Albany's First Marijuana Dispensary Could Open on Solano By December

A nuclear engineer and a psychologist may be Albany's first medical marijuana dispensary owners, according to a business plan that will come before the city's Planning & Zoning Commission next week. 

The plan was submitted to the city Oct. 1, and it's the first dispensary application that has cleared the city's background check hurdle, said Jeff Bond, Albany's planning and building manager.

The process began about one year ago, and has included various requirements and milestones, including background checks, security plans and architecture plans, according to the applicants.

VitalGen Inc., according to the application, is a collective that will seek to "alleviate suffering" in Albany "by soliciting, collecting, and packaging medical cannabis."

According to the business plan, VitalGen will offer more than medical marijuana: Its proposed free services for clients include yoga; meditation and hypnotherapy; holistic medicine; nutritional counseling; and complete disabled access. 

The business also would offer workshops on participation in the political and social medical marijuana movements; workshops on patients' rights; and care packages for patients who cannot afford to buy cannabis on their own.

Marijuana consumption would not be allowed on the premises. The business has proposed daily operating hours of 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Sunday beginning Dec. 1 in a three-story building at 1019 Solano Ave.

The plan, which is attached here as a PDF, estimates VitalGen will have 50 patients in the first month, and up to 250 by March 2011. It explains in detail how the business will handle staffing, security and records maintenance, among other aspects of its operation.

Co-founders, and brothers, Bret and Erik van den Akker are both academics seeking doctorates in California.

According to the plan, Bret van den Akker has been a "Berkeley and Albany Community resident for 15 years." He used to work with radioactive materials at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He is now pursuing his doctorate in nuclear engineering UC Berkeley. 

According to a former work profile hosted by the national lab, his scientific interests include plasma physics; ion and electron beam optics; and neutronics.

He's also a martial arts enthusiast with a black belt in hapkido, an expected black belt in judo and more than four years practice in Brazilian jiu jitsu.

Erik van den Akker is based in southern California, and is a doctoral candidate in clinical pyschology. He's currently the deputy research manager in the UC San Diego Department of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Medicine.

According to the business plan, he's had more than 15 years experience in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries doing clinical research about pain, including chronic pain.

He also has "vast experience" with the dispensing and accountability of medications, and "extensive experience" with patient dosing and records management.

Albany officials have been preparing to welcome a medical marijuana dispensary for years, though the van den Akken application is the first to have made it this far. Dispensaries have popped up in cities around the Bay Area, with the closest in Richmond, on Pierce Street, and Berkeley, on San Pablo Avenue, according to weedmaps.com. 

In 1996, California voters passed Proposition 215, which established the right for patients and primary caregivers to possess and grow cannabis. In 2003, SB 420 recognized the right of patients to associate collectively, and protected them from arrest. In 2008, the state attorney general set up guidelines for how medical cannabis collectives must operate. 

Albany approved Measure D in 2006, which allowed for the establishment of a single medical marijuana facility within the city limits.

Albany determined several regulations for such a business, including criminal and business background checks for all employees of a medical cannabis facility; established permitted zones for operation; no growing of cannabis in the facility; no alcohol sold in the facility; and no use of cannabis in the facility.

Albany voters will have a chance to decide Nov. 2 whether to set a business license tax specifically for cannabis businesses, via Measure Q (attached as a PDF to this story). The measure would add a section to the current city code that would require any cannabis business to pay $25 per $1,000 of gross receipts.

It appears, for a non-profit organization, there would also be a tax of $25 per square foot on all business improvements occupied by the business. 

If this measure is not approved, a cannabis club would not be required to pay a business license tax. If it is approved, the revenue would be placed into the city's general fund. Learn more here.

The Planning & Zoning Commission will discuss the VitalGen application on Oct. 12 at 7:30 p.m. The van den Akkers have written to neighbors who live within 300 feet of the dispensary to alert them of the business plan and collect feedback.

People can write to Jeff Bond at jbond@albanyca.org with comments for the city. They can also write VitalGen directly at info@vitalgen.org.