No More Mister Nice Guy!

After a hard day of work, the last thing I wanted to do was go to, yet another meeting to discuss the planned Medical Cannabis Dispensary regulations by S.F. City Hall. I have been to too many meetings lately and feel like very little had been accomplished besides a hackneyed letter to the Board of Supervisors...No plans for a demonstration, a show/rally or even plans for public outreach...

Nonetheless, I dragged my tired self to the meeting out of a sense of duty to Jah.

We had several meetings at a dispensary at 178 Valencia St named Mr. Nice Guy. I have issues with the location as it was noisy, they were dispensing during the meeting, the security was rather overbearing and I recommended that we hold meetings elsewhere.

Upon stepping out of the car, I was confronted by a well-known member of the medical cannabis community who is a contemptuous shrew who felt it necessary to make derogatory comments about about individuals and organizations in the medical cannabis movement. I was getting a bad feeling...and my ears were starting to hurt from the shrill bombast hurled by little miss know-it-all. I managed to escape by smiling and nodding in faux agreement as I walked away.

We entered the dispensary and were immediatly confronted by a security person named Joe who seemed a little too surly and was asking people to check their bags at the door, something out of the ordinary for a dispensary. I introduced myself and asked for his name.

The place was loud and I felt like a needed a cup of coffee to get a lift and to keep me alert during the meeting. When I returned, I started to walk in when Joe stuck his finger in my coffee cup and said I couldn't bring the coffee inside the dispensary. Had he asked me politely about the rules, I might had reacted differently, but I felt like he was being obnoxious and obviously full of himself. Needless to say, I felt like I had been disrespected and had to inform people about the rude behavior I had received the door.

As I made my complaint to the group, the security person asked me to step up front. Not wanting to disrupt the meeting any farther, I left without incident...And asked myself why, as an cannabis activist, what I was doing defending a medical cannabis dispensary as this, one that had so blatantly disrepected my work and the serious efforts of all the other activists attending the meeting.

The bad taste left in my mouth will linger for quite awhile and I will now seriously question what I am doing to help people such as these. I am not sure that I should support such an establishment in the future...And I won't ever attend another meeting at Mr. Nice Guys...

An apology is in order.