Santa Cruz City Schools voted to “declare its opposition” to the opening of a cannabis dispensary near Santa Cruz High School at a meeting on Feb. 28 in part of Emily’s Bakery.
The declaration says it is the District’s responsibility to protect the health of their students, citing the effects of marijuana on the developing brain. The declaration notes that the number of students in Santa Cruz schools who were disciplined for marijuana-use last year more than doubled.
The Santa Cruz Planning Commission will take a vote on the dispensary’s permit on March 7.
A cannabis dispensary, The Hook Santa Cruz, is proposed for 1,878 square feet of the building at 1129 Mission Street. The rest of the building will become a “ghost kitchen” for food delivery apps. Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana, the pioneering medical marijuana non-profit, transferred one of only five marijuana store permits allowed in the city to the applicant.
The dispensary would be outside the 600-foot restricted-zone around schools as mandated in the City of Santa Cruz’s zoning. Santa Cruz High is located 850 feet from the proposed dispensary.
Santa Cruz City Schools proposes a 2,000 foot barrier, which would align the city to the Monterey County Risk Assessment Matrix, a 2019 framework for cannabis legalization.
Bryce Berryessa, who co-founded The Hook Outlet, which has two stores in Watsonville and Capitola, says this would be effectively “a ban.” No city in Monterey follows this guideline besides Salinas, which has a smaller 1,000 foot buffer.
The current zoning around dispensaries is longstanding, dating back to 2010 when medical marijuana was decriminalized in 2010, and updated in 2017 before legalization.
Bryce Berryessa says he agreed to work with the schools on substance abuse issues, including agreeing to a requirement in the permit that no one under the age of 19 will be able to buy cannabis from the store, even with a medical permit.
He says his offer to work things out with the nearby schools was spurned by Superintendent Kris Munro.
“This is primarily spearheaded by the city school Superintendent,” said Berryessa. “[She] is leveraging her position of power to subvert the rule of law, and the will of the majority of Santa Cruzians who have overwhelmingly voted to allow for regulated cannabis in our community.”
Superintendent Kris Munro says her overriding concern is the students and families she serves.
“It’s my responsibility and my role in the community to advocate for students, youth, and families. I am not opposed to his business. I am not opposed to him as an individual. I just know we have to do everything we can to mitigate access to something that does damage to children,” says Munro.
President of the Board of Santa Cruz City Schools Claudia Vestal agrees. She believes it is not the right place for a dispensary.
“We would like to bring forward to the Planning Commission a buffer zone around schools, and not just for dispensaries but also for alcohol,” said Vestal.
A minor can’t just wander in and buy marijuana from a dispensary. On its website, the Hook claims that since 2010, not a single minor has bought cannabis from its stores.
Dispensaries must scan IDs to keep a record and check them with blacklight. “If we get violations, we get shut down,” said Berryessa.
In her letter to the Planning Commission, Munro says that a Santa Cruz High student focus group notified her that it is incredibly common for students to get fake-IDs.
In 2022-23 there were 91 suspensions for possession or use of drugs in Santa Cruz City Schools with the vast majority being for vaping marijuana, according to the letter.
City staff say that the proposed dispensary “meets all the objective standards laid out in the City Zoning Code.” However, staff gives the Commission discretion to deny the project because of the “subjective” nature of having a pot-store near a high school.
“It would be an unprecedented move to hold us to a different standard,” said Berryessa.
If you go: The Santa Cruz Planning Commission will vote on the permit for a cannabis facility at Santa Cruz City Hall on March 7 at 7 pm.
damn fools wakeUP,,,LIKE HOW COULD A DISPENSARY THAT DOES NOT ALLOW MINORS IN EFFECT ANY NEARBY SCHOOLKIDS????
I cannot personally attend the meeting, but would if I could. I am in 100% agreement that all permits should be denied because of it’s proximity to the high school and then some. The last thing Santa Cruz needs is another dispensary. Teenagers and young adults are experiencing the devastating results that cannabis use has on their mental health. Our community is taking the brunt of having to pay enormous tax dollars to support the cost of hospitalization and ongoing care of these suffering the effects of inhaling and ingesting higher and higher levels of THC. Doctors are diagnosing case after case of the correlation between cannabis with high THC levels and psychosis. If we only knew of the mental horrors cannabis has on developing brains, it never would have become legal. If there is any group trying to get this legalization banned, please let me know. The old propaganda of no harm, no addiction, it’s medicinal etc needs a second look.
Education is lacking; please read this article from the National Library of Medicine and get educated. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Catfish Cohen,
The license for The Hook is an existing one, transferred from WAMM Veterans, a group with a history of responsible and community-focused operation.
Research, including studies from sources like the National Library of Medicine, suggests regulated access (and education) to mitigate risks…
…rather than prohibition.
This is Santa Cruz.
Can you provide a link to the article you’re referring to? the link you provided goes to the main page, not a specific article. I’m interested in reading what you read, thank you
“Our community is taking the brunt of having to pay enormous tax dollars to support the cost of hospitalization and ongoing care of these suffering the effects of inhaling and ingesting higher and higher levels of THC”
I’m sorry, but what sort of nonsense is this? “Enormous tax dollars” for THC care? If any such dollars exist, and I doubt they do, can we direct them to you, ASAP? Clearly some help is needed.
All the opposition to this dispensary has such nonsense at the core of their supposed arguments. It’s clear that the people that don’t like can’t come up with a fact-based reason, so they just babble until we’re tired of listening to them.
We can’t make public policy based on nonsense, and every argument against this dispensary is filled with nonsense and high emotions. (Pun not intended)
The Hook has already demonstrated their commitment to running a responsible and community-focused operation. WAMM’s founder, a respected figure in compassionate cannabis care, chose to partner with The Hook (and the location) for a reason. They saw a group that upholds values of safety, community benefit, and integrity. Let’s trust in that decision and support The Hook. Their approach brings more than just business- it brings a partner who cares about our community’s well-being.
If the dispensary is following our ordinance as approved by voters, then this appears to be a witch hunt and a misuse of limited authority by this Superintendent. 🤔
It’s amazing that after years of legalization, we are wasting any public resources or the planning commissions time on a zoning law that has been in place since 2010.
If the Superintendent wants to change the ordinance, then she needs to use the same channels as everyone other citizen and put up a ballot initiative to make her desired changes.
She should have zero authority to direct our city staff, or planning commission to stop a business from opening when city staff is quoted saying this business “meets all the objective standards laid out in the City Zoning Code.”
This is actually going to a commission vote tomorrow? How about we fill some of our pot holes instead of wasting city resources like this. 🤷♂️
If the dispensary is following our ordinance as approved by voters, then this appears to be a witch hunt and a misuse of limited authority by this Superintendent. 🤔
It’s amazing that after years of legalization, we are wasting any public resources or the planning commissions time on a zoning law that has been in place since 2010.
If the Superintendent wants to change the ordinance, then she needs to use the same channels as everyone other citizen and put up a ballot initiative to make her desired changes.
She should have zero authority to direct our city staff, or planning commission to stop a business from opening when city staff is quoted saying this business “meets all the objective standards laid out in the City Zoning Code.”
This is actually going to a commission vote tomorrow? How about we fill some of our pot holes instead of wasting city resources like this. 🤷♂️
The Good Times positions this issue as if Santa Cruz doesn’t have a legacy of supporting cannabis. These few voices against the location absolutely do not speak for an entire district or city, as made clear in every forum this location is discussed. Santa Cruz stands WITH the “pot store” as you so callously refer to it. GT also fails to disclose the lifetime of local work by Valerie Corral and WAMM, support of former mayors and other officials.