NEW SONOMA VALLEY POT DISPENSARY DRAWS SCRUTINY

Two women who have run afoul of authorities in several Bay Area
communities apparently have opened a medical marijuana dispensary in
Boyes Hot Springs that is drawing concern for its proximity to homes,
a teen center and an elementary school.

Neighbors of Alikchi Wellness said this week that they were unaware
that a dispensary had located in a wood-frame building that also
houses a stained glass art shop at 17503 Sonoma Highway, at the
intersection of Fetters Avenue.

"I had no idea," said Rebecca Hermosillo, who can see the dispensary
from her office window at the Valley of the Moon Teen Center, where
she serves as director.

Hermosillo said she supports marijuana being given to people who are
sick but she doesn't want a dispensary so close to the teen center
and "readily available to the kids."

Kim Pelham and Cindy Elizabeth Harris, who co-signed the lease for
the retail space at the Sonoma Highway site, told the building's
owner that they were planning to operate a dispensary there.

It's unclear the degree to which that may be happening. However, on
Monday the unmistakable odor of marijuana was evident in the
dispensary's foyer, which had a couch, plants and magazines spread on
a coffee table, lending it the appearance of a doctor's waiting room.

A woman who opened the door declined comment but a few minutes later
she welcomed a young man who appeared to be in his 20s inside. Little
else distinguished the site as a dispensary, other than a sign on the
door that detailed the hours of operation -- Monday through Saturday
from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. -- and a request that cell phones and "other
electronic devices" be left outside.

Another sign read, "Smile, you're on camera."

"They have customers," said Larry Brookins, who owns Lost Art across
from the dispensary. He said he's not opposed to them being there, in
what formerly was the site of a fitness facility.

"It doesn't bother me at all," he said. "Good luck to them."

Pelham and Harris have not been so welcome in other places. Reached
on her cell phone Tuesday, Pelham declined comment before hanging up.
Harris could not be reached.

Harris was forced to close dispensaries that she operated in Santa
Venetia in Marin County and in Fairfield in Solano County after the
Solano County Sheriff's Office arrested her in September and charged
her with multiple marijuana felonies and conspiracy. Her son, who
lives in Sebastopol, also was arrested, according to media reports.

Pelham was forced to shut down dispensaries in Corte Madera and in
Napa. Her attempts to open a dispensary in American Canyon led the
city to enact a ban on such facilities based on conflicts between
state and federal law regarding marijuana use.

Their dispensary in Boyes Hot Springs is near Flowery Elementary
School and directly at a crosswalk and a signal that alerts motorists
to slow down for the presence of school children.

It also is near three markets and Pipe Pirates, a smokeshop that
recently opened at 18332 Sonoma Highway.

James Gosney, a Concord resident who has owned the Sonoma Highway
building since 1973, said the two women assured him that they had
received approval from the county to operate a dispensary there, and
that one of the women said she had a friend or relative who worked in
the county's permit department.

"I just took them at their word," Gosney said Tuesday. "They seemed
to be legitimate."

Asked whether he now has concerns given the feedback about the
dispensary expressed by neighbors and county officials, Gosney
replied, "How could I not have concerns about it?"

The county ordinance that governs how medical marijuana dispensaries
can operate and where they can be located was recently upheld by a
state appellate court after it was challenged by a Guerneville cooperative.

The three-page application requires extensive documentation,
including maps and design drawings of each site, setbacks from other
uses in the area, including schools, homes and conventional
smokeshops, descriptions of security and patient-privacy rules and
indemnification of the county in the event of a lawsuit.

There is no record on the county's Web site of Pelham and Harris
submitting such documentation to open Alikchi, a term that likely
refers to a traditional Native American healer.

Pete Parkinson, director of the county's Permit and Resources
Management Department, said Tuesday it's likely the dispensary is
opening without a permit, because otherwise he would have been
notified by staff of a pending application.

Parkinson, like most county employees, is off this week because of
budget-related furloughs, and thus he did not have access to more
complete records.

Parkinson said without a permit, the dispensary is "certainly subject
to immediate enforcement actions. Whether that means shutting them
down depends on the context."

The county's ordinance requires that neighbors who live within 100
feet of a proposed dispensary be notified in advance of the plans.

But retired psychiatric technician Ed McCahon said he was not advised
of Alikchi's opening, even though his home is directly behind the dispensary .

"I'm right in their backyard," he said.

McCahon and other neighbors expressed mixed feelings about the
dispensary, saying they support people having access to marijuana for
medical needs. They just don't want it to be dispensed so close to
where they live.

Lorene Reed, who lives on Fetters Avenue a short distance from the
dispensary with her two teen-aged children, said she has concerns
about increased traffic.

"I really like my quiet street. I can imagine people will be coming
up here and that bugs me," she said.

Sonoma County Supervisor Valerie Brown, whose district includes Boyes
Hot Springs, said she learned of the dispensary Sunday in an e-mail
from a resident who expressed concern about the facility.

She vowed that county officials would make checking up on the
dispensary their first priority after they return to work.

Brown in 2007 voted against a dispensary proposed in next to Maxwell
Park on the border with the city of Sonoma, in part because she felt
it was not easily accessible for law enforcement. The month prior to
her vote a 17-year-old was killed in the park in a gang-related shooting.

Brown citing neighbors' concerns about the site's proximity to
services catering to youth. "I would tell you that it's got some real
hurdles," she said.

She said supervisors are going to have to more closely monitor such
facilities, although she did not provide details.

"My request to staff is that we need to delve into this and figure
out what to do with this because it's become a bigger issue than what
we all thought it would be," Brown said.

Sheriff's Capt. Matt McCaffrey on Tuesday said deputies likely will
accompany county officials on their visit to Alikchi. He said such
visits rarely require immediate action but most often involve permit
issues that can take time to resolve.

Karen Kissler, spokeswoman for the Sonoma County Patients'
Association, an alliance of pot dispensaries, said the group is
opposed to anyone seeking to open one of the facilities without going
through the process of getting a permit.

"We are here by the grace of the voters and the board of
supervisors," she said. "If we don't apply for a permit, we are in
violation of the law, and that's bad for all of us."