<< Community News
14 • Bay Area Reporter • July 20-26, 2017
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Sunset pot
From page 1
The opponents, largely elderly Chinese people, argued that an MCD would endanger children, annoy the elderly, and harm the quality of life in the neighborhood by attracting a criminal element. But those testifying in favor of the proposal argued that the Apothecarium’s first location, at 2029 Market Street, has had no such effect and that the Sunset voters have, in fact, repeatedly voted overwhelmingly in favor of liberalizing local cannabis laws. Apothecarium officials presented the commission with more than 1,500 letters of support, including 111 from residents living within 1,000 feet of the proposed site. Commenting on the commission’s approval, Dr. Floyd Huen, medical adviser to the Apothecarium and a co-owner of the new Sunset facility, said in a prepared statement that the decision “was a huge victory for Sunset cannabis patients.” Huen’s wife, former Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, is also co-owner of the new dispensary. “Health care happens in-person. Patients deserve a well-run dispensary in their own neighborhood where they can receive consultations about their medication and dosage,” Huen said in the statement. He also said the dispensary plans to incorporate other medical components. “The vision for the Apothecarium Sunset is unique: a bilingual (Cantonese), bicultural facility that works in tandem with traditional Asian medical practices such as acupuncture and Chinese herbs,” Huen said. Ryan Hudson, co-founder and executive director of the Apothecarium, said, “I want to thank the planning commissioners for their support of medical cannabis patients and the Apothecarium. I’d also like to thank the dozens of Apothecarium patients and supporters who came out to speak on our behalf before the commission. Many waited for hours to tell deeply personal stories about the positive impact medical cannabis and our dispensary have had on their lives.” The new facility is expected to open in 2018.
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SJ trans woman
From page 1
‘Nothing but the clothes on my back’
The victim had acquired “about a dozen” guns over the years, Tejero told the B.A.R. They’d gone shooting together, and guns played “a prominent role in both our lives.” She said she’d tried to leave him four times, but he’d come after her at least once. Finally, in February, she said, she fled with “nothing but the clothes on my back” to the Stockton area. She eventually returned, and she and her ex started talking about when she’d be able to get her things, which included jewelry, a childhood teddy bear, and woodworking tools.
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Homeless calls
From page 11
is addressed, said Dodge. The goal is to have a new process and guidelines by this fall, but Dodge said officials also want to make sure it’s done right. With the “huge volume” of 311 and 911 calls, “it’s important that we’re able to respond and be at the service of people in the city and county, but it’s also important that we just don’t spin our wheels, and that we’re actually able to make progress and help people in need,” said Dodge. “I’m on the receiving end from a lot of stuff from 311 and people’s
Appeal possible
that the estimated number of vehicle trips during peak hours could be accommodated by the existing available parking supply within 1,000 feet of the proposed MCD site.
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been proven to lead to earlier addiction. The use of marijuana can affect a child’s IQ and can adversely affect problem solving, violence, and bullying behavior, among other things, she said. “If it’s accessible, they’ll use it. And they won’t get high. They’ll get stoned out of their mind,” she said.
