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Pot may indeed lead to heroin use, rat study shows
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Teens who experiment with marijuana may be making themselves more vulnerable to heroin addiction later in life, if the findings from experiments with rats are any indication. \"Cannabis has very long-term, enduring effects on the brain,\" Dr. Yasmin Hurd of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, the study's lead author, told Reuters Health in an interview.
Medical marijuana club at San Francisco tourist site tests
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Tourist destination Fisherman's Wharf
is home to cable cars, postcard views of Alcatraz Island
and the scent of sourdough bread. And now the fragrance of
fresh marijuana?
City planners are considering whether to issue a permit
for a medical marijuana dispensary in the heart of the
city's tourist hub, despite outrage from neighbors and
businesses. The Planning Commission is scheduled to vote
Thursday, and some have vowed to appeal any permit the city
grants.
«The wharf is San Francisco's Disneyland,» said Rodney
Fong, president of the Fisherman's Wharf Merchants
Association. «About half the people who come are with
kids, and the things they are looking for are family
attractions -- sea lions, dining. So a marijuana dispensary
doesn't really match the market we have.»
The Green Cross is the first cannabis club to seek a
permit under strict guidelines the city adopted in November
to curb street crime around its roughly 30 dispensaries and
prevent sales to non-patients.
This left-leaning city quickly became a hub for cannabis
clubs after voters in 1996 made California the first state
to legalize medicinal marijuana. But the Fisherman's Wharf
fight highlights difficulties in the 11 states that allow
medical marijuana as they seek to regulate the drug without
banishing patients to dark alleys and rough neighborhoods.
The city made the Green Cross close its previous location
in the Mission District in March after neighbors complained
about rising traffic and crime, which owner Kevin Reed said
were unfounded. He said he was forced into the wharf after
being rejected by dozens of other landlords.
«Nobody wants this in their back yard,» Reed said.
«They're fighting for their beliefs and their family
values. But if they continue fighting on the path they're
fighting now, they'll put us all out of business.»
Mayor Gavin Newsom said Reed has been responsible and
should not be punished for flaws in the new rules, calling
it an «unintended consequence» that the club wound up at
the wharf.
«The intent of the legislation was to generate less
controversy, not more,» Newsom said. «We may not like
what he is doing, but he is playing by the rules we set
up.»
San Francisco's clubs were largely unregulated before the
new rules, and according to some accounts, non-patients
could freely acquire marijuana.
Now the owners of dispensaries must submit to criminal and
employment background checks, pay for a permit and business
license, and are forbidden from operating within 500 feet
(150 meters) of schools. That buffer zone grows to 1,000
feet (300 meters) if pot smoking is allowed on the
property, as it is at most San Francisco dispensaries.
The Green Cross storefront is already built out -- minus
the marijuana. It is sleek and sophisticated, from the
black walls and piped-in jazz to the swarm of security
cameras. If the permit is granted, the Green Cross also
would have to clear police and health department
inspections before opening.
Patients who present a government-issued medical marijuana
card and a doctor's note will be presented with a selection
of 55 different marijuana strains displayed in a glass
counter studded with hundreds of tiny neon green lights.
Prices are roughly $300 (¤236) an ounce.
Pot smoking would not be allowed on the premises, and
security guards would patrol the area, Reed said.
«The criminal element that breaks the rules just doesn't
want to come into a store like mine,» said Reed, 32.
«I've done everything by the book.»
An official with an Oakland-based pro-medical marijuana
advocacy group said fears of such dispensaries are
misplaced.
«What we're seeing ... is a 'Reefer Madness' frenzy that
makes people act irrationally, and condemns dispensaries
and dispensary operators,» said Kris Hermes, legal
campaign director for Americans for Safe Access. «And it
ultimately prevents them from coming to the aid of
patients.»
Reed has earned some supporters in the neighborhood,
including the managers of Pergamino Coffee and Tea, a
crowded cafe around the corner.
«It's not like he's opening up a drug haven,» said
manager Glendene «Peaches» Montague. «It's
well-monitored, well-secured, and obviously he's done this
before. But only time will tell.»
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On the Net:
Green Cross: http://thegreencross.org
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