DONOR KEEPS MARIJUANA DISPENSARY ALIVE

Businessman Gives $11,000

HAYWARD -- A 30-year-old Hayward businessman spent $11,000 to keep Hayward
Hempery owner Cheryl Adams -- someone he had never met -- from being
evicted from her downtown shop.

The man, a Tennyson High School graduate, said he had once visited The
Hempery and its medical marijuana dispensary. A medical marijuana patient
himself, he read with interest about her business' potential demise in an
ANG Newspapers' publication and decided to bail her out, he said.

"It's the oldest (dispensary) in town, and I thought it would be a shame to
let it go," he explained.

The lifetime Hayward resident, who asked that his name not be published,
said he was a big proponent of Proposition 215, which legalized pot in
California for medicinal purposes. His father had his stomach removed due
to cancer and was given just four months to live, he said.

Marijuana made it easier for his father to eat and he ended up living for
two years, he said.

Adams and the man both said they consider one another partners in the
business, located on the corner of Foothill Boulevard and B Street.

Adams was forced to vacate the building at the end of last year because she
was behind several months in rent, said Mountain View Realtor and property
owner Ron Ikebe. She had until sometime this week to come up with the money
before the eviction became final.

The man went into Ikebe's lawyer's office in San Jose on Tuesday and gave
him a cashier's check, Ikebe confirmed.

Adams said she was surprised, but happy, not just for the man's willingness
to help, but to have a partner to help run the shop. She's been cleaning up
the shop after a recent burglary and vandalism, and hopes to open again by
Monday, she said.

In the meantime, the city notified Ikebe that he had to remove the stucco
overhang on the building, which was starting to come loose. So some
construction is ongoing.

Adams and her Hayward Patient Group dispensary have been in the spotlight
lately as the City Council struggled to come up with a way to allow her
dispensary and two others to exist in combination with conflicting state
and federal drug laws and efforts to revive downtown. Possibly complicating
the issue could be Adams' arrest in Newark last month on felony marijuana
possession charges. Plus, her business has been the victim of several
recent burglaries. The City Council agreed last month to grandfather in the
three dispensaries, all of which had been operating in violation of the
city's zoning law. According to the agreement, Adams' dispensary and the
neighboring Local Patients Cooperative are allowed to operate for three
years, under certain conditions. Hayward Patients' Resource Center (HPRC),
also nearby on Foothill Boulevard, is allowed to operate for one year.

If one of the other dispensaries closes in the upcoming year, however, HPRC
can stay open for three years, the agreement states. So the possibility of
The Hempery's closure gave HPRC's some hope its future could be more certain.