By Kelsey Avers December 16, 2009 Reporting 300, SF State University

One too many hits The intoxicating aromas of exotic incense smoke creep into John Amaros nostrils as he walks into a head shop on Haight Street. Reggae drumbeats fill his ears as he passes through the entrance where he is immediately surrounded by posters displaying psychedelic designs, counterculture art and sketches of cannabis. To his left, the owner of Euphoria Distractions, Jim Siegel, is talking on the phone while sitting behind a glass counter filled with pipes, roach clips and bongs. He is discussing the downfall of his business with the person on the other end of the line. The decreased business he speaks of is a result of an increasing number of head shops opening on Haight Street. There are 14 of these shops already open in the Haight-Ashbury district, all within close proximity to each other. Siegel has owned Distractions since 1976 and will be closing up shop within the next seven months. His decision came five months after the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a moratorium banning the opening of new smoke shops on Haight Street. The measure, which was introduced by District 5 Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi and received a unanimous vote, was passed to prohibit any new head shops from opening in the district for the next three years. Four months before the ban was placed, a large smoke shop called Goodfellas opened on Haight Street. Called the Wal-Mart of Bongs by some competitors on the street, Goodfellas draws residents and tourists in with huge window displays of bongs, pipes and tourism merchandise. John Amaro, 53, has lived between Masonic and Ashbury streets for 15 years and frequents the various smoke shops on Haight Street. He considers Goodfellas to be one of his least favorite smoke shops in the Haight district. I feel that owners and operators of Goodfellas have a personal grudge against the other pipe shop operators on the street. They are too in your face, Amaro said. Its a nice store but its too large for its own good, and that results in it having no style or direction. The style and direction Amaro speaks of first became evident during the 1960s hippie movement that took over the Haight district. Along with the rest of San Francisco during this time, the Haight District gained a reputation for its drug culture with the use of marijuana, LSD and other hallucinogenic drugs. Independently owned bookshops and poster stores soon grew into smoke shops to blend in with the neighborhood. Not long after the hippie movement began did Siegel decide to open up a business in the Haight

district in the late 70s. Most of the shops on the street were boarded up and there were mostly liquor stores lining the street. The owner of a smoke shop called The Phoenix was in the process of closing his business, but Siegel didnt want it to close since he felt the shop was all that was left of the hippie days. He said if you want to be the last hippie, here you go, and he gave me everything, Siegel said. With everything that was given to him, Siegel opened The White Rabbit, which didnt work out as a business. Afterward, he opened Pipe Dreams, the oldest smoke shop in San Francisco. After business with a partner there was unsuccessful, a new owner took over, and Siegel opened Euphoria Distractions in 1976. For many years we did very good business because it was just [Distractions] and Pipe Dreams, he said. But then in 1994 they opened up Ashbury Tobacco Center and in the last two years its gotten worse. Siegel said that because of so many head shops on Haight Street, including the oversized Goodfellas, he is losing more than $2,000 in business per week. Goodfellas declined to comment on this matter or others related to their recent opening in the district, but their silence doesnt stop neighbors from speaking their minds about the problem with too many head shops in the area, and the negative effects it has on their business. There arent enough people buying things. People look, but they dont buy, Siegel said. Weve got too many stores on Haight Street selling exactly the same stuff. They need to lose half of them. While some merchants like Siegel feel that all of the head shops are offering the same merchandise, 24-year-old San Francisco State University alumnus Caryl Carino points out that although some of the products might be the same, there are differences. I have noticed that most people who are buying hookah accessories tend to favor one store over the other, Carino said. If you go to almost any smoke shop on Haight, prices and selection will vary. It just depends on what the customer needs and wants. To 41-year old Marwan Zeidan, owner of Ashbury Tabacco Center, its more about the preservation of Haight culture rather than what products are being offered. Zeidan said the shops that have been on the street for a while have grown into the culture of Haight Street, but he has a problem with the newer shops like Goodfellas and believes the displays of smoke pipes in their front windows arent good for the neighborhood. The newer shops [on Haight Street] dont embrace the culture of Haight, and the two new stores that opened up are something we just dont need. We have enough shops to serve the

neighborhood, Zeidan said. None of the owners are happy, none of the neighbors are happy, and none of the merchants are happy. With grief from shop owners joining the smoke in the streets of Upper Haight, Siegel felt it was time to make a move. He went to Ross Mirkarimi asking him to propose a ban to prevent any more from opening, and was told he needed neighbored support. This led him to the HaightAshbury Improvement Association. When I first went to them, they didnt seem to think it was necessary and didnt follow through with it, Siegel said. But then when Goodfellas opened up, everybody in the neighborhood agreed that theres way too many head shops. But by the time the neighborhood came together to discuss the issue, it was too late; Goodfellas had already opened. Haight-Ashbury Improvement Association member Joan Boyd felt that Mirkarimi had betrayed the neighborhood because there was no community communication about Goodfellas plan to open a store on Haight Street. This ban on head shops is not about protecting the business or profits of existing head shops, Boyd said. And by letting Goodfellas open before the ban took effect was really deceptive and hurt existing businesses. Mirkarimi and his press secretary Rick Galbraith declined to comment on the unexpected opening of Goodfellas. Carino sees the opening of the large bong shop as the straw that broke the camels back, and that it was a store that appeared at the wrong time. But she doesnt understand the amount of attention that has been brought to Goodfellas specifically. I dislike the amount of attention it is getting because there have always been many smoke shops on Haight, she said. Like other smoke merchants in the area, the ownership is looking to get a piece of the smoke shop culture in the district; I dont see what the hype is about. But the increasing number of head shops in the Haight district and a possible overturn of the neighborhoods original hippie culture are not the only concerns. There is also skepticism of the appeal the products sold at these shops might have toward teens. In September, the Food and Drug Administration ruled that the making, distributing or selling of flavored cigarettes is illegal. According to the legislative details of the ban, these flavored cigarettes are marketed toward teens who are under the false impression that these cigarettes dont contain any nicotine. Boyd feels this is false advertising especially because hookah tobacco doesnt fall under the category of the banned tobacco products, meaning that smoke shops can still sell it. Unbelievably, there is great denial about the harmfulness of smoking. Education of the public has not worked as well as one might think, she said. However, people do respond to laws like smoking bans and taxes.

One of the only items Carino picks up from these smoke shops is hookah tobacco, and says that with the economy in the state its in, its not the hookah tobacco itself that will necessarily appeal to potential buyers, but the price differences. When she visits the Haight District to buy shisha, she keeps an eye out for which shop has the most reasonable prices. Many Haight residents and store owners hope that the three-year moratorium will extend and an agreement will arise that permanently bans any more shops from opening. This will put an end to the grief of those that have made their place there more than 20 years ago. I know and like a lot of the shop owners, Amaro said. But a lot of the pipe shops on Haight Street are there just so they can one up each other.