SANTA CRUZ TO GET SECOND MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARY

SANTA CRUZ - The City Council denied two appeals aimed at preventing
the city's second medical marijuana dispensary from opening.

Council members denied the appeals by a 6-1 vote Tuesday night.

K.E. Sampson, a Corralitos resident and medical marijuana patient,
plans to turn an empty office building on Limekiln Street into The
Santa Cruz Patient Collective.

Several neighbors and business owners said they were concerned about
parking, lighting and litter removal, but most people in the overflow
crowd at Tuesday-s meetings supported the project.

Sampson said the business will improve the neighborhood, where
homeless people live, and provide access to the drug for the county's
estimated 3,000 medical pot patients.