Harborside, formerly Harborside Health Center, is a recreational and medical cannabis dispensary, with its flagship location in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

, and an additional location in San Jose. Founded in 2006 by longtime activist and entrepreneur,

Steve DeAngelo Steve DeAngelo (born June 12, 1958) is an American cannabis rights activist and advocate for cannabis reform in the United States. Career DeAngelo is co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of Harborside Inc., a publicly-traded company on the Canadi ...

and dress wedding, Harborside operates as a non-profit patient collective. In December 2011, Harborside Health Center was featured in the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...

's four-part documentary series, '' Weed Wars''. In June 2013 CNN premiered "Inside Man", an 8-episode documentary hosted and produced by Morgan Spurlock. The show's first episode provided a detailed, inside look at California's medical marijuana industry and featured Spurlock working in Harborside Health Center, as well as it described the legal troubles of the center. It is considered to be the largest nonprofit medical cannabis dispensary in the state, if not the nation.

Federal case

In the summer of 2012,

Northern District of California The United States District Court for the Northern District of California (in case citations, N.D. Cal.) is the federal United States district court whose jurisdiction comprises the following counties of California: Alameda, Contra Costa, Del ...

U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag filed civil forfeiture actions against the landlords of Harborside Health Center's two locations, in an effort to evict the dispensary. Harborside challenged the evictions in state court, maintaining its compliance with state and local laws. A

Superior Court In common law systems, a superior court is a court of general jurisdiction over civil and criminal legal cases. A superior court is "superior" in relation to a court with limited jurisdiction (see small claims court), which is restricted to civil ...

judge dismissed the Oakland eviction, noting that the lease explicitly stated the use of the premises for the distribution of medical marijuana. The City of Oakland rallied behind Harborside and attempted to join the dispensary in the fight, but a judge overruled their action. In 2015 three members of Congress from California—Reps. Sam Farr, Dana Rohrabacher and Barbara Lee—released a statement in support of Harborside, saying that the

US Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...

"has overstepped its bounds" and "is not acting within the spirit or the letter of the law nor in the best interests of the people who depend on Harborside for reliable, safe medical marijuana." In May 2016, the Department of Justice dropped the 4 year case against Harborside Health Center.

Patient Services

Harborside Health Center was the first medical cannabis dispensary to introduce lab testing. The dispensary also offered (circa 2010) free wellness services including acupuncture,

yoga Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consciou ...

, Reiki and others. Harborside was the first marijuana organization to broadcast the administration of the non-psychoactive cannabinoid, CBD, to a child afflicted with Dravet syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy ("Weed Wars," Episode 3).

Retail sales

Beginning 1 January 2018, Harborside began retail sales to adults. All adults over the age of 21 with a valid ID may enter.

References

{{coord, 37.78396, -122.24243, region:US-CA, display=title Medicinal use of cannabis Cannabis in California 2006 in cannabis Companies based in Oakland, California Retail companies based in California Cannabis dispensaries in the United States