Should a Sacramento pot dispensary and a drug detox center be next door to each other?

La Krisha Young earned one of the 10 coveted dispensary licenses that the City of Sacramento awarded to people disproportionately affected by the war on drugs, but the permitting process that followed has become a challenge and exposed a gap in the city’s oversight.

A nearby south Sacramento business owner has objected to Young’s conditional-use license based on the fact that the dispensary is less than 200 feet from her drug and alcohol treatment clinic.

A mechanism ensures sensitive-use facilities, such as this clinic, have a chance to offer input on the establishment of a nearby dispensary.

The city requires that a person going through the dispensary application process notify their potential new neighbors, particularly drug treatment, day care care and tobacco retailers, when they apply for an operating permit. However, there’s a lack of guidance on how to ensure they have been notified or to ensure that the notification happens in a timely manner.

The city’s Planning and Design Commission Chairwoman Nicola Hernandez, who presided over the Dec. 8 meeting where they voted on Young’s conditional-use dispensary license, noted at the meeting that the notification process broke down.

“I think that this is the first time that this has happened where we see this gap and this potential kink in the process,” Hernandez said.

The kink for Young comes in the form of a challenge to her dispensary permit that the city’s Planning and Design Commission approved in a 10-1 vote.

And the result is the tension that underlies making a detox center, where people go to cope with their addiction, neighbors with a pot dispensary.

“These are people coming to our program because they are in a very vulnerable place,” Young and clinic CEO Vicky Magobet said. “So, if we really want to help them fight their addiction, how can we allow a dispensary to open next door?

Where was the gap in the dispensary permitting process?

The Planning and Design Commission’s approval of Young’s conditional license followed hours of discussion about the existence of Diamond House Drug and Alcohol Detox and Rehab within 200 feet of the storefront, separated only by a pizza parlor.

The proposed dispensary is in a small aging strip-mall shopping center with the pizza parlor, a fried chicken restaurant, an animal clinic and a small school offering a vocational nursing program. It is close to Highway 50 in south Sacramento.

The drug rehab center is in a two-story-building next door.

The core of the discussion centered around the fact that Magobet had no knowledge of each other’s enterprise until about two months prior to the commission’s vote.

Young began renting her proposed dispensary’s storefront at 7909 Bruceville Road in August 2021, and a few months later, in January 2022, she began notifying nearby business and residents of her dispensary.

Magobet opened her drug treatment clinic in February, a month after Young made her initial round of notifications.

The notification process went on for months, Young said. After her initial notifications in January, she continued to notify businesses and residents in the area and even made in-person visits. She said she never saw a Diamond House sign or a listing on Google for the business.

Magobet told The Bee that she put a Diamond House sign outside her office building shortly after its opening. The sign did not identify the business as a detox and treatment facility.

Young said that she never saw the sign in front of the business.

Magobet also said she was told by the city when she first opened the Diamond House that she didn’t need to register the business.

Magobet only filed tax registration documents with the city of Sacramento in October 2022, according to a city planning division report.

The city code not does not require a specific date between when a dispensary files for a conditional use permit and a sensitive use business, such as a drug treatment facility is notified, said Kelli Trapani, a spokeswoman for the city planning division.

She said planning staff are evaluating options to address this.

Issue of dispensary’s proximity to treatment facility escalates

The commission board members that voted to approve Young’s conditional-use license only did so after a hearing that lasted several hours.

The board members’ discussion focused on determining whether Young or Magobet set up shop first rather than on the effects of the dispensary on the clinic. The board members agreed that Young arrived at the south Sacramento strip mall first.

A report from the city’s Community Development Department’s Planning Division noted that staff members didn’t have the expertise to determine “the pathology of drug abuse.”

The report also noted that the business would not use the word cannabis or imagery of the plant on signage. In addition, state rules prevent cannabis product display in the front windows of dispensaries.

The report concluded that the lack of cannabis signs and pictures of cannabis leaves “would be adequate to reduce the likelihood for the rehabilitation clinic patients to be triggered through visual clues.”

The storefront will be “visually unrecognizable as a business selling cannabis to the public generally, including patients of the nearby rehabilitation business,” the report stated.

Young, who has multiple sclerosis, said cannabis has helped her cope with her symptoms. She views her planned dispensary as an education center where consumers can learn about marijuana and its positive benefits.

At the same time, she recognized Magobet’s clients need to stay away, which is why Young said she agreed to the dispensary exterior design changes.

“We want to be good neighbors,” Young said. “We want to work with the rehab.”

Magobet said she can’t work with the dispensary because she sees no way getting around harm to her patients.

“We’re basically putting a candy shop next to the people that want candy,” Magobet said. “They are just trying to change their lives. And putting a temptation like this so close, it’s a concern.”

Magobet said the clients at Diamond House are considered to have a dual diagnosis, meaning they have mental health issues in addition to drug and or alcohol problems.

She said many of her clients have been cannabis users, and establishment puts temptation close.

Magobet said her patients would be aware that the dispensary is nearby. She said an outdoor tobacco smoking area is within 50 feet of the dispensary.

“They are worried,” Magobet said of her patients, noting relapses are common for those under-going drug and alcohol treatment.

Magobet also noted consumers could buy cannabis from the dispensary, and smoke it in their car. She worries the smell of cannabis smoke will affect her clients’ desire for the drug.

Magobet has been mobilizing residents and businesses in the area to object the dispensary, arguing that too many dispensaries are planned for the area. The city’s first dispensary awarded to a Sacramento resident affected by the war on drugs, opened last fall in south Sacramento, and another, in addition to Young’s, is also planned for the area.

Young also has been gathering the names of residents and businesses who support her dispensary.

Magobet said she has no problem with Young’s plan to open a dispensary. She doesn’t want it one storefront away from her clinic. She believes that the city should subsidize Young’s move to a different location.

Young said she has invested too much money to consider moving. She grew up in south Sacramento and wants to be a proud business owner in a community where police would target Black people for drug possession when marijuana wasn’t legal.

She has forked over $8,000 a month for rent since August 2021 and has invested an estimated $200,000 into the dispensary. The city has already given Young a $125,000 grant when she was awarded a dispensary license in 2022.

Rather than accept the commission’s decision, Magobet decided to appeal. She paid a $750 fee and will bring the issue to the City Council for a vote. The vote is scheduled for Feb. 21.

This story was originally published February 3, 2023 at 5:00 AM.