420
Founder
I met David Moore in the spring of 2000 at a UC San Francisco conference on cannabis therapeutics sponsored by G.W. Pharmaceuticals ( the British company that is developing strains with differing cannabinoid ratios to achieve different medical effects ). Moore, who was then in his early 40s, said he had a personal interest in medical marijuana and wanted to advance the cause.
He had loved ones with AIDS and schizophrenia, and he was a medical user himself.
I gathered that he had a background in business and that he had done time ( marijuana-related, small-time ). He played the bass. He seemed affable, calm and serious.
I told him a few things off the top. 1 ) That California growers, too, could develop strains with different cananbinoid ratios, standardized for use by an MD; all G.W. had on us, really, was a lab to analyze the contents of the strains being produced. 2 ) That Tod Mikuriya, MD, was trying to promote vaporization and was recommending a high-end model from Germany called the Volcano. 3 ) That Dennis Peron said the real measure of Prop 215 being implemented would be the price coming down.
Next time I heard from David Moore he had already been to Tutlingen, Germany, to meet with the inventor of the Volcano, Markus Storz, and to offer his services as a U.S. importer and representative. Storz told Moore that he already had a business partner and a plan to expand Volcano distribution in the U.S., but the two hit it off and Storz invited Moore on a camping trip in the beautiful green countryside around Tutlingen ( a town famous for making precision medical equipment ). Moore brought back tapes of some formal interviews he had conducted with Storz, and photographs of the inventor at his workbench.
Moore had made the down payment on some land in Fort Bragg, on the Mendocino County coast, and launched "Kind Food Farms" to produce medicinal grade cannabis by organic methods.
In 2001 he opened a dispensary in Fort Bragg in which the Medical Marijuana Patients Union was involved.
The project ended when the property was sold. Moore then got a conditional use permit and opened an outlet in Fort Bragg, which was soon closed because it didn't meet requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
In late 2003, feeling confident in his productive capacity, he opened a dispensary in San Francisco selling high-grade cannabis "farm direct to collective members" for $30 an eighth-ounce -when other dispensaries were charging $50-$60. He sold Volcanos at cost ( $420, which was more than $100 below the prevailing retail price ). As a member of the board of the Medical Cannabis Association he advocated a formal collective comprised of patients, distributors and growers.
Moore's low prices -and a policy of giving a few free grams to collective members in need-resulted in long lines ( with a high percentage of blacks and Hispanics ) forming outside the door of the MendoHealing storefront on Lafayette, a small residential street that runs off Howard between 11th and 12th. Some neighborhood residents were righteously upset about people coming out of the club and loitering in front of their houses, smoking, being rude, offering cannabis for sale, taking up parking spots, double-parking, etc. MendoHealing's manager canceled the giveaway policy and upped the price to $40/eighth ( the point to which other dispensaries had come down ), but it was too late to mollify the Lafayette St. NIMBYs. Moore began looking for another location.
Before he could find one, a lawyer hired by the neighbors got a court order to close MendoHealing as a nuisance ( which the city wouldn't do because the police found MendoHealing had complied with their requirements ). MendoHealing began operating as a delivery service and Moore hired a San Francisco attorney, Terry Goggin, a former state legislator, to fight for his right to relocate.
But as of November 3, Moore needed Goggin to defend him against looming criminal charges for cultivation.
David Moore's Fort Bragg property was raided at noon last Thursday -the peak of the harvest-by a task force consisting mainly of FBPD officers and sheriff's deputies.
Glenda Anderson's report in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat noted that the trim crew consisted mainly of Mexicans who had just finished harvesting grapes. "Finding 65 people trimming and packaging pot under one roof surprised even Rusty Noe, the veteran leader of the County of Mendocino Marijuana Eradication Team," Anderson wrote.
Apparently the sheer amount of cannabis being grown convinced law enforcement that it could not have been destined for distribution through medical channels. Anderson wrote in the PD: "While the people processing marijuana in the Mitchell Creek Road barn claimed they were working for a medical cannabis club, [Sheriff's Capt. Kevin] Broin said the operation was clearly commercial, which makes it illegal.
"Law enforcement seized 1,707 plants and 1,000 pounds of processed, trimmed marijuana from the barn, he said. The seizure brings the total number of plants confiscated in Mendocino County this year to 144,021."
According to a source on the scene, the task force wreaked unnecessary destruction, breaking down doors instead of asking that they be opened. "We had several letters posted in the kitchen from officials confirming our medical status. Letters from [Sheriff Tony] Craver and the planning department and the tax collector and business licenses... They were all posted on a wall. [Craver was not working the day the raid on MendoHealing went down.] Although they said at the gate that they wanted to check our paperwork, they seemed surprised to see that we really were medical...
