CANNABIS FIGHT HAS FISHERMAN'S WHARF IN A STEW

SAN FRANCISCO -- The newest attraction planned for Fisherman's Wharf,
this city's most popular tourist destination, has no sign, no
advertisements and not a scrap of sourdough. Yet everyone seems to
think that the new business, the Green Cross, will be a hit, drawing
customers from all over the region to sample its pungent wares.

For some, that is exactly the problem.

The Green Cross is a cannabis club, one of scores that sell marijuana
to patients with a doctor's note. They have sprouted around
California in the decade since the passage of Proposition 215, which
legalized the use and sale of marijuana to those with chronic pain,
illness or infirmity. San Francisco, a hot spot in the AIDS epidemic,
voted overwhelmingly in favor of the proposition in 1996 and has
about 30 clubs, serving about 25,000 patients and caregivers.

But none of San Francisco's medical marijuana dispensaries, as they
are formally known, have been in places anywhere as popular as
Fisherman's Wharf, where most people come to enjoy chowder,
Ghirardelli chocolate or cable cars. Now, with the opening of the new
club just weeks away, some residents and merchants are fighting to keep it out.

"The city is saturated with pot clubs," said T. Wade Randlett, the
president of SF SOS, a quality-of-life group that opposes the planned
club. "Fisherman's Wharf is a tourism attraction, and this is not the
kind of tourism we're trying to attract."

Emboldened by a series of regulations passed last fall by the city's
Board of Supervisors, several neighborhoods successfully lobbied to
be exempted from having clubs. Other neighborhoods managed to get
clubs shuttered, including a previous version of the Green Cross,
which was forced out of a storefront in the city's Mission District
after neighbors said they had seen a rise in drug dealing, traffic
problems and petty crime.

The proposed dispensary also comes at a time when medical marijuana's
legal standing is murky. Last summer, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld
federal authority to prosecute the possession and use of marijuana
for medical purposes, despite voter-approved laws allowing medical
marijuana in California and nearly a dozen other states.

That decision prompted California to stop issuing identification
cards to patients, for fear of opening up state workers to federal
charges of abetting a crime. (Patients, who need a doctor's
recommendation to get marijuana, can still be issued cards by San
Francisco and other California cities.)

Clubs in San Francisco now must go through a permit process, which
includes public hearings, and the proposed dispensary at Fisherman's
Wharf is the first to have done so. A hundred people packed a
neighborhood meeting June 13, peppering the club's owner, Kevin Reed,
with questions. Outside, fliers were handed out imploring residents
to "Stop Marijuana Store!"

All of this upsets Reed, a soft-spoken, sharply dressed 32-year-old
who founded the first Green Cross in 2004. He said he had spent tens
of thousands of dollars on security and other expenses to make the
new club a model for marijuana dispensaries.

"I've changed so much and brought so much professionalism to the
movement, but the public can't see that," Reed said.

The unopened dispensary at Fisherman's Wharf - in a nondescript
storefront tucked under a weary-looking bed-and-breakfast - has all
the trappings of modern retail: high-speed Internet access, high-tech
security cameras and high-end merchandise. An ounce of marijuana will
sell for $300; the outlet will have a whopping 55 varieties.

"I would love to offer it out of a hospital, I would love to offer it
out of Walgreen's, but the truth is, they're not allowing that," said
Reed, who uses marijuana to treat a back injury. "So somebody has to
open a place like this and show that it can be done right."

What that includes, Reed said, is abiding by a batch of new rules.

Chief among those is a stipulation that forbids clubs from opening
within 1,000 feet, about 305 meters, of a school or a community center.

"This wasn't our original location, nor was it our ideal location," Reed said.

The wharf is zoned primarily for commercial use. But Christopher
Martin, whose family owns the Cannery, a three-story retail and
restaurant complex a block from the proposed club, said the
neighborhood had been trying to become more upscale and residential,
and that a pot club should not figure into the plans.

What local merchants say they fear most is the clientele smoking in
the neighborhood, congregating on sidewalks or clogging streets with
double- parked cars. Reed said that his security personnel would
prevent loitering and that 16 security cameras would constantly
monitor the club and the area.

The rising neighborhood opposition to the clubs also stands in
striking juxtaposition to the political beliefs of many in San
Francisco, a city that prides itself on a progressive attitude.

"Every single person I've ever spoke to and every meeting I've ever
went to, if there was any opposition at all, the first words out of
their mouth is, 'I voted for this,'" Reed said.

Martin concurred. "Both the merchants and the residents - though
philosophically we don't have a problem with medicinal marijuana
being available, we all voted for it - we think customers are going
to be better served in another location," he said. "We just think
it's the wrong time, wrong place."