SVCG Blog

A Hollow Victory

This sidebar once declared in its headline, “Success!”. And it was true at the time. After 4 long years of cajoling and discussion, the city of Sonoma had finally come to permit 2 walk-in retail cannabis dispensaries.

Unfortunately, that good cheer was short-lived. Though the first dispensary plans to open this spring, its owner, Erich Pearson of sparc, along with his personal lobbyist, Amy O’Gorman Jenkins, have worked with the Sonoma City Council to stop the process for a second dispensary.

Mr Pearson chose to misrepresent his financial situation to the Sonoma City Council in order to convince it to support what amounts to a city-sponsored monopoly, rather than face any competition that would provide medical patients with better prices, more product choices, and additional services.

Ms Jenkins, who runs her own lobbying firm, Precision Advocacy, and is also the Legislative Advocate for the California Cannabis Industry Association (CCIA), is a native to Sonoma. Her ties to the local community afford her a unique position to influence local policy. She was a contributor to the campaigns of cannabis-friendly candidates Rachel Hundley in 2018 and Sandra Lowe in 2021.

Appearances are everything. Contributions can create avenues for corruption, either grand or petty. Cronyism and favors to rig a market are unacceptable.

Thanks

We thank everyone in this group and on our mailing list for their support, for signing the petition, for writing the letters and contributing to the discussions.

Thanks to Ken Brown and Jewel Mathieson for their years of advocacy for patients’ access to safe, legal medical cannabis. Their goal of  local access has finally been realized.

And thanks to our past city council allies Amy Harrington and Logan Harvey for leaning forward on this issue. They helped define Sonoma as a city of progressive values in Sonoma County.

In the meantime, the Sonoma Valley Cannabis Group will continue to keep you informed on all the latest developments in 2022.

 

Best Regards,

Gil Latimer

Sonoma Valley Cannabis Group

The Voice for Cannabis in Sonoma Valley since 2017

The mission of Sonoma Valley Cannabis Group (SVCG) has been to assist the city of Sonoma form a compassionate cannabis policy that will ensure safe and legal access to medicinal cannabis for the residents of Sonoma and Sonoma Valley.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

On January 20, 2021, the city council voted to amend our ordinance to permit an additional walk-in retail dispensary. The newly revised ordinance went into effect on May 19.

A second retail outlet would improve service to the 45,000 people living in the greater Sonoma area. Competition can provide folks here with easy, safe access to more product choice, better services, etc. That’s what the free market is all about, isn’t it? Everybody wins, the city, adult consumers and *especially* medical users.

However, there have been forces within the industry that are working against the second dispensary option and would prefer that the new permit process be slow-walked. You can read about it in this post.

The Story Part 4: Emily Paxhia of Poseidon Chooses to Go “Dark” as We Press for Cannabis Justice in the City of Sonoma

by | Oct 7, 2024

In our previous post we noted our email exchange with Emily Paxhia of Poseidon Investment Management who is also a part owner of Erich Pearson’s (SPARC) Sonoma dispensary. We allowed four weeks for response, and because we did not receive one, we followed up:

November 20, 2023

Emily Paxhia, Managing Partner
Morgan Paxhia, Managing Partner
Poseidon Investment Management, LLC
330 Fell Street, Suite 200, San Francisco, CA 94102

Hello Emily,
We’re sorry we’ve not received a response from you regarding our email of October 22, 2023. Perhaps we missed it.

We believe a public retraction from Erich Pearson regarding his misleading remarks about the Sonoma Valley Cannabis Group would help repair the damage done to our reputation within the community.

We suggest it would be in everyone’s best interest that Mr. Pearson and Poseidon Asset Management formally state their support for the release of the RFP by the Sonoma City Council for a second dispensary in Sonoma, as this has been the crux of the problem at hand.

It is customary for a retraction to be made at the same venue as was the offending statement. Mr. Pearson could take the opportunity to disavow his previous allegations and state his support for the RFP during the open public comment period of a city council meeting. The next two meetings are scheduled for December 6 and December 20, 2023.

The Healdsburg City Council received a number of emails from members of SVCG in the past weeks regarding Sparc’s bid for a dispensary permit in that city. You will find two of those letters, below.

We have also included a link to our public comments made during the November 13 Healdsburg City Council meeting.

As business owners, both you and Mr. Pearson realize the importance of minimizing risks and dangers to one’s reputation to the greatest extent possible. A poor reputation erodes a business’s customer base and builds negative press. That means lost revenue and difficulty in attracting new customers.

The issues have been clearly identified. We invite you to be the problem solver on this matter. You have the opportunity to both correct the original statement and elevate your own good standing in our community.

Sincerely,

Gil Latimer and the SVCG Policy Committee

CC   Morgan Paxhia, Managing Partner
Patrick Rea, Managing Director
Erich Pearson
Sean Kelley
Sonoma City Council
Chase Hunter, Sonoma Index-Tribune
Susan Wood, North Bay Business Journal
Lorez Bailey, North Bay Business Journal
Jason Walsh, NorthBay Biz

You can see the story unfold here: https://bit.ly/3Ot20zL
or here: https://bit.ly/3HIxRsA

hashtag#boycottsparc
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hashtag#cannabisnews
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hashtag#wftp

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“Evil genius”

“Evil genius”

by | Nov 16, 2023

Erich Pearson, the owner of the only dispensary in our town, has worked diligently to prevent the Sonoma City Council from permitting our second dispensary. Mr. Pearson is adamantly opposed to any competition that would keep him from dominating the local market, even...

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