[SeniorBuzz]

Should medical cannabis collectives be allowed two doors down from a preschool? That is a question the city of San Jose is struggling with.

Their businesses stand no more than a hundred feet apart, at opposite ends of a small commercial strip. Neatly dressed, with her blond hair just so, Sue Campbell has run the Alphabet Soup Preschool for 29 years. At Purple People Medical, a medical marijuana dispensary two doors down from the school, Andrew Runner welcomes patients wearing baggy jeans and spectacular tats.

Recently, as Runner, 28, emerged from the back room of the cannabis co-op, his eyes were slightly bleary and bloodshot. As Campbell talked about the arrival of her new neighbor a month ago, her eyes brimmed with tears. Each is affable, except when talking about the other.

Together, they form a microcosm of an uneasy, often unruly merger of medicinal marijuana collectives with neighborhoods that don't want them.

"I think it's going to put me out of business, definitely," Campbell said, dabbing her eyes occasionally as 3-year-olds wove around her on tricycles. She was named the city's Teacher of the Year in 2006, but now she isn't sure she will be able to remain open.

She said she had already lost a couple of prospective pupils whose parents were scared off by the cannabis club. "On one hand, they honor me," she said of the city. "And on the other, the city is failing me. This can't be next to a preschool."

Campbell and Runner are both expected to attend a meeting at City Hall on Monday for so-called stakeholders in this push-me, pull-you municipal merengue. City Attorney Rick Doyle and staff from the city manager's office have not yet drafted an ordinance regulating marijuana collectives but will offer a rough outline of what issues the future ordinance will tackle.

"We're trying to craft something with clear rules that will allow these clubs to exist," Doyle said. "A lot of cities are just saying, 'We don't want 'em,' but that seems like the easy way out. Our council wants to allow them as long as they comply with state law, but that's been a tougher nut to crack than we thought."

Councilman Sam Liccardo, who voted with the majority to initiate the review, would prefer to see marijuana distributed through pharmacies but sounds resigned to regulation that would cap the number of collectives and restrict where they could be located. Within a few feet of a preschool almost certainly wouldn't be allowed in any ordinance he'd vote for.

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[itisme]

DEFINITELY! I wish I had one near me

[Hammerhead]

are there any Liquor stores near that preschool?

I wouldn't send a kid to school in a strip mall.

[vta]

Every club that I have been a member of has rules. Such as no medicating in the parking lot, no loitering, if you get caught reselling you lose membership, etc... So I do not see an issue. I think the problem really amounts to the fact some people just don't like it. They have been brainwashed into believing there is something evil about cannabis. Propaganda campaigns have been around longer than any of us have done great harm for the image of cannabis. There are members here that even fall for some of their shit. Save the children! Are these guys selling to the pre-schoolers? No, so whats the harm?

[Hammerhead]

that is very true they all have been brainwashed.

[SeniorBuzz]

Runner says his choice of location on De Anza Boulevard wasn't because it would put him next door to Monsters of Rock, a head shop that moved next to Alphabet Soup in December and which Campbell would also like to see disappear. "That's kind of like a plus," Runner said.

De Anza Boulevard is the main drag in Cupertino
Apple is on De Anza Boulevard

the location is essentially on the "border" of affluent Cupertino,
and even more affluent Saratoga...
a little bit of a pocket area, with lots of apartments...

Cupertino and Saratoga have two of the top school districts in the state
Cupertino is majority Asian, attracted by the schools

[cloverman]

You cant please everyone so why try

[Raphael]

As long as the dispensaries are not producing medicine on location they should be permitted anywhere a liquor store is.

If they do want to produce on site which is stupid, they should have to be in an industrial or agricultural zone as opposed to commercial or residential.

I hope that San Jose proves to be a model for other cities big and small to follow.

As stated earlier, people who take their kids to a stripmall for preschool shouldn't give two hoots about a liquor store two doors down, so why should they care about a pharmacy?

Sounds like a lazy small business owner who doesn't want to sack up and move to a more proper location for a preschool. Shit, she should be audited; bet the dispensary pays more accurate taxes than she does. Childcare is rife with subsidy fraud...

[SeniorBuzz]

Originally Posted by Raphael

As long as the dispensaries are not producing medicine on location they should be permitted anywhere a liquor store is.

If they do want to produce on site which is stupid, they should have to be in an industrial or agricultural zone as opposed to commercial or residential.

I hope that San Jose proves to be a model for other cities big and small to follow.

As stated earlier, people who take their kids to a stripmall for preschool shouldn't give two hoots about a liquor store two doors down, so why should they care about a pharmacy?

Sounds like a lazy small business owner who doesn't want to sack up and move to a more proper location for a preschool. Shit, she should be audited; bet the dispensary pays more accurate taxes than she does. Childcare is rife with subsidy fraud...

If I recall correctly, that area wouldn't be considered a strip mall..it's an incorrect visual image.

I can see why she would want a daycare there
near a major freeway off-ramp + hi density apartments nearby

seems like a high overhead location though