| RIPTIDE | ▼ MIAMI 4/20 MIRACLE? whether medical marijuana dispensaries can operate within city limits. In the six years since the Sunshine State S legalized medicinal weed, not a single medi- cal marijuana dispensary has opened within Miami city limits. It’s not from a lack of en- trepreneurial interest (more on that in a mo- ment) but a seemingly moot point about whether the state’s constitutional amend- ment legalizing medical marijuana trumps the federal ban on pot: None of the 27 medi- cal marijuana dispensaries operating in Mi- ami-Dade has reported a single raid — or any intervention whatsoever — by the federal government. This has created a curious conundrum: For years, eligible patients have been pre- scribed a medical marijuana card from any number of doctors in the City of Miami, say, at a Miracle Leaf medical center in Coconut Grove or a DoctorsRx in downtown, yet have had to tote their prescription to another mu- nicipality to fill it. For example, a resident can be prescribed medical marijuana in Coconut Grove yet have to drive roughly 3.5 miles away to Coral Gables to fill the prescription at the nearest dispensary. Dr. Fernando Fandiño-Sende, a doctor at LifeCannMD in Miami’s East Little Havana neighborhood, prescribes medical marijuana to treat patients with a number of conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder, cancer, Crohn’s disease, and GET MORE NEWS & COMMENTARY AT MIAMINEWTIMES.COM/NEWS ▼ KENDALL HUMBLE BEGINNINGS F A-ROD THINKS KENDALL IS “THE HOOD.” BY JOSHUA CEBALLOS ormer major league all-star Alex “A-Rod” Rodriguez seems to be having some ge- ography issues — perhaps a lingering side effect from his Screwball days. In a recent interview on The Pivot Podcast, teased as “A-Rod Opens Up on the Highs & Lows of his Career to Becoming a Business Mogul,” Rodriguez told hosts Ryan Clark, Channing Crowder, and Fred Taylor about growing up in a rough part of Miami — causing local listeners to do a spit-take when he said where exactly that was. “I grew up right here in the hood. I grew up in MIAMI’S FIRST MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARY MIGHT FINALLY BE ALLOWED TO OPEN. BY JOSHUA CEBALLOS toners and occasional tokers would likely agree that weed can make you a little slow — but not nearly as slow as the City of Mi- ami when it comes to deciding marijuana should be prohibited in the city be- cause it’s prohibited federally. The appeal was put on hold when MRC44 and 60 NE 11th, LLC, sued the city in circuit court, asking a judge to decide whether state or federal law prevailed. The case was bumped up to federal court, whereupon U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore promptly kicked it back down to the county level last September. Moore ruled that the city had failed to act under the provi- sions of Florida law by not writing an ordi- nance that regulates or bans medical marijuana dispensaries. “[T]his case primarily involves the interac- tion between a municipality’s failure to act and the operation of state law,” Moore wrote in his ruling. “Given the significance of the City’s inaction under [statute] 381.986 (11)(b) (1), the Court finds that Plaintiffs’ right to re- lief depends largely upon the construction or application of the state law — not federal law.” In the meantime, Chaudhari’s dual enti- Photo by Kanjana Jorruang/Getty Images For years, eligible patients have been prescribed a medical marijuana card in the City of Miami, then compelled to go to another municipality to fill it. epilepsy. He considers marijuana to be a “pharmacy in a plant,” and says anyone supporting the City of Miami’s dispensary ban is simply ignorant. “This is the typical mentality of someone who doesn’t know about science and wants to make an opinion without fundamental knowledge,” Fandiño-Sende tells New Times. “Unfortunately, politicians don’t understand because of marijuana’s bad reputation.” All that might change next week, when a long-standing dispute between a would-be Miami medical marijuana dispensary and the city comes to a head at the Miami Commis- sion’s next regularly scheduled meeting on April 14 — just six days before the 4/20 cele- brations commence. The conflict dates back to 2019, when California entrepreneur Romie Chaudhari applied for a permit to open a medical can- nabis dispensary at 90 NE 11th St., near the nightclubs Space and E11even in Miami’s