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Alleged Mission ‘Pot Club’ Raises Concerns

[Webmaster's Note: I usually don't post such garbage, but I thought you might want to know how our NIMBY neigbors think.]

San Fracisco, CA Aug 05, 2006 -- Since Proposition 215 passed by 56 percent of California Voters 10 years ago, the controversy regarding the medical use of cannabis (or marijuana) has raged on. Most of the concern centers upon the prolific increase of Medical Cannabis Dispensaries in residential areas.

This past May the Planning Dept. of San Francisco sent out a notice of “Alleged Violation" to a Mission District landlord stating that a, “complaint alleges that your tenant’s establishment (Re-Leaf Medical Cannabis Dispensary) is open for business in a residential district.”

Mirkarimi and the Board of Supervisors set a moratorium in April of 2005 on any new MCD facilities from being opened. “This was done as an effort to give The City time to draft and adopt laws concerning the use of cannabis for medical purposes,” said Boris Delepine who works as an administrative aid in Mirkarimi's office.

“Any MCD's currently operating without permission must obtain permits through the Dept of Public Health by July of 2007,” he said.

Supervisor Tom Ammiano worked with Mirkarimi on the moratorium and follow up regulations. When asked for his opinion about MCD’s, his response was “you have to play by the rules or shut down.”
Delepine noted that the process for a permit is complicated because several city agencies and departments are involved. They are the Planning Dept. the City Zoning Administrator's Office and the Dept. of Public Health.

As part of city regulation MCD's are not permitted in residential areas. The property at 2980 21st Street that received the notice is still being investigated. The set of flats is “within a two block radius of an elementary school, a high school, a day care center, a YMCA and a recreation area with tennis and soccer courts,” said Kathryn Hill.

As a concerned Mission District resident, Hill had sent a letter of complaint in March to Dan Sider, a city planner who has been keeping an eye on the property. Hill said that since Sept. of 2005, “there has been an increase in vandalism of cars and graffiti.”

Relying mostly on the word of residents and neighborhood advocates Sider manages a heavy caseload. “We have been out there to the property repeatedly at various times and nothing is going on as of now.”
Sider's most recent visit to the flats was this past June. Yet he said, “the nature of these 'pot dispensaries' is that they appear and disappear. They come and they go.” He admitted that ever since the initiative to consider marijuana as a medical drug appeared and it was voted upon, “it has been a challenge,” said Sider.

In 2002 San Francisco passed Prop. S, which directed The City to explore the possibility of establishing a program whereby the city of San Francisco would grow medical cannabis and distribute it to patients exercising their rights under Prop. 215.

Even though the idea on the ballot that was approved by SF voters seemed feasible, complaints from residents like that of Hill arose continuously. Issues with noise, loitering, vandalism, and theft were cited. “Meeting with all city departments about the regulations of MCD's was intensive and long, it took about eight months,” said Delepine.

Since 2002 according to SF Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi's office, the city has witnessed a dramatic increase of unregulated medical cannabis dispensaries. The current number of MCD's is not exact but at last tally it was between 35 and 43.

The number of individuals registered with the Dept. of Public Health's Medical Cannabis Voluntary I.D. Card Program now has over 7,000 enrollees.

Wayne Justmann a spokesman of sorts for the Medical Cannabis movement in San Francisco is in support of The City's efforts to regulate the MCD's. Justmann volunteers his time at the MCD on Church Street near the intersection of Market and Duboce. “This is one of the oldest and most highly respected in The City if not in the nation,” he said.

Justmann pointed to a frame on the wall. It was a note written by Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi in 2002. She was “touched by the words of the clients” that had written to her about how much they benefited from cannabis as a medication to help with chronic and severe pain.

When asked what she thought of the locale, Justmann admitted she had never actually stepped foot in the place but was sympathetic to the issue of cannabis as medication. Spacious, comfortable and above a bar called The Transfer the MCD at 194 Church has a very 1960's - type of casual atmosphere.

Justmann who remembers the 60's very well at age 61 gets his allotment of cannabis by way of his HIV status. He was quick to say that he has been HIV status for over 18 years. “Not by drug use but through sexual transmission,” he said.

Patients walk in after being checked in at the door. They all know each other and as Justmann said, “we get to know each other very well.”

Orlando Lopez suffers from emphysema. “I try to come here as often as I can,” he said. He claims that cannabis takes away the pain. It was hard to discern how smoking marijuana helped someone who has lung damage. He claimed that he eventually wants to buy a humidifying/vapor-dispensing machine.
The letter from Pelosi in a frame on the wall is behind a glass counter filled with an array of various forms of marijuana.

“Patients can choose which form of marijuana they prefer,” Justmann said. There are marijuana cookies, brownies, cakes and candies. Average price is about $8. Packaged by a company called “Tainted Truffles” under the California Health and Safety Code 11362.5, they have a warning on the label that they are for “medical purposes only!”

When asked how does the marijuana get regulated or rather how is it prescribed and in what amount? The answer from Justmann and others present was vague. “Once a day is allowed but often patients get about 6 grams. They know their tolerance level,” said Justmann.

“Most people here are experienced through past recreational experience,” Justmann added. The thought of addiction and wondering who or what monitors these people was the next obvious question.
But Justmann's response was only concerned with people reselling the “medication.” “If we find out someone has been selling the medication on street, they are expelled,” he said.

The increase in MCD's had caused Oakland City officials to limit MCD's across the Bay to only four.

This increase is a concern not only to residents and city officials but also to some physicians. “If one opened up in my neighborhood I would complain,” said Dr. Robert Bruckman. In his practice, he has seen his share of “creepy drug seekers” over the years that will jump at any opportunity to get a drug.

Bruckman has an open-minded view of the use of cannabis as medication as some studies show it does help with pain. Bruckman finds it absurd that while cannabis is much less harmful than liquor and tobacco, it has been considered illegal since 1937.

The difficulty in regulating the use of marijuana is in terms of a prescription. At what degree does marijuana really decrease pain? And perhaps just as important to the medical profession is the question of who will pay for the doctors, nurses and professionals to administer all this?

“Do you think the State or The City is going to pay for such?" Bruckman said with a bit of musing thought. “And if we are having problems with insurance carriers paying for basic medical maintenance costs, do you think they are going to support something like this?”

Bruckman pointed out that marijuana might be helpful, but “as a medication it is not a cure for chronic pain,” he said.

Both Sider and the Code Enforcement Unit of the Planning Dept. were unavailable to verify if a response was received from the landlord of the flats on 21st Street.

As to how the issue and continued regulation of Cannabis (marijuana) as medication turns out for the future? “We are just scratching the surface,” said Sider.