South Sacramento business owners clash over proposed marijuana dispensary
SACRAMENTO — A clash over cannabis is heating up as two small business owners battle it out in a south Sacramento neighborhood over a proposed new marijuana dispensary.
Diamond House Detox is a rehabilitation center that treats dozens of clients each day with drug addictions.
"They're coming here to what they feel like is a safe place to get treatment," said Vicky Magobet, the CEO of Diamond House Detox.
The outpatient facility has been in business along Bruceville Road since last February, but now, they could be getting a new neighbor in the vacant storefront next door: a marijuana dispensary.
"I was very worried for my clients," Magobet said.
The concern is that patients like "Hawthorne" will be tempted to purchase pot.
"I get triggered when I see anything or know that possibly something's in my grasp," Hawthorne said. "Just seeing a green leaf even would set me off."
La Krisha Young is the owner of the proposed cannabis store named Culture. She's spent years going through the city's cannabis permitting process and actually signed a lease for this location months before the detox clinic opened.
"We actually were there first," she said.
She's a participant in Sacramento's CORE program, which offers cannabis dispensary licenses to people whose families have been negatively impacted by the war on drugs.
"This is supposed to change my life, my children's life for us for generations, as well as an entire community," Young said.
And she said trying to get licensed at another location would take too much time.
"This is not an easily repeatable process," Young said.
To compromise, she's even offered to eliminate marijuana references from her marketing.
"I agreed to not anything pertaining to cannabis logos, insignias, anything in my signage or in my name," Young said.
Now, this dispute over drugs will be decided by Sacramento city leaders.
"Would the city be OK with putting this next to a high school?" Magobet asked. "I doubt they would, so I feel like we should be in the same category."
Dozens of people have testified both for and against this issue at previous public meetings. The final appeal is scheduled to be heard next Tuesday at the Sacramento City Council meeting.
