KGO Vid: Longtime SF Pot Club
Shuttered by US Dept of Justice



The presser at the Federal Building on Golden Gate Avenue on Monday attracted a crowd of about 50 clients and workers of the Market Street Coop, along with a good number of media folks looking for a story.

I'm proud to have been a member of this medical marijuana dispensary that is the fifth such operation in the city forced to close because of President Obama's Department of Justice threatening landlords.

Our news conference to tell U.S. prosecutor Melinda Haag was the first protest over the recent dispensary closures across California, and I don't expect it to be the last.

There was also an emotionally-charged love-in and rally at the coop's headquarters on Market near Laguna, as they sold their final bag of medicinal herb on Monday evening. 

The clip above is from one of the TV newscasts on the closure and is the one most pleasing to the coop's former workers, so I'm sharing it at their request. Kudos to KGO-TV for their report.

SF Mayor Lee:
No Paid AIDS Czar Needed

The Bay Area Reporter last week covered Mayor Ed Lee's plan for gay and HIV concerns, as he begins his first year as the elected chief executive of the city, and I was pleased to see this news:

During the campaign Lee said he saw no need to hire an AIDS czar but would appoint someone within his administration to be a point person on HIV issues. He is still deciding who that person will be as he prepares to make several changes to city leadership. "We are going through an internal re-organization, if you will, and will bring in new people," said Lee.

We've been through a few such czars and there was no direct benefit to people with AIDS or significant impact on care or prevention programs. The redundancy of a czar in San Francisco was tolerated when the city was awash with so much federal and local AIDS funding, they could waste dollars on the position.

No other disease, as far as I am aware of, ever had several paid mayoral assistants at City Hall, even though other diseases have bigger or equal impact on the local population. Just another example of AIDS exceptionalism.

Mayor Lee should seek the counsel of the Department of Public Health's director Barbara Garcia or chief of HIV prevention services, who also know a heck of a lot about treatment services, or other DPH experts, and if he wants the advice of two community panels and their co-chairs and members, many of whom are people living with HIV, he can request it from the Ryan White CARE Council and the HIV Prevention Planning Council.

My One-Night Stand with Spalding Gray

Here is another essay I wrote last month for the Edge Network's Living with HIV blogging series. Two wonderful comments were posted at location and I've copied them into the comments section of this post. I like being among the folks who met this amazing man and remember him with much endearment. Check out the Spalding Gray memorial and celebration site here. My essay:

The year was 1990. I had moved to Washington, D.C., to start organizing a chapter of ACT UP, in a city where we surely needed an in-your-face, AIDS-specific activist group.

A month after I arrived, an acquaintance from ACT UP/New York put me in touch with the monologist/actor/writer Spalding Gray. He was looking for a diverse cross-section of people with AIDS to appear on stage with him at George Washington University for a one-night discussion about living with HIV.

My acquaintance thought I’d be perfect as the angry PWA activist of the evening, and I soon received a call from Gray, who the next day came to my apartment for a brief chat. He was talking to everyone who would appear with him on stage, to get to know us a little bit so we weren’t total strangers meeting for the first time before an audience.

After answering Gray’s questions, he said I was free to ask him anything since he was after all going to be posing personal and political questions to me at the university. He wanted an honest exchange with each of the PWAs, not a situation where he was the interviewer directing the dialogue.

Feeling provocative, knowing he was straight, married and had kids, I asked Gray if he’d ever had a sexual experience with another man. The question surprised and pleased him.

"No, I haven’t and it’s because I’ve never gotten in touch with the feminine side of my sexuality," he said.

Before he left, we chatted a bit more about the federal government’s abysmal commitment to PWAs, treatment development, and science-based prevention targeting gay men and injection drug users.

Two nights later, a sold-out crowd packed a large university auditorium. The audience consisted mainly of young college students with a healthy smattering of Washington’s artists and musicians, all ready to participate in a night of frank political words and emotions.

