Berkeley officials have given the green light to cannabis retailer The Apothecarium to set up shop on Telegraph Avenue.
At a packed City Council meeting Tuesday evening, dozens of citizens weighed in over several hours on whether the city should grant its approval for the company to locate its fifth outlet near the UC Berkeley campus.
Councilmembers overwhelmingly approved the slated location along a stretch of Telegraph that already has two other cannabis dispensaries.
The operators of one those those retailers expressed fierce opposition to The Apothecarium moving two blocks away.
"We got our permit recently and we spent $3 million to open what we think is a beautiful dispensary on Telegraph, never imagining we would have to fight an existential fight just 10 months later against a giant multinational corporation like these guys," said Marc Weinstein, co-owner of Hi-Fidelity, which opened last year next to Amoeba Records.