Security guards check the credentials of a patient on the last day of operations of Berkeley Patients Group. Photo: Frances Dinkelspiel The mood was somber Monday at Berkeley Patients Group as the 12-and-a-half-year old cannabis dispensary got ready to shut its doors. Like every day, patients streamed in at a steady rate, handing over a […]
Brad Senesac
Posted inBusiness
Cannabis dispensaries display a stylish flair
The renovated lounge area at BPG. The frosted covering on the windows was removed to make the place feel airier and more open. Photos: Frances Dinkelspiel After the Berkeley Patients’ Group’s plans to move into the old Sharffen Berger chocolate factory on Heinz and Seventh Street fell through in 2010, the medical cannabis dispensary turned […]
Posted inCity
Does new cannabis body provide more accountability?
A marijuana grow room After months of delay, Berkeley’s new Medical Cannabis Commission will meet for the first time on Thursday, ushering in, city officials hope, a new era of oversight and accountability. For the past 15 years the medical marijuana business has operated in a gray zone, legal in the city and the state […]
Posted inBusiness
Berkeley cannabis lawsuit reveals bitter infighting
Rebecca DeKeuster. Photo courtesy of Portland Press-Herald Rebecca DeKeuster’s first job at the Berkeley Patients Group in 2004 was selling medical marijuana to patients for $14 an hour. Within six years, DeKeuster was one of Berkeley Patients Group’s most powerful executives and visible representatives. She served on the city’s medical cannabis commission, appeared regularly at […]
Posted inBusiness
Berkeley exports its cannabis expertise
Debby Goldsberry: a BPG founder and one of three people who have applied to open a cannabis dispensary in Albany In a sign of the growing professionalization of the medical cannabis industry, Mark Rhoades and Ali Kashani, the owners of the Berkeley development company Citycentric Investments, have teamed up with Debby Goldsberry, a founder of […]
Posted inCity
Berkeley to move cautiously on marijuana grow facilities
Marijuana plants for sale at Berkeley Patients Group. By John C. Osborn As Berkeley prepares to form a new medical marijuana commission to draw up rules governing the growth of cannabis, it must decide whether recent threats of legal retribution by the Alameda County District Attorney will nix plans for large-scale cultivation facilities. In December, District […]
Posted inBusiness, City
Measures S and T would grow city’s cannabis industry
A tray of cannabis at Berkeley Patients Group waiting to be examined Berkeley residents will vote on two ballot measures on Tuesday that could lead to a greatly expanded medical cannabis industry in the city – and hundreds of thousands of new dollars for the city’s coffers. Measure T would increase the number of places […]
