SAN FRANCISCO HAS A PROBLEM WITH MARIJUANA

SAN FRANCISCO The newest attraction planned for Fisherman's Wharf,
this city's most popular tourist destination, has no sign, no
advertisements and not even 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 to sample its sweet-smelling wares.

For some, that is exactly the problem. The Green Cross is a cannabis
club, one of scores that sell marijuana to patients carrying a
doctor's note. The clubs have sprouted around California in the decade
since the passage of Proposition 215, which legalized the use and sale
of marijuana to those suffering from chronic pain, illness or infirmity.

San Francisco, a hot spot in the AIDS epidemic, voted overwhelmingly
in favor of the proposition in 1996 and now has about 30 clubs that
serve 25,000 patients and caregivers.

But none of those medical-marijuana dispensaries, as they are formally
known, have been opened 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,
president of SF SOS, a quality-of-life group that opposes the 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 autumn by the Board
of Supervisors, some neighborhoods are resisting new marijuana
dispensaries, which they assert attract crime and dealers bent on
reselling the drugs. In the debate over the new rules last year,
several neighborhoods successfully lobbied to be exempted from having
clubs.

Other neighborhoods managed to get clubs closed, including a previous
version of the Green Cross, which was forced out of a storefront in
the Mission District after neighbors said they had seen a rise in drug
dealing, traffic problems and petty crime.

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 on June 13, peppering the club's owner, Kevin
Reed, with questions. Outside, fliers were handed out imploring
residents to "Stop Marijuana Store!" and listing the planned club's
proximity to schools and hotels.

Liz Naughton Moore, 33, a lawyer who lives about a block from the
planned location, said she dreaded the thought of walking her
18-month-old son anywhere near it. "Anyone with a modicum of common
sense can see this is not an appropriate location," she said. "I
understand patients need to have access to it, but I think with 30
locations, they have options."

All of this upsets Reed, 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 his 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," he said. "I took it from the 1960s
into the 20th century."

The unopened dispensary at Fisherman's Wharf 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,
and Reed's 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 himself to ease the pain of a back injury.
"So somebody has to open a place like this and show that it can be
done right."

What that includes, he said, is abiding by a batch of new rules. Chief
among those is a stipulation that forbids clubs from opening within
1,000 feet of a school or a community center. "This wasn't our
original location, nor was it our ideal location," Reed said, adding
that tourism at Fisherman's Wharf had nothing to do with his decision.
"But it was really hard finding legal areas." One of those legal areas
happened to be at the wharf, which 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 that the neighborhood had been trying to become more
upscale and residential, and that a pot club did not figure into those
plans. "We are trying to build a more stable, more interesting
community here," Martin said.

What local merchants said they feared most was the clientele's smoking
in the neighborhood, congregating on the 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.

"Criminals that deal drugs don't want to come into a store where they
are being recorded," he said.

The pot clubs themselves, which are usually cash businesses with ample
amounts of product, are sometimes targets of crime. Four in San
Francisco were robbed in 2005, and a club downtown was robbed last
weekend during the Gay Pride Parade.

What both sides can agree on - in classic San Francisco fashion - is
that the problem is really Oakland's fault. In 2004, the smaller, less
glamorous city across the bay banned most of its cannabis clubs,
pushing many to reopen in San Francisco. Many other cities in the
state followed with bans or restrictions.

Reed's 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 that allow
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 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.)

The rising neighborhood opposition to the clubs also stands in
striking juxtaposition to the personal political beliefs of many in a
city that prides itself on a progressive attitude. "Every single
person I've ever spoken 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. We just think it's the wrong time,
wrong place."

Tourists seemed unaware of the controversy. "I think it's a pretty
eclectic neighborhood anyway," said Tony Accardo, 54, a financial
analyst from Dallas. "My only concern would be if it attracted
clientele that might affect the neighborhood. You know, riffraff."