Jim Finnel
Fallen Cannabis Warrior & Ex News Moderator
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."
NewsHawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: Press Democrat, The (Santa Rosa, CA)
Copyright: 2010 The Press Democrat
Contact: letters@pressdemocrat.com
Website: Santa Rosa News, Weather, Sports and Business | PressDemocrat.com | The Press Democrat
Details: MapInc
Author: Derek Moore
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."
NewsHawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: Press Democrat, The (Santa Rosa, CA)
Copyright: 2010 The Press Democrat
Contact: letters@pressdemocrat.com
Website: Santa Rosa News, Weather, Sports and Business | PressDemocrat.com | The Press Democrat
Details: MapInc
Author: Derek Moore