Gray brought up two single gay men living with AIDS and the sweetest most loving sero-discordant couple, Frederick Nunley and George Guarino. I can only recall them and not the others because after the event they were among the founders of ACT UP/DC.

Nunley was negative and Guarino had been diagnosed with full-blown AIDS, and Gray inquired about their sex life and how they managed to find mutual pleasures without Nunley contracting the virus. They spoke plainly about the joy of anal sex with condoms.

Guarino brought forward the most appreciative wave of love and support when he said it was sexy to change top and bottom roles, depending on the mood and deciding who would wield the riding crop when they wanted to whip up some fun.
The larger issues framing the discussion were homosexuals and our lives at that moment in time, and how the larger culture was coming to terms with our fierceness and fabulousness.

AIDS claimed Guarino after a long and valiant fight, and Nunley is still among the living.

I was the last speaker of the evening and Gray’s queries to me were about controlling my anger and channeling it into the activist realm. The evening was officially about AIDS, but the larger issues framing the discussion were homosexuals and our lives at that moment in time, and how the larger culture was coming to terms with our fierceness and fabulousness. Recruiting for the nascent ACT UP chapter was my final point.

Then Gray asked me the closing question posed to all speakers. "Do you have a question for me?"

Looking directly into a very friendly set of understanding eyes, I said, "Yes, Spalding, I do."

A gale of laughter and clapping erupted at my line and serious delivery. The rush of being an actor before an audience that is ready to eat you up was enthralling. I knew from the twinkle in Gray’s eyes he was making a form of theatrical love with me. His happiness anticipating my question was a pleasure to see up close.

"When you came to my apartment and told me you’d never had a male-on-male sexual encounter, you claimed it was because you hadn’t explored the feminine part of your sexuality," I said. He nodded his head and licked a lip, waiting for my question.

"Well, why do you think it wouldn’t be your masculine side that would lead you to have sex with another guy? Gay sex is not so limited just to two sides of anything."

Smiling broadly, Gray said until that very moment it just hadn’t crossed his mind to think like that about his sexual interests, but it sure was fun to be asked such personal matters before an adoring audience that all wanted a cure for AIDS, or at least a federal government that gave a damn.

He thanked everyone for joining him on his quest for better understanding by the American public about the AIDS crisis. There was much hugging after the show and ACT UP/DC quickly got organized, angry, and into the streets.

Sadly, decades of mental anguish and chronic physical pain led Gray to take his own life in 2004.

I’ll always remember him as someone who played a small part in 1990 in boosting our local ACT UP chapter, helped educate college kids, and provided a platform for PWA voices.

Moscone's 'Ghost Light':
2 Endings Too Many; My 2-Word Cameo

Big Mike and I were admiring the sculptured busts of Bay Area theatrical luminaries in the windows of the public parking lot opposite the Berkeley Rep's two theaters last night before taking in "Ghost Light". The creator and director of the dramedy, Jonathan Moscone, came walking along and I struck up a conversation with him. He's so down-to-earth, and a handsome bear to boot!

Moscone commented on Mike's Gayville Hall hat, and they shared a bear-to-bear moment, while I readied my camera for photo-snapping. That's Mike on the right, Moscone in the middle, and me. We exchanged pleasantries, I said we looked forward to a good play, but little did any of know I would have a two-line cameo in the evening's performance.

"Ghost Light" is an emotionally-charged mix of serious drama about the assassination of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and some of the impact it had on his son Jonathan, leavened with humor that elicit hearty laughs.

We're introduced to the adult Jonathan character while he listens to messages left on his answering machine, including one from a gay candy-maker who wants to produce and sell a candy-bar named for his father called "By George!" Moscone, the co-creator of the work with Berkeley Rep honcho Tony Taccone, excels at poking fun at himself throughout the play.

