POT CO-OP GROWS ON COASTSIDE

Moss Beach Store Is First Local Medical Marijuana Dispensary

A steady trickle of curious Coastsiders were walking into a
nondescript Moss Beach storefront Monday morning. They found a drab
building with shuttered Venetian blinds and nothing but a glowing neon
"open" sign in the window.

The inside of the building was just as featureless, with little
besides a coffee maker, a security camera and several folding chairs
sitting before a long wooden partition with a lone booth behind plexiglass.

A Half Moon Bay resident named Angela walked in and waved to the
clerk, who signaled for her to come around to the back room, a larger
chamber with a wall-size menu advertising "Morningstar," "Grape Ape,"
"K2 Blue" and seven other choices. Minutes later, Angela came back out
with a tidy white bag containing her purchase — an eighth-ounce of
marijuana she bought legitimately, legally … and now locally. Opening
just last month, the store, Blue Heaven, is the first medicinal
marijuana distributor on the Coastside — a longtime pipe dream for
prescription pot smokers that is generating some calls for tighter
regulation among local Coastsiders and county officials.

For better or worse, marijuana is no stranger to Coastside, but legal
users of the drug have had to either grow their own or travel across
the Bay Area to get their medicine.

Angela, who asked that her last name not be used, and other medicinal
pot smokers say they could easily acquire marijuana through
unlicensed, illegal dealers to treat a wide array of medical aches and
ailments. But having a reliable, legitimate dealer is far more
convenient, Angela said.

I have chronic pain," Angela said. "Somebody who uses marijuana for a
condition is going to use it no matter what. It's just easier to come
to a place like this."

Half Moon Bay resident Ruben Muniz works as owner and founder of Blue
Heaven and its sister store in unincorporated Redwood City. Providing
medical marijuana is his passion, Muniz said

We have over 300 patients, and we're growing," he said. "Every day I
get patients who tell me it's great to have a place like this on the
Coastside."

But yes, I'm taking a risk here," he added.

Medicinal marijuana has been on hazy legal ground since California
voters approved Proposition 215 in 1996, ostensibly giving a popular
mandate to allow doctor-approved uses for the drug. While legal under
state law, medicinal marijuana remains prohibited under federal law,
which can supersede state guidelines.

Legal or not, marijuana has been a miracle for Muniz, who says he has
smoked weed since he was 13 years old as a way to control his
Attention Deficit Disorder. Growing up in southern Florida, Muniz says
that he was astounded when he learned that California voters had
approved medical marijuana. A friend invited him to come out west to
work at his pot delivery business in Oakland.

I told him, I'll be visiting you in San Quentin," he joked.

But nonetheless, Muniz decided to join the California medical pot
industry, moving to Half Moon Bay with his wife and daughter in 2004.
For a period, he even ran his own pot delivery service out of his
family's house on Kelly Avenue.

Muniz says his new Moss Beach shop could be shut down any time by
federal officials. That may sound paranoid, he says, but that is
exactly what happened to him in 2007, when a similar cannabis club he
ran in San Mateo was unexpectedly raided by Drug Enforcement Agency
officers, who he says had the consent of local law officials. They
confiscated his supply and plants and closed down his shop. He
ultimately was not charged with any crimes.

Muniz feels strongly that marijuana should, and will eventually,
become entirely legal.

It's a natural substance. People have smoked it since the ancient
Egyptians," he said. "I can't say that it's a cure for everything, but
it's great for pain management."

His Midcoast shop sells a variety of forms of the drug, whether the
standard plant buds or concentrated forms like hash, kief powder or
pot brownies and cookies. For smokers with a wide palate, the shop
offers 10 different varietals that the shop says deliver different
altered highs.

People who come to buy marijuana have to get a doctor to write a
letter to recommend the drug, which Muniz says they always verify.
Anyone trying to forge a doctor letter will be "86ed," he said.

And no kids under 18 … unless they have a doctor's note and a note
from their parents," Muniz said.

Muniz said he has heard from some in the community who worry that
children will come in contact with the drug as a result of his shop.
Blue Heaven is situated just a short walk from the Moss Beach park, a
popular place for toddlers.

On Monday afternoon, a group of young mothers at the park shrugged
upon learning about the new marijuana distributor down the street.

It's medicine. It's nothing else," said Christy Seddon, a Moss Beach
mother. "I'm sure doctors don't just give it out to anybody … only the
people who need it."

Muniz points out that the Coastside Market, which sells alcohol, is
closer. Nearer still is the San Mateo County Sheriff's Coastside
substation, he adds.

Alcohol is a frequent punching bag for Muniz, who doesn't
drink.

I'd rather come home and smoke a joint and make love to my wife,
instead of drinking a beer and beating my wife," he said excitedly.