Marijuana club won't open in Mission hotel

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SAN FRANCISCO
Marijuana club won't open in Mission hotel
Supervisors to vote on 45-day ban for new clinic openings

Suzanne Herel, SF Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, March 23, 2005


The owner of a city-funded welfare hotel in San Francisco canceled
his lease Tuesday with a medical marijuana clinic that was planning
to open on the ground floor this week, after Mayor Gavin Newsom cited
it as Exhibit A for a moratorium on new cannabis clubs.

Craig Walker, a construction company owner who uses marijuana for
back pain, had planned to open his Holistic Center on Friday at the
All Star Hotel on 16th Street in the Mission District. Late Tuesday,
he got the news in a meeting with the hotel owner that the agreement
was off.

"I'm discouraged and disappointed," Walker said. However, he added,
"I'm not mad. I am for good regulation. I agree with the mayor --
there has to be more thought put into this."

Newsom said Monday that the Holistic Center's impending opening
showed that he and other city officials had failed to pay close
attention to the boom in medical marijuana clubs, at least 37 of
which are now operating in San Francisco. Supervisors Michela
Alioto-Pier and Ross Mirkarimi introduced an emergency ordinance at
Tuesday's board meeting that would institute a 45-day halt on new
cannabis clubs while the city investigates ways to regulate them.

The board is expected to vote on the measure Tuesday. Passage would
require approval by nine of the 11 supervisors.

The mayor said Tuesday that the city departments of Human Services
and Public Health had instituted changes, effective immediately, to
prevent medical marijuana clubs from opening in locations where the
city pays for support services to substance abusers and the homeless
-- a category that would include the All Star Hotel, which houses
people under Newsom's Care Not Cash program.

"We have a responsibility to the people that we are helping climb
out of homelessness," Newsom said. "And that responsibility incudes
providing them with a clean, safe and healthy environment to help
them get back on their feet. "

Randy Shaw, director of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, which
provides social services at the hotel under the Care Not Cash
program, said he was relieved that the Holistic Center wouldn't be
opening.

"It was a psychological thing," Shaw said. "It sent the wrong
message to the tenants" -- some of whom are recovering drug addicts.

Neil Patel, the hotel's owner, could not be reached for comment.

Trent Rhorer, director of the Department of Human Services, said
current city contracts would be amended to prohibit the presence of
pot clubs, and the ban would be included in future contracts.

However, Rhorer said, there are no medical marijuana clinics located
in any of the dozen hotels participating in the Care Not Cash program.

Newsom will be convening a group of city officials to examine
policies involving medical marijuana clubs, which are largely
unregulated.

The group will include the department heads from Public Health,
Human Services and Planning, along with Treasurer Jose Cisneros and
someone from the city attorney's office. Newsom has asked the task
force for a report within 30 days.

Although marijuana use is against federal law, California voters
legalized it for medicinal purposes by passing Proposition 215 in
1996.

E-mail Suzanne Herel at sherel [at] sfchronicle.com.

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