Also coming on the receiving end of wicked satirizing is Gus Van Sant, a pretentious radical queer artiste simply named Film Director in the cast credits, during the making of the Harvey Milk bio picture "Milk" that reduced Mayor Moscone to little more than a Post-It note.

During the first act, Jonathan, played by the charming and equally infuriating Christopher Liam Moore, conducts an acting class with the audience and all the house lights turned up. He came out in the audience, stood at the end of my row and barked out a question. Did anyone in the class really know the feelings of our fellow students?  

"No," I called out. Moore lit up hearing my voice, quickly agreed with my answer, then asked for my name. "Michael," I said. "Michael, you get an A," Moore replied, as people chuckled and my two-word cameo participation was over.

The drama is quite effective showing a complex gay man thrust into the historical limelight at an early age, confronting a few ghosts in his life and career, with a few relevant contemporary political issues like Prop 8 and a reference to Rick Santorum getting laughs, but there's a major problem.

There are two-endings, stretching the running time just past two-hours and thirty-minutes. I thought the play was wrapping up when the adult Jonathan is addressing his demons and the audience, as George Moscone steps onto the stage as flickers of thousands of candle-lights, evocative of the march down Market Street the night Moscone and Milk were assassinated, are projected on the scrim behind them.

Tony Bennett crooning "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" fills the theater, and the play goes on when it should have concluded at that point. Instead, minutes drag by as Moscone and Taccone bring us to The End. Trimming the closing to a single ending would elevate this play to even more greatness than it already possesses in abundance.

Tickets for the remaining performances are going fast and if you don't act soon, you'll miss a chance to see this important American play linked to a revolutionary moment in our country's history. "Ghost Light" has its final performance on February 19. Click here to purchase tickets at Berkeley Rep.

Fab S.F. Poster: 
Medical Cannabis Is Not A Crime

There's a fire sale going over at the Market Street Coop, located at 1884 Market near Laguna, in anticipation of the medical marijuana dispensary being forced to shutter on January 9th because of harassment from federal prosecutor Melinda Haag, at the direction of the Obama administration.

(Forget a bang. The Market Street Coop is going out with a bong, and they're doing everything in their powers to end in a way that honors their long-held philosophy: affordable medical cannabis for all!)

A soon-to-be-unemployed coop worker, Matt Knoth, created this fab poster for the press conference and protest on Monday at 11 AM at the federal building on Golden Gate Avenue. Permission is granted for folks to spread and share the poster, and don't forget to show at the action.

The key reason for the pending closure is due to the coop's proximity to a school two-blocks away at the Baptist church on Waller Street. I believe the dispensary was in operation before this private school began operations, but I'm checking on that. It would be interesting to learn what the principal has to say about the dispensary, which does not allow children to just wander into the place and buy weed.

Another dispensary that was forced to shift to a delivery service was featured in a recent Bay Guardian piece about the federal prosecutor's bullying, had a great relationship with a school nearby, according to the principal. Sounds like this place was not a problem for the school. A good reason to rethink this widening attack on access to pot.

From the Bay Guardian:

The dispensary was compelled to close its doors on 1933 Mission Street after a Sept. 28 letter from Department of Justice attorney Melinda Haag threatened its landlord with jail time if Medithrive didn't cease operations in the space within 45 days. ...

The feds' given reason was Medithrive's proximity to Marshall Elementary School, located a 745-foot walk (according to Google Maps) from the dispensary door.

But Marshall's principal Peter Avila wasn't consulted on the matter. When called for comment by the Guardian, he said that he had bigger safety concerns.

"Right next door to Medithrive is a liquor store," Avila said, adding that there is also a methadone clinic across the street from his school. "We have to deal with people passed out on the property, people smoking — those are more the issues than people buying medical marijuana."

The principal says he patrols Marshall's immediate neighborhood three to four times a day, dealing with drug addicts, people with mental problems, and the Mission's homeless population. He called the dispensary "discreet" and never saw any cannabis usage by dispensary patients.

