
> the
> United States Supreme Court upheld federal authority
> to prosecute the possession and use of marijuana for
> medical purposes, despite voter-approved laws
> allowing
> 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 up to federal charges of abetting a
> crime. (Patients can still be issued cards by San
> Francisco and other California cities.)
>
> 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.
>
> Elizabeth Naughton Moore, 33, 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," Ms. Moore said. "I
> understand patients need to have access to it, but I
> think with 30 locations, they have options."
>
> All of this upsets Mr. Reed, a soft-spoken, sharply
> dressed 32-year-old 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 the
> new
> 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," Mr. Reed said. "I took it from the
> 1960's"
> into the 21st century.
>
> The unopened dispensary at Fisherman's Wharf —
> located
> in a nondescript storefront tucked under a
> weary-looking bed-and-breakfast — 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 Mr. Reed's outlet will have a whopping 55
> varieties. Framed photographs of San Francisco
> scenes
> adorn the club's black walls, and the glass-topped
> counters gleam under track lighting.
>
> "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 Mr. Reed, who uses
> marijuana to treat a back injury. "So somebody has
> to
> open a place like this and show that it can be done
> right."
>
> What that includes, Mr. Reed 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. Mr. Reed said that the
> tourism appeal of Fisherman's Wharf had nothing to
> do
> with his decision, but that the location met the
> requirements of the new rules.
>
> "This wasn't our original location, nor was it our
> ideal location," Mr. Reed said, adding that he would
> not be selling marijuana to tourists, only to those
> with doctors' notes. "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 should not figure into the plans.
>
> "We are trying to build a more stable, more
> interesting community here," Mr. Martin said.
>
> What local merchants say they fear most is the
> clientele's smoking in the neighborhood,
> congregating
> on sidewalks or clogging streets with double-parked
> cars. Mr. 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," Mr. Reed 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 last weekend, a club downtown
> was
> robbed during the Gay Pride Parade.
>
> And while the law was passed with seriously ill
> patients in mind, like those with AIDS and cancer,
> some critics say that now even people with
> commonplace
> aches and pains can get a doctor's recommendation.
>
> But what both sides can agree on — in classic San
> Francisco fashion — is that the problem is really
> Oakland's fault. In 2004, Oakland, the smaller, less
> glamorous city across the bay, banned many of its
> cannabis clubs, driving some to reopen in San
> Francisco. Other cities in the state have also
> instituted bans or new restrictions.
>
> The rising neighborhood opposition to the clubs also
> stands in striking juxtaposition to the personal
> political beliefs of many in San Francisco, a city
> that prides itself on a progressive attitude.
>
> "Every single person I've ever spoke 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,' " Mr. Reed said.
>
> Mr. 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," he said. "We
> just
> think it's the wrong time, wrong place."
>
> Mr. Reed has assured city leaders and Mr. Martin
> that
> he would be a good neighbor, and he hopes to open in
> August if his permit is approved.
>
> For their part, tourists seemed unaware, and largely
> unbothered, that they might soon be wandering past a
> cannabis club. "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."