Though there are cannabis delivery services in Marin, some legit and some fly-by-night, there is really only one bonafide dispensary in the county. It’s the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana (MAMM) in Fairfax, which accommodates both medical and recreational users and has more history than any other dispensary in the United States. Medical patients are required to show up with a note from a doctor and a valid driver’s license or another form of identification.
MAMM was founded 23 years ago by the legendary Lynnette Shaw, otherwise known as the “Green Queen” and the “Godmother of Medical Marijuana.” President Bill Clinton, who claimed that he smoked, but didn’t inhale, tried to put Shaw out of business. In 2011 the federal government finally shuttered her establishment, but with ample help from her dogged lawyers and from the courts, she bounced back and reopened in 2017 with a wham-bam party, complete with free food and free beverages.
I tried one of the free edibles—a chocolate brownie. Indeed, I ate the whole thing and was zonked instantly, but still able to drive safely, tripping the whole way, from Fairfax over the Golden Gate Bridge to the Mission District in San Francisco. It was a hairy ride, in the style of Hunter S. Thompson. I would not recommend it. Don’t eat the whole thing! I do recommend a visit to MAMM for all your cannabis needs.
Not long ago, I met a couple of Marin residents who told me they drove to Oakland, bought their weed from a dispensary in the East Bay, drove back to Marin and then got stoned. That made no sense to me. It still doesn’t. Liberal Marin tends to vote “Yes” on marijuana measures, but when entrepreneurs try to open dispensaries, the foes attend meetings and voice their opposition. “Not in my backyard” has been a rally cry all across Marin.
MAMM deserves support from the county that Shaw has helped for years with medical marijuana. A man who called himself Dan and who said he had been a marijuana smuggler back in the day and had been arrested and imprisoned, told me at the 2017 grand reopening, “Lynnette’s place has been good for the community. What she’s doing here will spread all over California.” Indeed, it has.—JR
MAMM, 6 School St. #210, Fairfax; 415.295.7633. Open seven days a week, 9 to 9.
