Pat Dando has brought serious change to the Chamber of Commerce. Now that she has announced her resignation, she is ready to take even bolder steps to leave the Chamber in a haze of glory. On Wednesday, she and her stodgy Chamber peers will be attending a ribbon-cutting ceremony at one of San Jose’s booming new businesses, the Harborside Health Center. She admits that she is well aware that the Health Center is in the business of selling medical marijuana. Ironically, until City Council decides on the ultimate fate of the city’s dispensaries, medical marijuana collectives in San Jose are, to use the Merc’s catchy phrase, “about as legal under San Jose zoning as brothels.”

Dando seems to disagree. “They are a business with good standing in the city,” she says. Admittedly, Dando later qualified her remarks. “Truth be told, this is new territory,” she said, referencing conflicting municipal and state laws regarding the distribution of dispensaries. It certainly is a bold step for the otherwise conservative Chamber of Commerce, and could signal budding change in its attitudes. “To toke or not to toke, that is the question.” The Chamber of Commerce has taken a token stand.Read More at the Mercury News.