Buddy's Cannabis Patient Collective, the medical marijuana dispensary that Mountain View shut down for flaunting a city ban, has moved to Sunnyvale – another city that prohibits such enterprises.
The dispensary's Mountain View location was forced to close Wednesday under a court order, but reopened Friday in a warehouse on Old Mountain View Alviso Road in Sunnyvale.
"It would've been a lot easier and less risky for us to relocate to San Jose, but there's no way that we're giving up on you guys!" a Craigs-list ad advertising the reopening says.
Matt Lucero, who opened Buddy's with his nephew Jesse in April, announced the new location in an e-mail to club members Thursday. He said he is keeping the reopening low-key because he doesn't want to be as "acrimonious or combative" as he was with Mountain View.
"We're just hopeful that Sunnyvale will accept us," Lucero said.
The Sunnyvale City Council voted in May to temporarily ban medical marijuana dispensaries and voted again on June 29 to extend the ban until March 31, 2011.
Lucero said he reopened in Sunnyvale because he is confident the council will pass an ordinance allowing medical marijuana dispensaries by the end of the year, and he believes he can work with the city. In addition, the new location is only about eight miles from Mountain View and Buddy's 1,000-plus member client base.
"For us, to just sit and wait for five or six months, we were very optimistic about the prospects (of Sunnyvale allowing dispensaries), but that's a long time for sick people," Lucero said.
If Sunnyvale tries to shut down Buddy's like Mountain View did, Lucero said, "what I'm going to want to do is engage in a constructive conversation that will allow us to work under their terms."
Sunnyvale spokesman John Pilger said Friday he was not aware that Buddy's moved to Sunnyvale.
"If in fact somebody were to try to open (a dispensary) without having proper permission in the city, then that's a violation," Pilger said. "We'd have to deal with that on a case-by case-basis."
Pilger said city staff plans to deliver a final report on medical marijuana issues to the city council by the end of the year, so it can decide whether to develop an ordinance allowing and regulating dispensaries. The city also plans to begin a series of public outreach meetings in August on the topic.
In the meantime, Buddy's new space in a business park off Highway 237 looks a lot like the Mountain View operation. The interior walls are the same Pepto-Bismol pink, the floor has a black-and-white checkerboard pattern, and employees say the artist who painted the "Our Lady of Guadalupe" mural at the former site will put his brushes to work once again.
Business was fairly quiet Friday about 4 p.m., with one or two customers stopping in at a time to check out the collective's marijuana selection.
Buddy's could serve as a test site and model as Sunnyvale develops its regulations, Lucero said.
"We're not just starting something from scratch," he said. "We're bringing something that already includes hundreds of Sunnyvale residents."
NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: Santa Cruz Sentinel
Author: Diana Samuels
Copyright: 2010 Santa Cruz Sentinel
* Thanks to MedicalNeed for submitting this article
The dispensary's Mountain View location was forced to close Wednesday under a court order, but reopened Friday in a warehouse on Old Mountain View Alviso Road in Sunnyvale.
"It would've been a lot easier and less risky for us to relocate to San Jose, but there's no way that we're giving up on you guys!" a Craigs-list ad advertising the reopening says.
Matt Lucero, who opened Buddy's with his nephew Jesse in April, announced the new location in an e-mail to club members Thursday. He said he is keeping the reopening low-key because he doesn't want to be as "acrimonious or combative" as he was with Mountain View.
"We're just hopeful that Sunnyvale will accept us," Lucero said.
The Sunnyvale City Council voted in May to temporarily ban medical marijuana dispensaries and voted again on June 29 to extend the ban until March 31, 2011.
Lucero said he reopened in Sunnyvale because he is confident the council will pass an ordinance allowing medical marijuana dispensaries by the end of the year, and he believes he can work with the city. In addition, the new location is only about eight miles from Mountain View and Buddy's 1,000-plus member client base.
"For us, to just sit and wait for five or six months, we were very optimistic about the prospects (of Sunnyvale allowing dispensaries), but that's a long time for sick people," Lucero said.
If Sunnyvale tries to shut down Buddy's like Mountain View did, Lucero said, "what I'm going to want to do is engage in a constructive conversation that will allow us to work under their terms."
Sunnyvale spokesman John Pilger said Friday he was not aware that Buddy's moved to Sunnyvale.
"If in fact somebody were to try to open (a dispensary) without having proper permission in the city, then that's a violation," Pilger said. "We'd have to deal with that on a case-by case-basis."
Pilger said city staff plans to deliver a final report on medical marijuana issues to the city council by the end of the year, so it can decide whether to develop an ordinance allowing and regulating dispensaries. The city also plans to begin a series of public outreach meetings in August on the topic.
In the meantime, Buddy's new space in a business park off Highway 237 looks a lot like the Mountain View operation. The interior walls are the same Pepto-Bismol pink, the floor has a black-and-white checkerboard pattern, and employees say the artist who painted the "Our Lady of Guadalupe" mural at the former site will put his brushes to work once again.
Business was fairly quiet Friday about 4 p.m., with one or two customers stopping in at a time to check out the collective's marijuana selection.
Buddy's could serve as a test site and model as Sunnyvale develops its regulations, Lucero said.
"We're not just starting something from scratch," he said. "We're bringing something that already includes hundreds of Sunnyvale residents."
NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: Santa Cruz Sentinel
Author: Diana Samuels
Copyright: 2010 Santa Cruz Sentinel
* Thanks to MedicalNeed for submitting this article