"They were told that Craver and the district attorney had been right here at this farm. They were asked,'Why are you guys here?' They said, 'Well, without getting too much into the case, we have evidence that this is going somewhere else than medicine.' By this time I could see men in the field chopping things down... Patients' records were in a file cabinet in the office and living room area of the main house.
They just took the whole filing cabinet."
The crew was handcuffed for about half an hour -"detained but not arrested"- then cut loose and ordered to leave the premises until 9 p.m. Those who returned found the warrant and an itemized list of what had been seized on the kitchen table.
Our source says, "Anybody that had more than $100 cash on them they took it and they didn't give anybody a receipt for it. Since everybody was paid in cash, most of the trim crew had more than $100 on them... I feel like we were robbed.
Somebody broke and entered and robbed us. It was the exact same thing."
Two days after the raid on MendoHealing, a New York Times piece about the history of American marketing noted that the president of a leading grocery chain ( A&P in 1931 ) attributed his company's success to its policy "of immediately passing on reductions in wholesale commodity prices to the consumer... A&P had one dominant mission: to sell quality food at low prices." Of course I thought of David Moore, who has been pre-judged by law enforcement and punished for distributing cannabis according to rational marketing principles and respect for the letter and spirit of the law.
Second item Note from Oregon
Your correspondent was in Salem Monday as the Oregon Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Washburn v. Columbia Forest Products. Washburn is a Klamath Falls mill worker who was medicating legally with marijuana under state law. He had never showed signs of impairment at work but the company fired him for violating its zero-tolerance-for-illegal-metabolites policy. Details TK in a future column... Washburn was at the hearing with his beautiful wife, observing the colloquy with quiet dignity. ( His lawyer, Phil Lebenbaum, had told him not to discuss the case. ) Washburn has a high brow, a drooping mustache, John Lennon eyeglasses and powerful hands. "A working-class hero is something to be."
Birthday Present
We wanted to buy a globe for an eight year old boy. The one on sale at Target had oceans that were parchment-paper tan ( for an antique effect, although the nations' names and boundaries were up-to-date ) We eventually found a globe with blue oceans at an educational toy store.
It was made by Replogle Globes of Broadview, Illinois, and came with a card entitling the owner to a 50% discount through Replogle's "Updateable Globe Program." The father of the eight-year-old was pleased to read the assertion on the card: "From time to time the world does change." See, there's hope!
Source: Anderson Valley Advertiser (CA)
Column: Cannabinotes
Copyright: 2005 Anderson Valley Advertiser
Contact: editor@theava.com
Website: Anderson Valley Advertiser
He had loved ones with AIDS and schizophrenia, and he was a medical user himself.
I gathered that he had a background in business and that he had done time ( marijuana-related, small-time ). He played the bass. He seemed affable, calm and serious.
I told him a few things off the top. 1 ) That California growers, too, could develop strains with different cananbinoid ratios, standardized for use by an MD; all G.W. had on us, really, was a lab to analyze the contents of the strains being produced. 2 ) That Tod Mikuriya, MD, was trying to promote vaporization and was recommending a high-end model from Germany called the Volcano. 3 ) That Dennis Peron said the real measure of Prop 215 being implemented would be the price coming down.
Next time I heard from David Moore he had already been to Tutlingen, Germany, to meet with the inventor of the Volcano, Markus Storz, and to offer his services as a U.S. importer and representative. Storz told Moore that he already had a business partner and a plan to expand Volcano distribution in the U.S., but the two hit it off and Storz invited Moore on a camping trip in the beautiful green countryside around Tutlingen ( a town famous for making precision medical equipment ). Moore brought back tapes of some formal interviews he had conducted with Storz, and photographs of the inventor at his workbench.
Moore had made the down payment on some land in Fort Bragg, on the Mendocino County coast, and launched "Kind Food Farms" to produce medicinal grade cannabis by organic methods.
In 2001 he opened a dispensary in Fort Bragg in which the Medical Marijuana Patients Union was involved.
The project ended when the property was sold. Moore then got a conditional use permit and opened an outlet in Fort Bragg, which was soon closed because it didn't meet requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
In late 2003, feeling confident in his productive capacity, he opened a dispensary in San Francisco selling high-grade cannabis "farm direct to collective members" for $30 an eighth-ounce -when other dispensaries were charging $50-$60. He sold Volcanos at cost ( $420, which was more than $100 below the prevailing retail price ). As a member of the board of the Medical Cannabis Association he advocated a formal collective comprised of patients, distributors and growers.
