SAN FRANCISCO – Located at the corner of Laskie and Mission streets in San Francisco, SPARC represents an important milestone for both the cannabis industry and the roughly 800 patients who visit the medical dispensary on a daily basis.
Erich Pearson opened the above-board dispensary in 2010 with permission from San Francisco city officials. Being the first to cultivate and sell medical cannabis with permits from the city inadvertently made Pearson an ambassador for the entire industry. It was a role the entrepreneur and activist took into account while designing the facility.
“I wanted it to be professional,” he said. “I wanted it to be a place where I could bring regulators and government officials, and also a place where a person of any economic class or social status could come through and be comfortable.”
Pearson, like many dispensary owners, aimed to normalize the cannabis industry in the eyes of lawmakers. But describing SPARC merely as “comfortable” might be a little understated. From the outside, the dispensary looks perfectly at home in one of the most tech-driven cities in the world. Its neon sign hangs above the De Stijl-inspired blue and off-white windows running along the sidewalk, which leads to SPARC’s front door.
Inside, the design morphs into something else entirely, with stylish elements such as a multi-tiered ceiling and hidden blue lights that stretch the length of the dispensary and connect with the wood and concrete walls. A neon-lit bench lines one wall of the dispensary. Vaporizers sit on each table, and at the opposite end of the sales floor, glass cases display flowers, edibles and concentrates.
“Professionalizing it was really the driving force,” Pearson said. “We’ve certainly seen a lot of folks motivated by what we did five years ago. We’ve seen a lot of amazing dispensaries come online since. We’ve put together a great space, but I’ve never considered myself to be a role model.”
Role model or not, Pearson definitely helped usher in the modern era of dispensary design. But what will the company do for an encore?
Pearson is planning to open another SPARC dispensary in the Lower Haight neighborhood of San Francisco, which, if history is an indicator, will be another milestone in the cannabis industry.