Cannabis Dispensary Holds An Open House
Updated 7/16
In their quest to pare down the forty some medical cannabis dispensaries in San Francisco, city officials have first singled out dispensaries that have drawn complaints from neighbors. Because the city has yet to set up an official dispensary review board, the targeted dispensaries say they are vulnerable to political pressure from neighbors who simply don’t like the idea of dispensaries in their neighborhood. Unhappy neighbors say the disputed dispensaries disrupt their quality of life and present hazards they want to eliminate.
One embattled dispensary, Health and Wellness Alternatives at 935 Howard Street in San Francisco, was shut down by court order two weeks ago after a neighbor initiated a civil action. The dispensary is holding an open house this weekend to try to generate a discussion with local residents. The dispute surrounding this dispensary has sparked an especially unpleasant situation for city officials – an outspoken neighbor and others opposed to the facility, squaring off against a quadriplegic medical cannabis patient fighting hard to keep his business open. The dispute illustrates just how ugly, expensive and time consuming a neighborhood dispute can become when a city has fails to implement a grievance process that addresses problems before they explode.
The operator of the club, Charlie Pappas, says the city botched efforts to mediate a dispute with his neighbor Laura Weil who has led a city-wide campaign to close him down. Weil says she supports medical cannabis, but charges that Pappas is bad neighbor. She alleges that a patient left the dispensary’s parking lot and drove the wrong way down her one-way street endangering local children. Pappas denied this happened. Weil objected to the dispensary’s use of the parking lot that is adjacent to her house and said the dispensary strewed trash in the area. Pappas said he uses the parking lot as little as possible and has cleaned up trash near the property. Weil also expressed fear that those leaving the dispensary would be “too stoned” to drive and present a hazard, a claim that Pappas firmly rejects.
When Pappas asked City Supervisor Chris Daley to intervene in May, Daley referred him to James Keys, a volunteer in his office who may have tried to exercise power he didn’t have. According to Pappas, Keys suggested that he merge his dispensary with the Mendo Healing dispensary to become a “model dispensary” and thus reduce the number clubs in San Francisco. If Pappas gave up his space to Mendo Healing, Keys allegedly promised that he would be given “fast-track zoning” for another medical cannabis dispensary. Steph Sherer, director of the patients group Americans for Safe Access, said she also heard Keys make the offer. But Keys later denied that he was involved in any such deal. Daley said he had no knowledge of the offer and refused to return Pappas’ calls.
Since Daley failed to resolve Weil’s concerns, the city’s Zoning and Planning Department and the City Attorneys office got involved sending Pappas a notice that he was the subject of the complaints from Weil- and asking him to show sales receipts proving that he opened after the city’s dispensary moratorium that went into effect April 1. In a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle June 10th, Pappas said he supported efforts to regulate the clubs, but condemned the use of Planning and Zoning as a “hatchetman” to reduce the number of dispensaries. Given a short deadline to produce his business records, Pappas sent the city a business permit and lease dated well before April 1 plus letters from volunteers and patients saying the dispensary began operations in mid-March.
“I reject the notion that the medical cannabis dispensaries opening near the moratorium should summarily be closed,” wrote Pappas to the planning department complaining about lack of due process. “Medical cannabis dispensaries should be judge on their operation and service to patients as well as neighborhood concerns.”
Pappas received more letters from the planning department at the end of June detailing Weil’s complaints. Pappas rejects her assertion that he failed to obtain the needed conditional use permit because it would require a public hearing and he knew the neighbors would oppose him. Pappas countered that wanted to be given a change to operate to show he could be a good neighbor and have the hearing when dispensary regulations were in place.
In a letter to planning department officials last month, Pappas said also he received incomplete information in his visits to planning and zoning in February. He says he is being singled from other dispensaries most of which also lack the correct permits. “I have a neighbor with a history of complaining who unfortunately, like the Bush administration, repeats the same untruths over and over again,” wrote Pappas. “I am a mature, responsible, intelligent, and disabled individual uniquely qualified to serve and provide medical cannabis patients access to medicine.”
Weil disputes Pappas’s assertion that that allegations against him come from only one disgruntled neighbor. “Given the number of neighbors who have contributed to the effort it is simply not a credible argument,” writes Weil via e-mail. “I have not spoken a single untruth throughout this process, and deeply resent that accusation. To compare me with the Bush administration is frankly bizarre.”
Unable to convince city officials that Pappas should be shut down immediately, Weil pursued a civil action against Pappas. She filed a petition for a temporary restraining order which a judge granted.
Alternative Health and Wellness has now been shut down for two weeks. Pappas notes that San Francisco's Mendo Healing dispensary was also recently shut down by a civil court action brought by neighbors.
Weil said the case against Alternative Health and Wellness was very straightforward. “The courts issued a temporary restraining order based on the factual evidence that the operation required a conditional use permit and opened without one,” wrote Weil.
According to Pappas, Weil’s lawyer has offered to let him stay open until September 29 if he then agrees to close for good. Unter the terms, Pappas would not be able to reopen his dispensary until he gets a conditional use permit. Pappas said Weil's lawyer has also negotiated with Pappas’ landlady to let him out of his lease but he has not confirmed this.
Pappas says he is willing to agree to the terms because it gives him an opportunity to open another dispensary when the San Francisco dispensary moratorium is lifted. He says he would like to launch another cannabis club if he can get financial backing. Pappas says he is already working with another dispensary to which he has been able to refer his patients. Pappas says he hopes to convert his former dispensary space at 935 Howard into a center used by a number of dispensaries to provide services such as massage, acupuncture, counseling and free food to medical cannabis patients.
In the meantime, Pappas is still challenging the “strong evidence” cited by city attorney’s office that he opened after the moratorium. Pappas said he has not heard from the city attorney for two weeks since replying to the charges. According to Pappas, he has also been waiting since April for the building department to review the minor repairs he has made to the holes in the walls in his dispensary. Pappas says the actions against him are “a joke” because he was the least threatening dispensary in the city and not a profiteer. Pappas claims that there is now a methamphetamines laboratory down the street from Weil that presents a much greater threat than his dispensary every did.
Pappas says the disputes with Weil and city have cause unnecessary hardship for the five to ten patients who use his dispensary. He is holding an open house on July 15, 16 and 17 to meet the neighbors and try to initiate a dialog that he hopes will resolve some of their concerns.
According to Weil, there is little Pappas can say to soothe worried neighbors. “I am sorry that Charlie selected such an inappropriate location for his dispensary, acted so irresponsibly and alienated the neighborhood so quickly and completely,” writes Weil. “I hope he is able to learn from the experience, find a more appropriate location and leave our beleaguered little neighborhood in peace.”
“Of course I would close if rejected by my neighbors but I’m hoping that a majority will approve my responsible operation and service to patients and view me as a worthwhile addition to the neighborhood,” wrote Pappas in a July 4 letter to the San Francisco Chronicle. “Finally, as a 57 year old disabled uncle to 4 nephews, a niece and a grandniece, I vehemently object to the implications that Health and Wellness Alternatives’ operations are detrimental to children.”
I have spoken at length with both Pappas and Weil. You can read the transcript of my conversation with Weil herePappas' replyand Weil's rebuttal to his comments.