Moore's low prices -and a policy of giving a few free grams to collective members in need-resulted in long lines ( with a high percentage of blacks and Hispanics ) forming outside the door of the MendoHealing storefront on Lafayette, a small residential street that runs off Howard between 11th and 12th. Some neighborhood residents were righteously upset about people coming out of the club and loitering in front of their houses, smoking, being rude, offering cannabis for sale, taking up parking spots, double-parking, etc. MendoHealing's manager canceled the giveaway policy and upped the price to $40/eighth ( the point to which other dispensaries had come down ), but it was too late to mollify the Lafayette St. NIMBYs. Moore began looking for another location.
Before he could find one, a lawyer hired by the neighbors got a court order to close MendoHealing as a nuisance ( which the city wouldn't do because the police found MendoHealing had complied with their requirements ). MendoHealing began operating as a delivery service and Moore hired a San Francisco attorney, Terry Goggin, a former state legislator, to fight for his right to relocate.
But as of November 3, Moore needed Goggin to defend him against looming criminal charges for cultivation.
David Moore's Fort Bragg property was raided at noon last Thursday -the peak of the harvest-by a task force consisting mainly of FBPD officers and sheriff's deputies.
Glenda Anderson's report in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat noted that the trim crew consisted mainly of Mexicans who had just finished harvesting grapes. "Finding 65 people trimming and packaging pot under one roof surprised even Rusty Noe, the veteran leader of the County of Mendocino Marijuana Eradication Team," Anderson wrote.
Apparently the sheer amount of cannabis being grown convinced law enforcement that it could not have been destined for distribution through medical channels. Anderson wrote in the PD: "While the people processing marijuana in the Mitchell Creek Road barn claimed they were working for a medical cannabis club, [Sheriff's Capt. Kevin] Broin said the operation was clearly commercial, which makes it illegal.
"Law enforcement seized 1,707 plants and 1,000 pounds of processed, trimmed marijuana from the barn, he said. The seizure brings the total number of plants confiscated in Mendocino County this year to 144,021."
According to a source on the scene, the task force wreaked unnecessary destruction, breaking down doors instead of asking that they be opened. "We had several letters posted in the kitchen from officials confirming our medical status. Letters from [Sheriff Tony] Craver and the planning department and the tax collector and business licenses... They were all posted on a wall. [Craver was not working the day the raid on MendoHealing went down.] Although they said at the gate that they wanted to check our paperwork, they seemed surprised to see that we really were medical...
"They were told that Craver and the district attorney had been right here at this farm. They were asked,'Why are you guys here?' They said, 'Well, without getting too much into the case, we have evidence that this is going somewhere else than medicine.' By this time I could see men in the field chopping things down... Patients' records were in a file cabinet in the office and living room area of the main house.
They just took the whole filing cabinet."
The crew was handcuffed for about half an hour -"detained but not arrested"- then cut loose and ordered to leave the premises until 9 p.m. Those who returned found the warrant and an itemized list of what had been seized on the kitchen table.
Our source says, "Anybody that had more than $100 cash on them they took it and they didn't give anybody a receipt for it. Since everybody was paid in cash, most of the trim crew had more than $100 on them... I feel like we were robbed.
Somebody broke and entered and robbed us. It was the exact same thing."
Two days after the raid on MendoHealing, a New York Times piece about the history of American marketing noted that the president of a leading grocery chain ( A&P in 1931 ) attributed his company's success to its policy "of immediately passing on reductions in wholesale commodity prices to the consumer... A&P had one dominant mission: to sell quality food at low prices." Of course I thought of David Moore, who has been pre-judged by law enforcement and punished for distributing cannabis according to rational marketing principles and respect for the letter and spirit of the law.
Second item Note from Oregon
Your correspondent was in Salem Monday as the Oregon Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Washburn v. Columbia Forest Products. Washburn is a Klamath Falls mill worker who was medicating legally with marijuana under state law. He had never showed signs of impairment at work but the company fired him for violating its zero-tolerance-for-illegal-metabolites policy. Details TK in a future column... Washburn was at the hearing with his beautiful wife, observing the colloquy with quiet dignity. ( His lawyer, Phil Lebenbaum, had told him not to discuss the case. ) Washburn has a high brow, a drooping mustache, John Lennon eyeglasses and powerful hands. "A working-class hero is something to be."
Birthday Present
We wanted to buy a globe for an eight year old boy. The one on sale at Target had oceans that were parchment-paper tan ( for an antique effect, although the nations' names and boundaries were up-to-date ) We eventually found a globe with blue oceans at an educational toy store.
It was made by Replogle Globes of Broadview, Illinois, and came with a card entitling the owner to a 50% discount through Replogle's "Updateable Globe Program." The father of the eight-year-old was pleased to read the assertion on the card: "From time to time the world does change." See, there's hope!
Source: Anderson Valley Advertiser (CA)
Column: Cannabinotes
Copyright: 2005 Anderson Valley Advertiser
Contact: editor@theava.com
Website: Anderson Valley Advertiser