Park West neighborhood. The city denied Chaudhari the Certificate of Use permit he needed to open. For the past three years, two entities man- aged by Chaudhari — MRC44, LLC, and 60 NE 11th, LLC — have been embroiled in a le- gal dispute with the city, which cites marijua- na’s listing as a Schedule I controlled substance under the federal Controlled Sub- stances Act (CSA) as justification for denying Chaudhari the permit. In 2021, the city’s volunteer Planning and Zoning Appeals Board (PZAB) voted in favor of Chaudhari and overturned the city’s decision, asserting that no part of the city code bans or limits dispensaries — a state requirement for a municipality to ban medical marijuana. Miami’s zoning director appealed the PZ- AB’s finding, agreeing with Miami City Attor- ney Vicky Mendez’s advice that medical ties have paused their case in circuit court while they await the commission’s upcoming April 14 decision on the zoning office’s ap- peal on MRC44 and 60 NE 11th, LLC’s appli- cation. The commission’s decision will serve as a de facto ruling on whether a medical cannabis dispensary should be allowed in- side city limits. “The city simply hasn’t done its job of de- ciding what to do with cannabis dispensaries. If they flat-out don’t want this in the city, then what needs to be passed is a resolution or or- dinance specifically banning it,” Miami City Commissioner Ken Russell, who has a medi- cal marijuana card, tells New Times. If the commission sides with Chaudhari, Russell says, he will immediately begin the process of drafting and passing an ordinance to include dispensaries in Miami’s code in order to regulate them in accordance with state law. “I believe the long-term goal needs to be an ordinance that brings the best version of dispensaries to Miami,” the District 2 com- missioner says. Attorneys for Chaudhari’s businesses de- clined to comment to New Times for this story. a neighborhood called Kendall. It was probably like 99 percent Latinos,” Rodriguez says in an au- dio clip shared earlier this month by the Twitter account @BecauseMiami. Miami-Dade County has no shortage of rough neighborhoods where poverty is unten- ably high and violent crime is frequent, but as Miami locals were quick to point out, Kendall is not one of them. “If he’s referring to the hood as what you think of as a bad neighborhood, that’s not Kend- all at all. Not even close,” 69-year-old Michael Rosenberg, president of the Kendall Federation of Homeowner Associations and 50-year Kendall resident, tells New Times. “I’ve never heard a gunshot in my life in Kendall.” Kendall, an unincorporated area in southwest Miami-Dade County, has never been “I’VE NEVER HEARD A GUNSHOT IN MY LIFE IN KENDALL.” known as one of Miami’s harsher areas. Data from the 2020 U.S. Census shows that 9.29 percent of Kendall’s population in Kendall lives below the poverty line — a lower rate than the national average of 12.3 percent, and far lower than the City of Miami, which clocks in at 21.5 percent. Rodriguez’s assertion regarding Kendall’s La- tino demographics is a stretch, as well. Census data from 1990 — when Rodriguez would have been playing high school ball at Westminster Christian School in Pal- metto Bay — indicates that of Kendall’s total population of 87,271 at the time, only 27,379 self-identified as Hispanic, whereas 53,544 people identified as white non-Hispanic. That would have made it a predominately white neighborhood. Users on Twitter were quick to dunk on Ro- driguez, who was born in New York but moved to Miami when he was 4. Even without the cen- sus stats, everyone knows Kendall is one of Mi- ami’s most solidly middle-class neighborhoods. Some users thought Rodriguez might have been referring to other areas of Miami when he said he was raised in the hood, only to be sorely disappointed yet amused. As user @joenuh25 pointed out, it’s possible Rodriguez just wanted to add some spice to his origin story to stay rele- vant — maybe he needed it after his 2021 breakup with Jennifer Lopez. [email protected] 33 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NEWS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | miaminewtimes.com | CONTENTS | LETTERS | RIPTIDE | METRO | NIGHT+DAY | STAGE | ART | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | MIAMI NEW TIMES NEW TIMES MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2008 APRIL 14-20, 2022
