Block Politics
OK, so I got in this discussion with a neighbor the other night. Do you think that a medical marijuana dispensary next to a rehab facility for street people, is a wise choice? Case in point: Columbus Ave, North Beach Citizens next door to a dispensary. It’s not that I think marijuana should be illegal- I don’t. I think it should be legal. It’s that it’s illegal federally and so we get this reseller industry hanging out in front. So folks trying very hard to kick habits, get off the street are encountering this side business ever morning and night. Wise? How could this go on so long, too?
I’ve heard the local businesses are not too happy about it either. My neighbor had a great suggestion: put the dispensary in the basement of the City Hall, or the police station on Vallejo.
Note: from marijuana.org:
San Francisco to regulate marijuana clubs out of existence. Board of Supes is currently passing legislation to zone and regulate the thirty or so pot clubs operating quietly in San Francisco. Meanwhile patients are complaining about high prices and low quality from these same clubs. We predict the clubs will move underground and patients will still pay $400 dollars an ounce instead of the $5 dollars an ounce they would pay under legalization. Oddly enough San Francisco is licensing increasing numbers of alcohol oriented clubs in residential neighborhoods (even right next to schools) to run virtually all night long and turning a completely blind eye to complaints (noise, sidewalks covered with broken glass and worse, crime, impact on local housing values, etc.) coming from those who live near these businesses. I guess SF is telling its residents and children that alcohol is safer than marijuana.
And from Wikipedia on Cannibis, and Supreme Court decision:
On June 6, 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision which supported the Federal Government’s position against “medical marijuana”. [14] Justices O’Connor, Rehnquist, and Thomas filed dissenting opinions.
From SF Dept. of Public Health: Med. Marijuana info
Do you think that a medical marijuana dispensary next to a rehab facility for street people, is a wise choice?
Do you think that sick people — some of them terminally ill — should be denied medicine because of someone else’s illness? I hope not.
Rhetoric aside, if it’s a visible dispensary following regulations and dispensing medical marijuana to people who have registered with the city and/or state then I don’t see a problem with it. If they’re mouthing at following the rules and selling to anyone who slips a bribe to the counter staff, then shut the fuckers down.
Local businesses love to blame dispensaries for all sorts of various ills plaguing the neighborhood. While sometimes warranted, it’s also a good way for many of them to deflect blame for whatever attractive nuisances their own enterprises offer.
>On June 6, 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court handed
>down a decision which supported the Federal >Government’s position against “medical marijuana”.
>
Gonzales v. Raich is more of a federalism/commerce
clause case than a right-to-puff case [substantive
rights] case.
it’s interesting to see scalia and thomas break
on this one [scalia wrote a sep concurrence].
o’connor’s view is the opposite of yours:
she thinks marijuana should not be legal, but
it’s up to CA voters if they want to “experiment”
with it. See famous Brandeis dissent in
New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann.
the pot case is a successor to a another case
about “neighborhood issues” … regulating
guns in school areas, US v. Lopez.
Funny, when I see the ads for these “medical pot clubs” they look more like ads for nightclubs than they do some agency or business serving the sick.
Why even have pot clubs? We have a zillion pharamcies in town that can give out drugs far more intense than “pot.” Why not just get the prescription filled at Walgreen’s?
Well, Greg, the reason we have pot clubs is that, so far, Walgreen’s won’t stock the stuff without legalization at the national level. I’m certain most genuinely sick people would love that as well. Until then, we have this.
Just to be clear, though, the profiteers with their sick flyers are disgusting. It’s a shame that they currently outnumber ethical dispensaries 10:1.
Personally I’m staying out of the NIMBY “medical” weed debate. All I know is that block has a wonderful history and a big Mob Hit occured @ Coppola’s “North Beach Citizens” Charity HQ back in the 1930’s.
How ironic that Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola is chairman of an organization headquartered at the site of a a 1930’s mob hit that infamously changed the cities crimescape.
Where his homeless services charity North Beach Citizens office is was the former site of the Del Monte Barbershop.
Luigi Malvese, a prohibition era gangster, was ambushed and shot to death in broad daylight May 18 1932 outside of the Del Monte Barbershop at 720 Columbus Ave. The known bootlegger, racketeer and gunrunner had been one of the city’s top crime ringleaders for the previous 6 months as a bloody turf war between Northern Italian Famiglia and Sicilian Mafiosi raged throughout town. In an effort to reign in the mob, the SFPD rounded up some 1,000 “usual suspects” in a dragnet. Amongst those questioned were Louis Dinato, Al Capone’s tailor.
Francesco Lanza assumed command of the city’s Italian & Sicilian crime syndicates in May 1932 and brought the various rackets together under his Cosa Nostra control. They were unified in gambling, loansharking, extortion, hijacking, fencing stolen goods, prostitution, narcotics trafficking and other illicit rackets like distributing bootleg alcohol. Frank Lanza was also a partner in the famous Fisherman’s Wharf with Giuseppe Alioto who also founded the International Fish Company. Lanza was eventually deported, while Giuseppe’s son Joe would eventually become the city’s mayor.
Meanwhile, today Francis and folks like the president of Armiano Cheese try to do some good for the down and out in the old hood…
http://www.NorthBeachCitizens.org
FFC, as I fondly like to call him, is great for starting up this neighborhood service. I’m huge fan, and though I didn’t go to the fundraising dinner this year, will doubtless go next.
Yes, it’s a troubled block with a mafia past (as every block in North Beach seems to have). Thing is- just don’t think it’s appropriate for the dispensary. Nearer the police station and/or near city hall- both operable ideas in my mind!
Anna, why do you think sick and dying people getting medicine should be scrutinized by criminals?
Oh, bugger. As criminals. In any case, I think you’re having a kneejerk emotional reaction to a crime issue that might, but does not, exist.
Please excuse the obnoxiousness of the above comment; I’m going to blame what is either severe allergies or a mild flu for making me cranky. Sorry. I am going back to bed.
Dan- I don’t think they “should” be scrutinized by criminals. I’m saying that bad a sad circumstance, the dispensary is near a rehab/half-wayhouse, and that seems to be impractical.
Note: since this article has been posted, I haven’t seen any criminal activity outside the dispensary. And, this is also perhaps due to the local community meetings going on about this same topic.