Pubdate: Fri, 23 Dec 2005
Source: Daily Review, The (Hayward, CA)
Copyright: 2005sANG Newspapers
Contact:  http://www.dailyreviewonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1410
Author: Karen Holzmeister, staff writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)

AREA POT CLUBS HANDED MIXED BAG

Sheriff's Department Approves Two More Permits And  Denies Three
Others

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 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 Sourcelast  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. Restrictions  cited
in the medical marijuana ordinance adopted by  supervisors last
summer, and revised this fall, limit  dispensaries from locating near
educational sites -- a  1,000-foot buffer zone is required -- and
community  facilities as well as other marijuana sales outlets.

The next hurdle

The ordinance identifies three specific zones in the  unincorporated
area where each of the three permitted  clubs can operate.

The first zone includes San Lorenzo and a narrow strip  of Cherryland
running east along Interstate 238. The  second zone covers portions of
Ashland west of  Interstate 580 and the southernmost areas of 
Cherryland. Ashland south of

I-580 and Castro Valley make up the third zone.

We Are Hemp appears to be the only dispensary in the  first area,
while both the Compassionate Collective and  Garden of Eden are in the
second area.

If A Natural Source's denial is upheld on appeal, there  would be no
existing marijuana sales outlet in the  third area. This area --
Castro Valley in particular --  interests medical marijuana sellers
who want to come to  Alameda County. In October 2004, supervisors
banned any  more dispensaries while the ordinance was being  prepared.

"We have gotten calls from outside vendors who want to  come in, and
the community they ask about is Castro  Valley," Amaral said. "We are
not accepting  applications from any other businesses than the six we 
now are processing."
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin