A May 16 event for medical cannabis patients featuring “medicated cuisine” has been called off. Producers of the Wine and Cannabis Cuisine Pairings at the Wild Thyme Event Center in El Verano said the party was denied an ABC permit to serve alcohol.
Sonoma Patient Group (SPG), a Santa Rosa cannabis collective, could have fought the decision, according to Jewel Mathieson, “but we didn’t want to make waves. We just wanted to have a party.”
Mathieson, a member of the SPG board of directors, said Sonoma Police Chief Brett Sackett notified the group by phone that he would not sign off on the necessary permit. She said Sackett questioned the group’s non-profit status and said it was not organized legally.
The SPG meets all such requirements, she said. “We are a legal collective.”
The late afternoon affair was open only to current medical cannabis patients for a $65 donation to the SPG. It promised live music and dancing, and a three-course dinner – medicated or non-medicated – with wine pairings.
Mathieson said she did not know why Sackett, the city Police Chief, was dealing with a permit for event in the county. “We feel like it’s discriminatory,” she said. “Our patients are treated like criminals.”
Following a recent court decision throwing out the prerequisite of use permits for medical cannabis collectives, authorities throughout the county have been cracking down on clubs and legal growers, Mathieson said. “Law enforcement is interpreting the decision as, there are no guidelines so everything is illegal.”
The SPA has halted its campaign to open a second, Sonoma Valley location “until things settle down.”
Sackett was unavailable for comment as The Sun went to press.
