cannabisnews.com: Fisherman's Wharf Shops Fume Over Pot Club





Fisherman's Wharf Shops Fume Over Pot Club
Posted by CN Staff on July 13, 2006 at 10:02:47 PT
By Mary Anne Ostrom, Mercury News
Source: Mercury News 
San Francisco -- Millions of people come to San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf each year for their fix of crab and sourdough. Now one Generation X businessman wants to open a medicinal marijuana dispensary in the Bay Area's most-visited tourist mecca. Many locals, however, are not too high on the concept.``It's all about fish, not pot,'' steams Chris Martin, owner of the Cannery, who says the wharf should be about history and for kids. A medical pot shop, he worries, would create ``more of a carnival atmosphere and may increase crime.''
Plans by the Green Cross to sell marijuana to patients with a doctor's permission is pitting the Dungeness vs. the cannabis crowd in a battle as hot as a boiling crab pot. San Francisco's planning commissioners today will take a crucial vote on the proposal.The proprietor of the Green Cross dispensary agrees that the wharf is hardly an ideal location for his customers -- terrible parking for one thing. But, he says, new city rules created zones so confining that about the only places to legally sell marijuana now are around the wharf or in the Financial District.Will it add to the carnival atmosphere at Fisherman's Wharf?Hardly, says Green Cross owner Kevin Reed. ``There are 30 different bars and different restaurants within two blocks of here,'' he said.He pointed out that he must comply with dozens of regulations, including hiring security guards and controlling odor emissions, before he can open on Leavenworth Street just down the block from the Cannery, a century-old building with stores, restaurants and bars.``We are playing by the rules,'' said Reed, 32, whose earlier marijuana dispensary on the edge of Noe Valley was closed in a compromise with city officials after San Francisco clamped down on pot clubs.Wharf battles are not new. In-N-Out Burger ticked off the fishmongers at its opening. The addition of a Hooters restaurant was a frontal assault to traditionalists.Now, the dispensary debate comes as local crab and salmon fishermen are under siege and cannot afford to berth their picturesque floating crafts. The city is threatening to tear down a century-old pier. And tourism, while rebounding, has not reached pre-Sept. 11 levels, dispensary opponents say.One merchant complained that bringing a pot club to the neighborhood is akin to the headaches of ``a big-box retailer or fast-food drive-in.''Supporters of the Green Cross laugh. ``It's metro-chic,'' said Kathleen Prevost, a medicinal marijuana user who dropped by Wednesday to check out the proposed new digs. ``It's in Amsterdam, in Paris.''Reed said he is not targeting tourists. In fact, the only customers who will be allowed through the fortified front door must carry state or city-issued medicinal marijuana cards, which require a doctor's written permission. There will be a one-ounce per customer limit.And no marijuana smoking will be allowed on or near the premises.But perhaps the biggest only-in-San Francisco irony is that the Cannery, the pot club's biggest opponent, has served as the temporary home to a museum that celebrates one of San Francisco's original joint-toting countercultures -- the Beat Generation.Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)Author: Mary Anne Ostrom, Mercury NewsPublished: July 13, 2006Copyright: 2006 San Jose Mercury NewsContact: letters sjmercury.comWebsite: http://www.sjmercury.com/ Related Articles & Web Site:The Green Crosshttp://thegreencross.orgMedical Pot Club Tests San Francisco Lawhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21991.shtmlFisherman's Wharf Bid Tests New Pot Club Laws http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21978.shtml
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Comment #7 posted by ekim on July 13, 2006 at 19:57:01 PT
Green Cross owner Kevin Reed 
please try to get your logo on 3d. here is a cool one.http://www.magiceye.com/gallery/062906s.htmlwhig-- have a great time. their is info on help for looking at these on the site. 
http://www.magiceye.com/whatsnew.htm
http://www.saferniles.org
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Comment #6 posted by FoM on July 13, 2006 at 19:12:22 PT
Thanks La Quinta!
Whig that's great! Have a wonderful flight tomorrow.
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Comment #5 posted by afterburner on July 13, 2006 at 18:54:22 PT
Surprise Surprise
Now the prohibitionists don't like our "O, Cannabis" flag:CN ON: LTE: 'National Flag' Upsets Patriotic Canadian, The Independent & Free Press, (07 Jul 2006) http://www.mapinc.org/newstcl/v06/n920/a02.html?176
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Comment #4 posted by whig on July 13, 2006 at 18:39:15 PT
Sam Adams
They will not stamp out our culture. We have internet.And so do I. Thanks La Quinta!In seriousness, conformity is a phenomenon that requires a conforming media to press and maintain. This was the history of the American 20th century.
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Comment #3 posted by sam adams on July 13, 2006 at 13:53:03 PT
Ah-ha!
Supporters of the Green Cross laugh. ``It's metro-chic,'' said Kathleen Prevost, a medicinal marijuana user who dropped by Wednesday to check out the proposed new digs. ``It's in Amsterdam, in Paris.''Bingo! She's struck gold. She has identified the problem perfectly. We are not metro-chic, we are not cosmopolitan, we are not worldly and cutting edge. This is America, we are primitive, we are prudish, we are dowdy old codgers. We are working as hard as we can to buy architecturally bankrupt massive homes out in the middle of nowhere, so we can sue our neighbors for things we don't like.We don't like stylish young people roaming our cities enjoying themselves. We like big, obnoxious tourists, wearing garishly ugly clothes, roaming our cities, buying chocolate, fried dough and tacky wife-beater T-shirts. San Francisco was the one bright spot amid the dullness, the one cultural treasure of a city that survived the post-World War II architectural holocaust called "Urban Renewal". But don't worry, we'll stamp out that flickering candle too, just wait a couple more decades. By 2030 the federal government will control everything. They'll make sure everything beside Starbucks and Walmart gets shut down.They're replace Fisherman's Wharf with a big Supermax prison, where all the former medical MJ patients & providers can be housed.
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on July 13, 2006 at 13:18:04 PT
MBC
I know what you mean. I find it hard to get upset anymore because I don't think we can change anything unless we vote republicans out. I just can't see any solutions other then a complete change of direction. Now that the war is escalating in the middle east lord knows where this will take us.
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Comment #1 posted by mai_bong_city on July 13, 2006 at 11:07:33 PT
fishpot
i would so love to be involved in this venture, should it get the go-ahead, and i hope it does. i envision medical users being able to be mainstreamed, cripes, we're everyday citizens - i can see the issue of crime in that med patients may be robbed of their medicine, leaving the place with an ounce, being followed....i would hope not, but it's a chance. i think they ought to be allowed to consume on premises, in the confines of the establishment - they're sick - why can't they use their medicine and then go out to enjoy a fine meal or what-have-you just as the people drinking to excess in hooters do? doesn't that increase crime to an extent? violence, fights, public intoxication - nobody's mentioning the children there, are they?
i can't elevate my blood pressure getting incensed anymore, but gads i'm tired of being treated as something sub-human. 
no justice, no peace.
sigh.
mbc
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