Community Corner

San Rafael '420' Delivery Biz a No-Go, Report says

A San Rafael Police raid of the nonprofit Caregiver Compassion Group triggered the Jan. 6 closure.

The birthplace of the internationally recognized code for marijuana has apparently moved to an enforcement approach that more closely resembles the Deep South than one of America's most progressive communities that San Rafael is.

That's according to the Marin Independent Journal, which reports that city shut down the nonprofit Caregiver Compassion Group earlier this year after the San Rafael Police Department raided an office from which it was running a medical marijuana delivery service.

The medical marijuana collective has a membership of approximately 300 according to the report.

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The marijuana dispensary was running a delivery business out of 15 Woodland Avenue according to the report, which said a team of plain-clothed street crimes officers raided the office in October.

San Rafael's City Council in 1997 banned medical marijuana dispensaries, the report said.

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Police Lt. Dan Fink told the IJ that "some community complaints" precipitated the raid.

Berta Bollinger, a co-president of the collective, told the IJ that her business declined to sell marijuana to the undercover cop because he presented a medical pot card issued by a physician with a revoked license.

Fink told the IJ that the police operation that precipitated the Jan. 6 shut down the facility wasn't a "sting."

"We sent one person in plain clothes to ask about purchasing marijuana," Fink told the IJ. "He didn't have a card. He simply asked, 'What's the procedure?' " 

The Compassionate Caregiver Group is among eight medical marijuana delivery services in Marin County according the IJ report, that cites Weedmaps.com.

The others are Delta Delivery, Green Beauties, Garden Gateway, SVO Outreach, Remedies Xpress, Green Light Alternatives and the Goddess Delivers.

 

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