By Paul Kozakiewicz

After listening to the concerns of Outer Sunset District residents and merchants for

five-and-a-half hours, the SF Planning Commission voted 5-1 to allow the district’s first-

ever medical cannabis dispensary (MCD).

The Apothecarium is slated to open at 2505 Noriega St. Courtesy photo.

The July 13 hearing was supposed to start about 2 p.m., but did not get going until about

6 p.m., and ended late in the night. Many of the attendees were at City Hall for five hours

or longer waiting to give a two-minute testimony.

Members of the Sunset’s Asian community dominated the hearing, with many

Chinese speakers, who gave impassioned pleas to reject the MCD.

The Apothecarium cannabis dispensary, which is partly owned by former Oakland

Mayor Jean Quan and her husband, Dr. Floyd Huen, will be located at 2505 Noriega St.,

in a dense commercial area. Huen attended a meeting in the Sunset in February and was

greeted by an angry group of local residents.

“I was shouted down and not allowed to speak,” Huen said.

Opponents of the marijuana dispensary said its location was too close to children, and

could have a deleterious effect on their well-being. There were also concerns about

increased traffic in the commercial corridor, secondhand smoke from people near

the dispensary and the possibility of increased crime, including robberies.

There were representatives from more than a dozen different neighborhood

organizations, including the Noriega Street Merchants Association, who came out to

testify against the MCD. Many of the people testifying were concerned about the children

at the Arc of Hope Preschool, which is located within 1,000 feet of the MCD. But

guidelines restricting MCDs next to schools govern kindergarten through 12th grades,

with preschools being exempt.

Proponents countered that MCDs are legal in the state, and that Sunset residents

should have easy access to marijuana for the drug’s perceived medical benefits.

They said safety threats, including those to children, were unfounded because

other MCDs in the City have not had those types of problems. One speaker, former SF

Board of Education member Jill Wynns, spoke in favor of the MCD and said fears about

children were unwarranted.

According to Apothecarium cofounder Ryan Hudson, there are already

thousands of medical marijuana users getting the drug delivered to them in the

Sunset District.

At the end of the hearing, members of the Planning Commission asked for clarification

concerning the upcoming Jan. 1, 2018 legalization of marijuana for recreational

purposes and whether or not their approval of MCD permits will allow the

MCDs to sell recreational marijuana at that time.

The response was that the City is currently putting a new marijuana department

together and that it would create a policy for recreational marijuana later

this year. No one knows if MCDs would automatically get permission to sell recreational

marijuana, or if the Planning Commission or other city agencies would need to sign off

on a case-by-case basis.

Despite the uncertainty of what their vote means in the long term, the commissioners

voted to allow the MCD on Noriega Street. A couple of the commissioners supported their

decision by saying MCDs were disproportionately located on the east side of town and

that the west side had to do more to carry the burden.

After the vote, local residents who remained to the end of the hearing booed

the commissioners’ decision.