Berkeley’s Amoeba Music to become your one-stop weed-and-music shopping solution

By William Hughes | September 27, 2016 | 9:56pm

Aux Features Music

Berkeley, California music institution Amoeba Music is officially trading its jazz section for jazz cigarettes, with Stereogum reporting that the long-standing independent record store has received a permit to open a marijuana dispensary on its premises. The store—which has had a medical weed clinic on site for two years, handing out prescriptions to patients with a critical diagnosis of “just bought a Phish album”—is converting its jazz room into a dispensary, according to a Facebook post last week from one of the store’s employees.

With locations in Berkeley, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, Amoeba touts itself as one of the largest independent record stores in America. Paul McCartney recorded a record there in 2007, and celebrities regularly show off their purchases for the store’s What’s In My Bag? series of online videos. Still, it’s not easy being a brick and mortar music store in 2016: last year, when plans for the dispensary were first being assembled, co-owner David Prinz was asked whether legalized marijuana could “save music.” His response: “Weed can help save music—absolutely. Here’s a way.”