The Green Cross is a cannabis club, one of scores that sell marijuana to patients with a doctor's note. They have sprouted around California in the decade since the passage of Proposition 215, which legalized the use and sale of marijuana to those suffering from chronic pain, illness or infirmity. San Francisco, a hot spot in the AIDS epidemic, voted overwhelmingly in favor of the proposition in 1996 and has about 30 clubs, serving some 25,000 patients and caregivers.

Now you might think a city with such impeccable liberal and progressive credentials would have no problem with helping severely ailing people who gain respite from high-quality, physician-prescribed cannabis. So why then, if voters were once overwhelmingly in favor of cannibus clubs, are they now changing their minds? The answer is simple. There's an old acronym for it: NIMBY or Not in My Back Yard.

But none of San Francisco's medical marijuana dispensaries, as they are formally known, have been located in places anywhere as popular as Fisherman's Wharf, where most people come to enjoy chowder, Ghirardelli chocolate or cable cars. Now, with the opening of the new club just weeks away, some residents and merchants are fighting to keep it out. "The city is saturated with pot clubs," said T. Wade Randlett, the president of SF SOS, a quality-of-life group that opposes the planned club. "Fisherman's Wharf is a tourism attraction, and this is not the kind of tourism we're trying to attract."

But it is not only the tourism sector whose smoke alarms are being set off. Neighborhood groups are also looking to stem the growth of these blight clubs:

Emboldened by a series of regulations passed last fall by the city's Board of Supervisors, some neighborhoods are resisting new marijuana dispensaries, which they say attract crime and dealers bent on reselling the drugs. In the debate over the new rules last year, several neighborhoods successfully lobbied to be exempted from having new clubs. Other neighborhoods managed to get clubs shuttered, including a previous version of the Green Cross, which was forced out of a storefront in the city's Mission District after neighbors said they had seen a rise in drug dealing, traffic problems and petty crime, a charge the Green Cross denies. Elizabeth Naughton Moore, 33, who lives about a block from the planned location, said she dreaded the thought of walking her 18-month-old son anywhere near it. "Anyone with a modicum of common sense can see this is not an appropriate location," Ms. Moore said. "I understand patients need to have access to it, but I think with 30 locations, they have options."

Options, indeed. Ms. Naughton hits the nail on the head with that word -options- though perhaps in a way she did not suspect. Patrons of the cannabis clubs have two kinds of options- location and selection: They have several stores all around the city, ones that are, I presume, close to anyone who needs one or close enough for their caretaker to access without undue effort. And then there is the matter of product selection- the one that might explain why the clubs seem to be attracting the wrong element:

The unopened dispensary at Fisherman's Wharf — located in a nondescript storefront tucked under a weary-looking bed-and-breakfast — has all the trappings of modern retail: high-speed Internet access, high-tech security cameras and high-end merchandise. An ounce of marijuana will sell for $300, and (Green Cross founder) Mr. Reed's outlet will have a whopping 55 varieties.

As one who doesn't smoke pot, I had no idea that "mary jane" came in some many flavors. And that's part I don't get. Who else but a cannabis connoisseur would need this much product variety? Could there really be this many different ailments that require this many different kinds of marijuana? Could each of these kinds of weed have medicinal properties so different that one would work for one condition and not another? If so, where is the medical research showing why and how? The Green Cross page on medical research on marijuana points to none whatsoever. There probably is none. What there is, however, is an increasing demand for cannabis driven by the inevitable relaxation of rules regarding the conditions for which the drug can be prescribed:

And while the law was passed with seriously ill patients in mind, like those with AIDS and cancer, some critics say that now even people with commonplace aches and pains can get a doctor's recommendation. (Reed) uses marijuana to treat a back injury.

A back injury. Yeah right. And what malady do these customers suffer from so badly that they can't even wait to get home to take their medicine?

What local merchants say they fear most is the clientele's smoking in the neighborhood, congregating on sidewalks or clogging streets with double-parked cars. Mr. Reed said that his security personnel would prevent loitering and that 16 security cameras would constantly monitor the club and the area.

Would such security measures even be necessary if the clientele were truly ailing patients? Well actually they might. Despite Reed's assurances that "Criminals that deal drugs don't want to come into a store where they are being recorded", the NY Times story notes that:

The pot clubs themselves, which are usually cash businesses with ample amounts of product, are sometimes targets of crime. Four in San Francisco were robbed in 2005, and last weekend, a club downtown was robbed during the Gay Pride Parade.

And despite these problems, the voters still support the idea of these clubs, at least in principle:

The rising neighborhood opposition to the clubs also stands in striking juxtaposition to the personal political beliefs of many in San Francisco, a city that prides itself on a progressive attitude. "Every single person I've ever spoke to and every meeting I've ever went to, if there was any opposition at all, the first words out of their mouth is, 'I voted for this,' " Mr. Reed said. Mr. Martin concurred. "Both the merchants and the residents — though philosophically we don't have a problem with medicinal marijuana being available, we all voted for it — we think customers are going to be better served in another location," he said. "We just think it's the wrong time, wrong place."

Somehow I don't think that smoking medical marijuana - or the use of any drug for that matter- is going to cure what ails these folks. They voted for medical marijuana and got a legalized drug market and the attendant crime and blight as part of the bargain. That's one headache that is not going away with a puff of smoke.

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Update: The pro-pot blogDave's Not Here Man links to several posts on recent busts of medical marijuana dispensaries in California. Why is this not a surprise? See: 10news Exposes marijuana Doctors | Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Charged With Drug Trafficking | Five Arrested Marijuana Dispensaries Raided | 15 Held In Raids On Pot Stores |

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