For Sacramento and other California cities wanting fewer medical pot clubs, Steve DeAngelo offers a potential model: the world’s largest marijuana dispensary, reports the Sacramento Bee. DeAngelo directs the Harborside Medical Center, a 48,000-member patient collective he says serves more marijuana users than anywhere else. The Oakland dispensary – one of just four allowed in the city – is a titan in California’s legal medicinal pot trade.
Greeting up to 800 people a day, Harborside’s Oakland center handles $20 million annually in pot transactions. It operates as a nonprofit. Yet its Oakland location produces nearly $2 million in state sales taxes and another $360,000 under a local levy that Oakland voters approved for marijuana businesses. In Sacramento, where the city is trying to figure out what to do with 39 registered pot shops, officials studied Oakland, which is slightly smaller in population. A proposal before the Sacramento City Council would cap the number of dispensaries at 12. Council member Sandy Sheedy said a dozen medical marijuana sites was viewed as more reasonable for the capital city.
The Crime Report visited Harborside Health Center in February. Read the article here.