“Children should be kept as far as possible” from illegal drugs, he said, pointing out that although Prop 64 legalized adult use of recreational cannabis in California, it is still illegal under federal law. In addition, said Hacke, the “cash on hand” in a dispensary will attract “criminal elements” to the neighborhood. Also, Hacke said that individuals could purchase cannabis from the dispensary, then resell it on the street, promoting the “evils of drug trade” in the Sunset. Hacke told the commissioners that if they approved the new Apothecarium dispensary, they would be “facilitating” a federal crime. “You are on notice that we will hold you accountable,” he said. Hacke compared an MCD to a bar, tavern, or an adult bookstore or movie theatre, all of which, he said,
should be located where they will have the “least effect on children.” Frank Lee, the president of the Organization for Justice and Equality, another right-wing group, said that parents have told the owner of the Ark of Hope preschool at 2701 Noriega Street that they are already looking for other facilities for their children to attend, if the MCD is approved. “How can you impose this on our children?” Lee asked the commissioners rhetorically. Many businesses in the Sunset will have to close, he predicted, because customers will no longer want to come into the area with an MCD. “Why are profit-oriented companies given priority over children and minorities?” he asked. If San Francisco approves this MCD, the city’s image “will be tarnished” and objections to the decision “will drag on for years in the courts,” he predicted. Bernie Chung, senior pastor of the San Francisco Chinese Baptist Church, 1811 34th Avenue, said that smoke from marijuana “permeates further” than cigarette smoke and is especially difficult for the elderly to tolerate. “Young people can just hold their breath for 10-15 seconds” to avoid breathing the smoke, but the elderly cannot, he said. Also, because cannabis is already “accessible by mail order,” he said, dispensaries should be located “in areas where more people” need them. Lynn Fox, a member of the emeritus faculty in the department of secondary education at San Francisco State University, said she has been part of the movement to create drugfree schools and communities for the past 35 years. Fox pointed out that some 500 Sunset residents had spent over five hours at the hearing, asking the commissioners to “protect the children.” None of these people, she noted, is getting any sort of financial benefit for appearing at the hearing. Fox said research indicates that adolescents will get involved with drugs “if they think it’s harmless and readily available.” If a sixth or seventh grader tries marijuana, they are at risk for addiction, she said. “The sooner they use, the sooner” they can get addicted, she added. “Marijuana is one of the worst drugs out there,” she said, and has
At first, she said, “We had met amicably,” and she got some of her things back, but after not hearing from him for several days, he told her things had been thrown out. He soon told her he hadn’t really thrown away her possessions, but she said she was “mad” because he was playing the same games he had in the past. She said when she went to Costco that Wednesday, she mostly wanted “to let him know that I could not be played with like that anymore.” According to court records, Tejero took her roommate’s vehicle and his Taurus .357 revolver without his knowledge and waited in the Costco lot until her ex was leaving work at about 12:30 p.m. She told police that “she asked the victim why he was treating her so
badly and they began to argue,” the records say. “The suspect stated that the victim began to yell at her,” and she pulled out her gun. Tejero also told police that “she initially had pointed the gun at the victim’s ‘nuts’ ... but then she felt bad” so she shot him in the leg instead. At first, she told police, “the victim just stood there,” but then he ran and she chased him for about four parking spaces before she stopped, according to court records. The victim reported that when he saw Tejero in the parking lot, “She asked him why he was avoiding her. He told her he had been on vacation. She said, you were with her weren’t you. He said he was,” and Tejero shot him. As he ran from Tejero back into Costco, the victim
said, he’d yelled for co-workers to call police. He told police that Tejero had been “upset because of their relationship ending and he has a new girlfriend,” the records say, and she’d recently sent him emails “in which she was angry because he wanted her to come get her property.” The victim also reported that Tejero had “told him if he discarded her property she would kill him.” A witness told police that just after the shooting, Tejero asked the witness “if she should leave, and he told her to stay,” police stated. The man asked her for the gun and she gave it to him. Court records say the victim’s brother told police that Tejero had emailed her ex in late June
“threatening to shoot him if he did not come back to her. The suspect said, ‘I want you back, you need to come back to me.’” Asked about the email, Tejero told the B.A.R., “I do remember sending him something about him begging for his life like I had begged him to treat me like a human being.” Tejero, who said she still loves the victim, is being held on $175,000 bail. She’s expected to enter a plea July 31. Deputy Public Defender Dennis Dawson said that he didn’t have any information related to Tejero’s allegation that her ex had raped her, and he said he didn’t want to discuss details of the case. “I’d rather have this argued out and litigated in court,” he said.t
emails, and I understand the volume is very high,” said Dodge. “I think it really does speak to people’s concerns about the current situation and the need for solutions, and somewhat that the tools that are being applied don’t really work.” He said that callers “want a resolution of the issue, but what is able to happen is a cop goes out and talks to them or the homeless outreach team or public works cleans up,” but the data reflect the lack of housing and shelter available in the city. “People have to be somewhere,” said Dodge. “The assumption is call 311 and they can be disappeared somehow, and that’s just not
possible. We do our best to house and shelter everyone, but we’re challenged with not enough shelter beds and not enough housing options.”
