Pubdate: Sun, 06 Jun 2010
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2010 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  http://www.mercurynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author: Bruce Newman

SAN JOSE: CAN MARIJUANA COLLECTIVES BE GOOD NEIGHBORS?

Their businesses stand no more than a hundred feet  apart, at 
opposite ends of a small commercial strip.  Neatly dressed, with her 
blond hair just so, Sue  Campbell has run the Alphabet Soup Preschool 
for 29 years. At Purple People Medical, a medical 
marijuana  dispensary two doors down from the school, Andrew  Runner 
welcomes patients wearing baggy jeans and  spectacular tats.

Recently, as Runner, 28, emerged from the back room of  the cannabis 
co-op, his eyes were slightly bleary and  bloodshot. As Campbell 
talked about the arrival of her  new neighbor a month ago, her eyes 
brimmed with tears.  Each is affable, except when talking about the other.

Together, they form a microcosm of an uneasy, often  unruly merger of 
medicinal marijuana collectives with  neighborhoods that don't want them.

"I think it's going to put me out of business,  definitely," Campbell 
said, dabbing her eyes  occasionally as 3-year-olds wove around her 
on tricycles. She was named the city's Teacher of the Year  in 2006, 
but now she isn't sure she will be able to  remain open.

She said she had already lost a couple of prospective  pupils whose 
parents were scared off by the cannabis  club. "On one hand, they 
honor me," she said of the  city. "And on the other, the city is 
failing me. This  can't be next to a preschool."

Campbell and Runner are both expected to attend a  meeting at City 
Hall on Monday for so-called  stakeholders in this push-me, pull-you 
municipal  merengue.

City Attorney Rick Doyle and staff from the city  manager's office 
have not yet drafted an ordinance  regulating marijuana collectives 
but will offer a rough  outline of what issues the future ordinance 
will  tackle.

"We're trying to craft something with clear rules that  will allow 
these clubs to exist," Doyle said. "A lot of  cities are just saying, 
'We don't want 'em,' but that  seems like the easy way out. Our 
council wants to allow  them as long as they comply with state law, 
but that's  been a tougher nut to crack than we thought."

Councilman Sam Liccardo, who voted with the majority to  initiate the 
review, would prefer to see marijuana  distributed through pharmacies 
but sounds resigned to  regulation that would cap the number of 
collectives and  restrict where they could be located. Within a few 
feet  of a preschool almost certainly wouldn't be allowed in  any 
ordinance he'd vote for.

Doyle may push for an "urgency ordinance," customarily  used to 
protect the public's health and safety, at the  council's June 22 
meeting. Doyle counted aloud the  number of cannabis club ads in a 
local tabloid, then  said, "We need to have a regulation to deal with 
the  proliferation of these clubs. This is getting out of  control."

The city's desire for speed without a substantive  ordinance has 
frustrated some people. "It feels like  we're being railroaded in a 
dark room," said James  Anthony, consultant for a coalition of San 
Jose  cannabis collectives called MC3. "If we're going to  discuss 
it, it would be nice to be able to see it."

Councilman Pierluigi Oliverio drafted a regulatory  proposal last 
fall, but city government didn't take  action until March 30, when 
Doyle and City Manager  Debra Figone were directed to come up with 
something  the council could vote on.

"I think in hindsight people wish they had tackled this  back in 
October," Oliverio said. "Back then, we had  maybe two of these 
collectives. Now we have 60. Now  we're going to have to go through 
the legal wrangling  of closing quite a few."

It would be fine with Oliverio, Doyle and even the  cannabis 
coalition if small dispensaries such as  Runner's were put out of 
business by the proposed  ordinance. Security at small dispensaries 
is a growing concern following an armed robbery at one last 
month,  and the city has a preference for large collectives  that use 
cash registers and accept credit cards - all  the better to track 
taxes they will owe, Liccardo said.

All of which mystifies Runner, who says he's been  dreaming of 
opening a marijuana dispensary since he was  18. "My grandmother died 
of cancer, and before she  passed, I was like, 'Smoke up,' " he 
recalled. "So I  got into the movement really early. I'm of the 
people  and for the people."

Runner says his choice of location on De Anza Boulevard  wasn't 
because it would put him next door to Monsters  of Rock, a head shop 
that moved next to Alphabet Soup  in December and which Campbell 
would also like to see  disappear. "That's kind of like a plus," Runner said.

He knew there was a preschool there, but didn't expect  to find 
himself confronted one day by its owners, who  accused him of 
"selling drugs," he said.

"To tell the truth, I didn't think it would be that big  of a deal," 
Runner said. "There are children present,  sure, but there's no 
smoking or ingesting medication  here on the premises, so there's no 
effect on the  kids." He pointed to a liquor store and a bar nearby. 
"I figure there's other businesses that could have  worse effects 
than mine," he said.

Liccardo would like to see the issue resolved "quickly"  so it can be 
brought before the council Aug. 3 for a  vote, then put on the November ballot.

"If we don't severely restrict where and how medicinal  marijuana is 
distributed in the city, we're going to  see several decades of 
effort to preserve the quality  of life in our neighborhoods go up in 
smoke," Liccardo  said. "Literally."

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if you're going

A meeting about the proposed medical marijuana  ordinance will be 
open to the public from 6 to 8 p.m.  Monday in the City Council 
chamber, 200 E. Santa Clara  St., San Jose.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart