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‘Was that a question?’
Local resident Brenda Carr arranged an informative meeting regarding medical marijuana dispensaries for the citizens San Lorenzo. Featured were 5 reputable experts, starting with Dr. Amanda E. Reiman, a social welfare lecturer from UC Berkeley, Becky DeKeuster the community liason for Berkeley Patients group , Rebbecca Saltzman from Americans for Safe Access, James Anthony a lawyer from Harborside Management Associates and Matt Kumin, a civil rights attorney.
The first hour was devoted to Amanda Reiman and the research she’s done in the field of patient surveys from BPG. We learned that she has surveyed about 350 patients from BPG, and found their average age is 39, 70% are working and 30% of the surveyed came in for other BPG holistic services, and not medical cannabis. It’s clear she has in depth research on dispensary services and the effect and value of dispensaries in the neighborhood. She explained a pharmacy model for dispensaries and a social model. She brought up open channels of communication.
Beck DeKeuster explained the dispensary model in use at BPG and the role of community. Ten years at one location on San Pablo, that’s a high traffic street. They border a residential home and a service company. At one time BPG had a pre-school across the street. She spoke on neighborhood relations and seemed more than qualified.
James Anthony had a 7 minute video on the harborside dispensary model. Harborside has the community social model wrapped around a pharmacy set up.
Rebbecca from ASA was a crowd favorite. She went into safe access and what it really takes to challenge the issues on the federal level. She seemed to attract the least amount of snickers from the Alameda County Under Sheriffs sitting nearby. The old folks in the crowd liked her too.
Matt Kumen seemed fairly sensible. He set up his first collective at age 20. He’s wiser now. He knows a collective isn’t a single owner managing the profits from a storefront business. This guy gave me hope. I think this guy gets it for patients and communities. He mentioned a collective that was opening a credit union, I think this is a great thing for the times we live in.
Not a word was mentioned about patient’s rights to collectively grow until a question from the crowd after the presentation. Nothing was mentioned in these models about a democratically elected committee overseeing the funds generated in a collective fashion. This bothered me as a patient and why I believe the presented models could be flawed. They do not follow the rules of a collective as described in the attorney general guidelines released last year. They might work just as well though.
Neighborhood members speaking were basically caring home owners and some association spokesmen. Bob Swanson was on hand to address some of the concerns privately after the panel addressed the community at large. The forum panel asked residents to bring tough questions.
One sweet lady expressed concerns over a grow house that caught fire on her block. They were stealing electricity and a perfect example of what not to do. The older lady had educated herself, she knew about guidelines and the war on drugs and moratoriums. She was well rehearsed and ended her time with the panel with ‘ and you know, they had a 2 year in that house… disgusting.’
Less dramatic was a homeowners spokes person who said they were trying to attract big business into the area and ‘who would want to move in next to a pot club’, he sure wouldn’t. He mentions the empty Mervin’s building, and laments no one to fill it. What I thought is he’s trying to get new business to move into the area, in this economy it’s called trying, and not getting. Beggars can’t be choosers and medical cannabis could be a tax paying law abiding revenue cash cow if it was properly regulated. I’m just saying. The panel pointed out that while some dispensaries in San Francisco may have neon green pot leafs in their window, it’s not required. It’s very true the appearance of the place could be as non-descript as required or desired.
Why are we catering to 190 patients in this area was the question of one woman. She seemed to have a definitive number of patients from the area that begs the question how did she come up with that?. But she brought up a moot point. We have precious little data on medical patients due to HIPA rights. The panel offered to explore voluntary surveys of patients in the area and it’s feasible that patients will comply.
The panel had no reply for the lady with questions covering fresh vegetables and prostitutes.
Finally a patient stands up and asks why we can’t get space to grow collectively? The panel somewhat dropped the ball in a rare instance for the forum on this one. I thought they would bring up the Eddy Lepp model where you could pick a clone, put down some money and grow it or have Eddy grow it for you. Run it indoors in industrial buildings and tax per light. Members elect officers. Simple.
A fellow was concerned the Harborside video looked great, but was like a rug, and if you looked under the rug it was pretty dirty. The man seemed to fly off into rage when he found out there were dispensaries operating in unincorporated areas. His point was ‘marijuana is marijuana’ and probably should not be tolerated. The Berkeley model shouldn’t be applied here, after all, that’s Berkeley. The panel didn’t cover this one much. It was obvious people had strong feelings as these types of forums often point out.
San Lorenzo residents are likely to shop in Hayward, San Leandro, Oakland, Castro Valley and unincorporated areas of Alameda County. It’s a mix of single family, multi family, commercial and industrial areas. Yards for the most part are kept well throughout the area. It’s almost an entirely middle class. Vacancies are high and rents are dropping for the most part. The state budget is in crisis mode and it’s time to generate some tax revenue via any safe and regulated method possible. We found common ground tonight and will meet again July 22.
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July 3, 2009