Tenderloin Health AIDS Clinic Closing;
Does Sup. Kim Have Anything to Say?

Well, that was fast.

Just yesterday the Bay Area Reporter covered the horrible fiscal mess at the Tenderloin Health organization, a longtime AIDS service provider in one of San Francisco's poorest and densest neighborhoods serving thousands of people with AIDS or those at-risk of contracting HIV, all of whom have multiple drug and healthcare needs.

The BAR reported that the head of the Department of Public Health, Barbara Garcia, would be meeting with David Fernandez who is executive director of Tenderloin Health to discuss righting the financial problems at the organization. Has anyone heard from Supervisor Jane Kim, in whose district the agency is headquartered?

This morning's San Francisco Chronicle was on the story, from the angle that the organization is closing. From troubled to going-out-of-business literally overnight. Sheesh.

In recent years, we've seen the New Leaf mental health agency close, the Lyon-Martin Health Center announce an overnight closure that was averted after the lesbian and trans communities mobilized to save it, the disappearance of the Eagle Tavern and A Different Light book store, the Academy of Friends almost go under, a meltdown at the SF Pride committee and Equality California and many institutions experiencing hard economic times.

And I'm hard-pressed to think of which institutions came to the community before a crisis or closure happened. New Leaf did, and before they locked the doors and turned out the lights for the last time, they took a few months to wrap things up.

In my view, it's not just the monetary issues that afflict these institutions but a general lack of regular, respectful engagement and transparency with the clients receiving services. We should keep this in mind as Tenderloin Health shutters.

From today's Chron:

Tenderloin Health [...] will close due to financial problems, the center's board of directors announced Thursday.

Existing debt, the poor economy and the loss of federal funds led to the decision to close, said David Fernandez, the chief executive officer of Tenderloin Health since 2009.

Tenderloin Health was created by the 2006 merger of two long-term health providers, Continuum HIV Day Services and the Tenderloin AIDS Resource Center. ...

Fernandez said he expects Tenderloin Health to close within months, but not before new providers are found for the existing clients. "The whole goal of this transition plan is to make sure there's no interruption in their service," he said.

Anti-Pot US Prosecutor Haag
Gave to CA AG Harris, EQCA/No on 8

(U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder with Melinda Haag. Credit: AP photo.)

You can't make this stuff up.

Melinda Haag, before President Obama appointed her to serve as federal prosecutor for the Northern District of California, was a proud political animal happy to make donations to candidates and causes she believes.

Even though the donations were made before becoming part of the Obama administration, they illustrate her political engagement as a liberal Democratic partisan donor and the contributions were remembered when appointment time came. My duty is to sunshine those donations and raise the specter of a conflict of interest with California attorney general Kamala Harris, who's received $600 over her career from Haag and who is doing a lousy job of getting the feds to back off the dispensaries.

Haag's been cracking down on long-established medical marijuana dispensaries the past few months, jeopardizing the health of hundreds of patients and putting dozens of people out of work. Some reelection strategy for Obama.

When she was in private practice at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP, in San Francisco, Haag wrote out a robust number of checks at the all levels of elective office, so let's start from the top, her federal giving.

FEC records show a total of $12,200 from Haag, of which $9,700 went to Obama and two of his related presidential campaign PACs, and the remainder went to the likes of Barbara Boxer, Evan Bayh, John Kerry, Christopher Dodd and the DNC.

At the California state level, Haag's $5,930 in donations is broken down thus: $250 to Kamala Harris for attorney general, $1,680 to her law firm's PAC, $2,000 split among Carole Migden, Phil Angelides and Janice Hahn, and her biggest single contribution in California went to Equality California and the No on 8 campaign in the amount of $2,000.

Great. She's pro-gay marriage and anti-medical marijuana. How messed up is that?

And finally, in San Francisco races she gave all of $550. Kamala Harris received $350, Susan Leal got $100 as did some guy named Larry Kane.

