The next Mission dispensary, above. Maybe. Photo credit: Mission Local
The Mission's newest pot club, Shambala Healing Center, may be on the brink of getting approval from the Planning Department. As per the folks at Mission Local, approval to go forward hinges on the merest of technicalities, with Shambala opening 1056 feet from the New Door youth job center, or 672 inches outside the thousand-foot perimeter required to separate youths from pot. Also New Door is operating without permits in an industrial building, which may render the whole thing moot. No mention of how far away the other six Mission dispensaries are.
Shamala would be more of a clinic than the average San Francisco pot club, says Krissy Keefer, who has been working alongside the building’s owner to open the dispensary. Keefer, a long-time Mission resident, and the artistic director of Dance Mission Theater, says that she has received a lot of support letters, and very few in opposition.Once-upon-a-time you'd talk your way past a house-sized bouncer into a room with a counter and not much else. Now we have chic designer dispensaries with a full-on retail experience. Shambala conjures up jewel tones, a Raga soundtrack with staff uniformed in tie-dyed scarves and hemp draw-string pants. Maybe finger cymbals? Now that retail branding, concept and image have co-opted pot clubs, we suggest the feds just roll over and take a puff.
· Proposed Pot Club Moves Forward [Mission Local]
· A Highly Chic Marijuana Repository [Curbed National Archives]