Pubdate: Wed, 13 Apr 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)

LOCAL CANNABIS DISPENSARIES HAVE BOTH FRIENDS AND FOES

ASHLAND - The Health Center appears to represent the best and the
worst of medical marijuana dispensaries.

On the positive side, business is thriving, customers praise its
service and prices, and a neighboring business manager says center
employees have helped her with unruly customers.

On the negative side, other business operators and property owners
claim some of the center's customers urinate on and vandalize nearby
buildings, clog the area with traffic, and drive away business with
what appears to be drug dealing.

Now The Health Center (THC) and six other dispensaries in Ashland and
Cherryland are in the spotlight because Alameda County supervisors are
looking at ways to regulate and reduce the numbers of marijuana sales
centers.

In volume, THC attracts the most customers, an average of 200 to 300
people a day, center operator Jack Norton and county sheriff's Sgt.
Kelly Miles agree.

While the sheriff's department is not happy with marijuana sales in
its jurisdiction, deputies have issued some citations - and made only
a few arrests - to customers since THC opened in January 2004.

The department has received "lots of calls" from businesses and
residents about THC clients loitering, drug dealing and urinating,
Miles said last week. At least one undercover stakeout resulted in no
drug dealing arrests, Miles recalled, and complaints aren't treated as
"high priority" by deputies unless a fight is reported or weapons are
brandished.

"Jack is receptive to us, and he says he will do what we say," said
Miles, who has visited the center with other officers. "The center is
the busiest of all the centers, and it goes to show that medical
marijuana is a big-time business. I wouldn't be surprised if it brings
in $20,000 to $30,000 a day."

Norton wouldn't disclose daily sales figures, but contended that he
and the center's 18 employees receive only small salaries and
benefits. The     money is plowed back into the business, buying
quality marijuana from patients who raise small amounts and keeping
prices low, Norton added.

One-eighth of an ounce of marijuana can range in price from $45 for
high quality to $15 for lesser quality.

THC operates out of a drab building with no identifying sign on East
14th Street. It was the first dispensary on the newly repaved and
landscaped street, although two other ones have since opened within a
two-block area. It's open for business from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven
days a week.

During an interview last week, as the pungent odor of marijuana wafted
through four waiting and sales rooms cooled by nonstop electric fans,
Norton said he was "nervous" about county efforts to reduce the number
of dispensaries.

Oakland "messed up" when it decided to allow only four dispensaries,
he said. Many of THC's customers come from within a 15- to 20-mile
radius, including Oakland.

County regulations don't bother him, explained Norton, who is in his
early 20s and started in the medical marijuana business a couple of
years ago as a clerk at a Hayward dispensary.

Norton said he and his security guards cooperate with police, patrol
the area to prevent loitering and any illegal activities, and sweep
the center and neighboring sidewalks. He also sends guards due north
to ensure none of his customers are causing problems for insurance
agent Ralph Smith's office complex.

Smith, 72, has been at his location since 1971. While he admits
problems in the past with transients and drunks, he blames customers
of THC and the other dispensaries for urinating on his property,
parking in his lot and using it as their own smoking den.

"The concentration of centers, and this particular one, are my
problems," said Smith, who describes many of the men he confronts as
"huge 20-year-olds."

Smith said his second-degree black belt in karate makes him feel
secure in the presence of     younger, bigger men. His tenants,
including many who signed leases after the street was redeveloped,
aren't so sure.

"I'm not a NIMBY (not in my back yard), and we don't need this type of
business in a redevelopment transit area with schools nearby," the
outspoken businessman explained. "I just don't think it's an honest
operation."

Wendy Francis, who manages a cellular phone business across East 14th
Street, said the situation with THC "is not always so bad" as other
business operators claim.

Last week, an "obnoxious" customer wouldn't stop yelling, Francis said
Friday. She called Norton, who came over with a security guard and
remained until the unruly customer left. Their presence, she added,
was reassuring.

"Reassuring" also describes the service that Doug Nielsen of Tracy
receives at the center, he told supervisors at a community meeting
last month. Nielsen, who has used a wheelchair after breaking his neck
a year and a half ago, said marijuana helps relieve     spasms.

"The prices this club charges help get me through the month," he said.
"Security accommodates me. They take good care of me in an
uncomfortable situation."

But Shi Vawn Hutcherson, whose public storage facility shares a fence
with THC, claims she's losing business. Customers, she said to
applause from center opponents at the community meeting, are turned
away by "drug dealer-type looking people" in "flashy cars."

"They go and pee on my walls," she insisted of THC customers. "I get
disrespected when I ask them not to do it."
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MAP posted-by: Derek