Let's tally up Haag's federal, state and municipal giving. It comes to $18,680. A robust chunk of change, greasing her climb up the legal political ladder.

Over the course of Harris' career, Haag has given her $600, a small amount in the grand scheme of electoral fundraising, but it's enough to demand a few questions be raised about Haag's motivations carrying out the dispensary closures and conflict of interest with the state attorney general.

If there was mainstream press scrutiny of her donations at the time Obama appointed her to the federal prosecutor's chair in Northern California, I missed it. Typical of coverage was the San Francisco Chronicle story by Bob Egelko which omitted Haag's many checks written out to politicians, including the guy who nominated her to the top ranks of the Department of Justice.

Please join the protest on Monday, January 9 at 11 am at the federal building at 450 Golden Gate Avenue, and tell Haag to cease and desist with shutting our medical marijuana dispensaries.

January 9 at 11 AM;
Pot Protest at S.F. Federal Building

 (450 Golden Gate Avenue entrance to the Federal Building.)

After a few days of meetings and listening to their clients, the leaders of the Market Street Coop have decided to stage a protest and presser at the office of the federal prosecutor who is forcing them to go out of business. As far as I know, this is the first public action taking place protesting the recent harassment and closure of several California medical marijuana dispensaries by the Obama administration. Please spread the word about Monday's demonstration and join us.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 9, 2012

Medical Cannabis Patients Protest Closure of SF Dispensary

Patients and supporters of one of San Francisco's longest running dispensaries will hold a press conference and rally in front of the Federal Building located at 450 Golden Gate Avenue at 11 a.m. on Monday, January 9, to protest its closure due to federal pressure on the dispensary's landlord.

U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California Melinda Haag sent a letter to Market Street Cooperative's landlord, threatening to forfeit their building and rent money received unless the dispensary ceased operations by January 9, 2012. Haag's action stands in stark contrast to the Obama administration's promise to leave dispensaries alone, so long as they abided by state and local laws.

Announcement of the dispensary's closure came as a huge surprise to the thousands of patients it serves. The cooperative has long been renowned for its low cost medical cannabis and other free services it offers to its patients, including free yoga, acupuncture, and chair massage.

"We offer some of the lowest cost medical cannabis in San Francisco. We have seriously ill patient members who are unsure of what to do and panicked that they may not be able to access their medicine at an affordable price," said Tate Swindell, the cooperative's spokesperson.

"We went through great lengths to obtain city permits, pay taxes, employ staff at a living wage with benefits, donate to community and non-profit organizations, and provide free and low cost medical cannabis and alternative health therapies to our patients. Instead of embracing the transparency that lawful dispensaries offer, the feds are denying patients access and forcing them into a costly and unsafe black market," noted Tate Swindell.

"As a longtime person living with AIDS, I take a daily cocktail of pills and in 2011 my total drug costs were $48,000 and the side-effects of the cocktail were lessened because I had access to affordable, organic medicinal cannabis from the Market Street Coop. My health was balanced and my spirits were upbeat, thanks to the healing herb prescribed by my physician at the SF Department of Public Health. Federal prosecutor Melinda Haag is jeopardizing my ability to legally obtain medical cannabis that is helping to keep me alive. I hold President Obama responsible for the shameful closures of jobs-generating, tax-paying dispensaries. This is no way to save lives and win votes from California voters," said Michael Petrelis, a member of the coop for more than a decade.

A dispensary has been operating at the location (1884 Market Street) since September of 1998. Market Street Cooperative opened its doors in July 2007.

Contact: Tate Swindell (415) 685-7262

Is Wiener Doing a Damn
Thing Over Castro Sobriety Club?

(At the emergency April meeting at the neighborhood sobriety center, Wiener is second from left. Credit: BAR.)

The very large clean and sober crowd of the Castro, which encompasses stakeholders who live in the district and those who don't, has been busy over the holidays debating the fate of the Castro Country Club and its cafe and meeting rooms helping many people kick their addictions.