“Damn, look at this shit,” said John, who didn’t want to give his last name. “This shit is how people are living in this city.” He didn’t know whether anyone had made calls about tents in the area, but he said the homeless outreach team had just been there. He was hoping to get into housing or a Navigation Center, where people can bring their belongings and stay with their partners. John said he feels safe in the tent. Shelley, who was sitting inside the tent, said, “I don’t like being by myself down here at night, but as long as we’re together, I feel safe.” A worker at the gym who answered the phone recently said that
people have complained “a little bit. They’ve asked if we were going to do anything about the tents, just because it’s so close to the parking lot.” The woman, who didn’t want her name published, said her co-workers have called police “a couple of times,” but she wasn’t sure if officers had shown up. “I don’t think it’s a huge problem, and I don’t see it getting better,” she said. “I think these people are just looking for a place to live. It’s a really sad situation that they’re out here on the street, but I don’t see it as a huge problem, nor do I feel they’re threatening when I walk by.”t
The opponents are allowed to appeal the commission’s decision to the Board of Supervisors. Repeated attempts by the B.A.R. to contact them were unsuccessful. At press time, nobody had publicly announced an intention to appeal. The night before the hearing, District 4 Supervisor Katy Tang, who represents the neighborhood where the planned MCD would be located, submitted a letter with “a few issues” about the proposal. Tang did not share her position on the MCD, because the commission’s decision is appealable to the Board of Supervisors. In her letter to the commission, Tang cautioned that a new dispensary could draw additional traffic to the neighborhood, possibly causing safety issues. Tang also criticized the Apothecarium for using “offensive” tactics in conducting outreach in the Sunset, pointing to an op-ed piece in the San Francisco Examiner by the president of the Castro Merchants association attempting to link her to the anti-LGBT Pacific Justice Institute, a group she met with earlier this year. “The project sponsor’s constant reference to our office and its alleged association with the Pacific Justice Institute has been absolutely offensive,” she wrote. But Apothecarium attorney M. Brett Gladstone, a partner and head of the land use practice at Hanson Bridgett LLP, took issue with Tang’s letter. “The Apothecarium has not, and will not, talk about an association between the Pacific Justice Institute and the supervisor’s office,” said Gladstone. Gladstone pointed out that the Apothecarium hired a well-known transportation consultant, Fehr and Peers, to prepare a parking and traffic study as part of its application, “to our knowledge ... the first time an MCD has ever done a third party produced parking and traffic study as part of an approval hearing.” The consultant found that any parking needs triggered by the new MCD are expected to be fewer than that of the average retailer along Noriega Street, including the average restaurant – the most common, said Gladstone. The report also found
Opponents speak
At the hearing, dozens of the opponents spoke out in opposition. Ray Hacke, an attorney with Pacific Justice Institute, a right wing anti-LGBT hate group, objected to the establishment of an MCD near a preschool. According to Hacke, the private Ark of Hope Christian preschool and day care is within 600 feet of the proposed dispensary.
Sari Staver
Apothecarium land use attorney M. Brett Gladstone.
‘Eyesore’
The Fitness SF gym at 1001 Brannan Street in South of Market is near where many people have set up tents in recent years. An elevated section of Highway 101 in the area provides shelter from the elements, and there isn’t much across from the gym except for a large parking lot and street parking that’s empty at night. On a recent Tuesday morning, a man who’s been in a tent near the gym for a couple months referred to tents in the area as “an eyesore.”
Supporters tell their side
But Apothecarium supporters told another side of the story. Brianna Scott, Ph.D., who teaches psychology at Santa Rosa Junior College, said there is no evidence that state laws legalizing cannabis had any correlation to increased use by adolescents. Increased use by children and adolescents is linked to parental use, she said. “Children learn from modeling ... not from storefronts” where medical cannabis is sold, she said. Charles Yingling, Ph.D., a neuroscientist and professor at UCSF, submitted testimony about his role as a caregiver for a friend suffering with stage 4 cancer. Yingling, who has lived near the proposed dispensary for many years, said that having a location in the Sunset would help his friend, who uses medical cannabis to treat her pain and has difficulty traveling to obtain her medicine. “As a caregiver, I have gone to the Apothecarium on Market street, which is an outstanding example of what a pharmacy should be, but the location is inconvenient for us,” he said. Joseph Ewald, a recently discharged veteran, testified that cannabis can be used to “save veterans from addiction.” Ewald said he had a friend who, after discharge, turned to heroin use and died, after getting addicted to opioids they were prescribed to treat service-related injuries. The arguments made by the opponents at the hearing have been filled with “misinformation and lies,” he said, noting that the Apothecarium is fully in compliance with all laws and has established a program geared to help veterans. Ewald urged the commissioners to “rise above this madness and honor the spirit of San Francisco by supporting the Apothecarium and making this business a reality.”t