Pubdate: Sat, 24 Dec 2005
Source: Tri-Valley Herald  (Pleasanton, CA)
Copyright: 2005 ANG Newspapers
Contact:  http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/742
Author: Karen Holzmeister
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?420 (Cannabis - Popular)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

COUNTY GIVES AREA POT CLUBS MIXED BAG

After years of sneers that selling medical marijuana is a back-alley 
operation, Adele Morgan felt vindicated Thursday.

The owner of We Are Hemp on Lewelling Boulevard in Cherryland got an 
early Christmas present: an Alameda County Sheriff's Department 
letter stating her business has tentative approval for a permit to 
sell medical marijuana in unincorporated areas.

"I am glad, and I do feel vindicated in a sense," said Morgan, who 
opened her storefront business five years ago, after 29 years as a 
nurse and seven years with the county probation department.

"We have been here so long, and have been no trouble," she explained. 
"I have a clean, clean background; we cater to older people here."

Thursday was a day of contrasts for the six existing dispensaries 
competing for the three prized permits:

. The Garden of Eden on Foothill Boulevard in Cherryland also 
received a letter of tentative approval, along with We Are Hemp and 
the previously notified Compassionate Collective of Alameda County on 
Mission Boulevard in Cherryland.

. A Natural Source on Foothill Boulevard in Ashland got the 
equivalent of a literary lump of coal. The sheriff's department cited 
the dispensary's proximity -- about a block -- from a Montessori 
school as the reason for denying its permit application.

It has 10 days to appeal the denial to a panel of county administrators.

Sheriff's Captain Dale Amaral said location only, and not criminal 
problems -- including the shooting death of a suspected robber 
outside A Natural Source last August -- was behind the denial.

Amaral said The Health Center and Alameda County Resource Center, 
both on East 14th Street in Ashland, may be able to ask county 
supervisors to overturn denials by the sheriff's department and 
administrative panel as soon as Jan. 10.

Both cannabis clubs were denied permits because they are too close to 
schools and an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting hall. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake