HISTORIC HIGH

The City's First Medical Marijuana Center Moves Toward Landmark Status

The Board of Supervisors is moving to designate the first medical
marijuana center in the city a historic landmark. The move
circumvents disability access rules that could have put the
Compassionate Care Clinic out of business.

The clinic, which has also operated under the names Champ and
Cannabis Buyer's Club, has been open in the Castro since 1992. But
disability access requirements, recently proposed by Sup. Michela
Alioto-Pier, have put it on shaky ground: if the second-story
dispensary is unable to install an elevator by March 1, 2008, it
could be forced to close its doors.

The landmark status, which was proposed by Sup. Bevan Dufty, would
exempt the clinic from the Alioto-Pier amendment.

Michael Aldrich, who once served as the clinic's executive director
and prepared the landmark papers, told us that the dispensary simply
cannot meet the new building requirements. CCC staffers meet
wheelchair-bound patients downstairs, offer a free delivery service,
and, in suitable cases, help carry patients upstairs.

Alioto-Pier doesn't buy the landmark bill. She didn't return calls
for this story but has previously told us that "specifically because
they are medical ... it's important for MCDs to be accessible."