Matthew Bajko of the Bay Area Reporter last week wrote that the CCC's current fiscal sponsor Baker Places, will be exiting its agreement and that a new fiscal sponsor is needed, while a deal to sell the property that houses the CCC collapsed. The comments there, and at the CCC's Facebook page, not to mention another Facebook page created by lots of folks upset with the management team headed by Terry Beswick, have been barbed and dishy.

This is one Castro community controversy where I don't have a stake because I'm not in AA or a related sobriety program, but I am friends with Beswick and part of the Occupy the Castro crew that showed up at the CCC in early December to protest the then-pending sale of the building.

And as all this public drama played out, with much more kvetching and criticism taking place off-line or in private emails some of which I'm privy to, one name never comes up as a stakeholder working to find a solution unless I ask about him: Supervisor Scott Wiener.

He got his mugshot in the BAR in the spring because he was somewhat engaged at that point in the CCC's troubles, and it would be good to learn what he's done since and lately. His policy of not responding to my emails and not engaging with me is why I didn't bother to contact about this.

However, I asked Bajko why Wiener's name was omitted from his story and he replied:

City officials and the CCC is a different angle to the first story I wrote. This is an ongoing story and just can't get everything into one article. Will be doing follow up pieces in the weeks to come.

Still, an integral and embattled district institution is on rocky shores, and I would expect a hands-on politicians with deep community roots to be included in all big BAR pieces such as what they ran on Thursday. Looking forward to future BAR articles and seeing what Wiener has to offer at that point. I also asked Beswick about his knowledge of what the supervisor has done about the club. Here's his reply:

Scott has attended a number of community meetings and events to lend moral support for the CCC. He also has met with me and other constituents in his office about the CCC. He has recently offered to meet a group of CCC reps again. A number of ideas were discussed concerning how Scott's office could be of assistance, but I cannot say that anything has come of these ideas to date.

Obviously, Scott cannot direct city funds on his own. This would require cooperation from the entire board and/or the mayor. Scott has repeatedly cautioned us that the City budget is in the red and it would be an uphill battle to get funds to help the CCC. We have not asked for city funds for operating expenses, but have only discussed securing city assistance with financing of the building purchase for the CCC. So far, these conversations have not been fruitful, but we are hopeful that something will come of it.

Right now, we have raised enough funds for a downpayment and we are bringing in enough to make mortgage payments. What we don't have and what we need help with is the financing or someone to co-sign a mortgage.

More power to the CCC that their supervisor is not totally missing in action on their behalf. I'd like to be surprised and see Wiener more fully develop a public engagement role in the club, and the enormous community who depend on it for sobriety, starting with addressing the many issues about saving the club on the two Facebook pages.

NYT: Romney Avoids Iowa Pizza Ranch
Over Founder's Male-on-Male Sex Crimes

I hope everyone had a healthy and happy welcoming of the new years. Mike and I did, and now it's back to politics and blogging.

This is an interesting news nugget, about why Mitt Romney avoids a central gathering spot for candidates and Iowa caucus-goers, from yesterday's New York Times. I wonder if the Romney campaign avoids appearing at any venue where an executive has been convicted of a crime. It's also noteworthy that there is a male-on-male sexual aspect to this info.

From the NYT:

Every candidate for the Republican nomination has campaigned at Pizza Ranch, a beloved restaurant chain in Iowa with strong ties to the Christian right.

Every candidate except Mr. Romney. His campaign prides itself on a vigilance and meticulousness bordering on the obsessive. So before Mr. Romney appears at a campaign stop or accepts an endorsement, his staff conducts sometimes painstaking vetting to avoid potentially embarrassing disclosures.

A founder of Pizza Ranch, it turned out, spent time in prison on charges of sexually abusing male employees. “There is not a lot of room for mistakes,” said David Kochel, Mr. Romney’s top strategist in Iowa.