cannabisnews.com: Pot Clubs Grow Below City's Radar





Pot Clubs Grow Below City's Radar
Posted by CN Staff on August 07, 2003 at 08:20:59 PT
By Laura Counts, Staff Writer
Source: Alameda Times-Star
Oakland -- In the heart of Uptown, the battered northern edge of downtown that City Hall has long sought to revitalize, a new commercial district has sprouted: Oaksterdam. Nurtured by the city's benign neglect, half a dozen cannabis dispensaries and related suppliers have set up shop in a green triangle bounded by 17th and 19th streets and Telegraph Avenue and Broadway.
Several operate cafes in the front and direct medical marijuana patients to back rooms or basements to get their supplies. Others look more like nightclubs with guards posted outside to check identification. Unlike Amsterdam, however, where marijuana is legal but regulated, cannabis clubs here are operating in a netherworld between federal, state and local laws. Their activities may be lawful under California's Proposition 215, but the feds have argued they are illegal. And the city over the past few years has taken a laissez-faire stance, providing no oversight and telling the police to steer clear. Until things are sorted out, the clubs have no strong legal protection, and since they are vulnerable to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, have been staying on the down-low. Staffers of clubs in the Uptown area declined to be interviewed for this story. The clubs have kept such a low profile that Mayor Jerry Brown, who has been focusing on Uptown for a large redevelopment project and also wants to move his charter school for the arts to the Fox Theater on Telegraph and 18th Street, doesn't know much about them, said press secretary T.T. Nhu. She said the mayor was seeking more information from the city manager's office. But with the neighborhood's nickname and the recent opening of several more outlets, including a large one within the past month, the area is gaining a reputation and a higher profile. Attendees at the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) April conference in San Francisco took a field trip to Oaksterdam to see what was billed as a model of peaceful, lawful medical marijuana distribution for the rest of the country. Dispensaries that are casting themselves as health care providers with names like Compassionate Caregivers and California Advocate Relief Exchange are operating alongside those whose names are associated with recreational use. The Bulldog Coffeeshop on Broadway has the same name and logo as the famous Amsterdam hash bars, the SR71 Coffeeshop on nearby 17th Street uses the name of a military reconnaissance plane also used to spy on marijuana crops, and the new 420 Cafe makes a reference to the code name for pot among users. There are so many purveyors that the Fat Cat Cafe on Broadway posted a sign on its window reading "This is not a dispensary." Too many people were heading to the deli's upstairs seating area thinking they could get their prescriptions filled, said one worker. The clubs have generally been responsible tenants, and Joel Tena, aide to Vice Mayor Nancy Nadel (Downtown-West Oakland), said the councilmember's office has gotten few complaints. "Past problems have been solved through meetings facilitated by this office," Tena said. The new Lighthouse Community Charter School, which serves kindergarteners, first-, sixth- and seventh-graders, opened last August next door to California Advocate Relief Agency club in the Floral Depot building at 19th and Telegraph. Jenna Stauffer, co-director of the school, said the neighbors are subtle and responsible. But she said the proliferation of clubs is a concern. "We walk around a lot, and it's interesting at best," Stauffer said. "There are smells wafting out of the building and the children ask about it." Tena said Nadel is supportive of the clubs but believes the high concentration of dispensaries in the neighborhood is becoming a problem. The Sexual Minority Alliance of Alameda County (SMAAC) is one of those that have complained -- loudly and repeatedly. SMAAC's drop-in center for lesbian, gay, bisexual and "questioning" youth is sandwiched in between the Lemondrop Cafe and Compassionate Caregivers, two cannabis clubs. The group, which is celebrating its fifth anniversary this weekend, wants the city to regulate the clubs, much as they do liquor stores, which must jump through regulatory hoops to open. "Our goal is to give young people options, not introduce them to smelling weed," said Roosevelt Mosby, SMAAC executive director. "The smell is so strong in our basement that they don't have to buy it -- they can go down there and breathe deeply." Mosby readily admits that many of the young people served by his program have drug and alcohol problems, and it's a difficult environment to operate in. When the program moved there in 1998, only the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative was on Broadway. The coop was the first and only program to be deputized by the City Council to distribute medical marijuana. Its founder, Jeff Jones, pioneered the voluntary standards that many cannabis clubs have adopted in regulatory vacuum left by Proposition 215 -- which legalized medicinal marijuana for serious illnesses but was very vague on the details. The Oakland City Council tried to give the coop some protection, but that didn't stop the Drug Enforcement Agency from shutting it down and filing a lawsuit to keep it and five other Northern California clubs closed. The suit went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the clubs could not use a medical necessity defense but left open some legal avenues for the clubs to pursue. Those issues are now on appeal before the 9th U.S. Court of Appeals. The coop has not acted as a dispensary since 1998. Instead, it continues to issue identification cards to patients, screening them and their doctors and requiring annual renewals. It also sells hemp products and literature and helps patients acquire vaporizers to ingest the drug. Jones said he could not comment on the issues surrounding the new pot clubs in the neighborhood, though he has always been in favor of stringent regulations for cannabis distributors. Some of the nearby clubs accept the coop's cards, others don't, he said. "I'm supportive of any agency that is trying to help people get medicine," he said. "If there were no federal vacuum, I'd be all in favor of the city regulating cannabis clubs." But with the lawsuit still pending, the city has apparently been turning a blind eye. No one in the city manager's office has worked with the clubs since Mike Nisperos, who developed the agreement with the coop, left two years ago, according to complaint investigator Larry Carroll. "There is no permitting or criteria they would have to go through now," Carroll said. The Planning and Zoning Department would treat them as a medical services operation, like a drugstore or pharmacy -- provided they give an accurate description of their operations, said Planning Manager Gary Patton. But Deputy City Attorney John Truxaw said he is "unaware of any group that has gone to the city and sought a land-use permit as a medical marijuana club. If it's not a commercial endeavor, and they are operating under the city council ordinance, then they would not have to." Some of the clubs have current businesses licenses as retailers or professional services providers; others have no records with the city. It's unclear whether they operate as not-for-profits, as the coop did, or whether they are paying business taxes based on their marijuana sales. And the police, acting in accordance with the council's policy and swamped with higher priority needs, continue to give the clubs wide berth. "I keep extensive documentation about every nightclub in town, but I couldn't tell you anything about these," said Lt. Ed Poulson, area commander for downtown. "We'd give people a ticket for double parking in front while they go in, but that's it. Because of our interpretation of the council rule, if you are a cannabis club, we don't do any enforcement." Note: Marijuana operations located in back rooms of businesses.Source: Alameda Times-Star, The (CA)Author: Laura Counts, Staff WriterPublished: Thursday, August 07, 2003Copyright: 2003 MediaNews Group, Inc.Website: http://www.timesstar.com/Contact: http://www.timesstar.com/Stories/0,1413,125%257E1582%257E,00.htmlRelated Articles & Web Sites:NORMLhttp://www.norml.org/OCBChttp://www.rxcbc.org/Oakland Pot Activist Spared From Prison http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15626.shtmlBack To Basics: NORML Conference 2003http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15969.shtml
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Comment #5 posted by rayban on August 08, 2003 at 22:57:02 PT
Beware of Arnold all Californians!
[conspiracy theory of the week]I think the republicans recruited Arnold Schwarzenegger for a run for governor because they ended up with egg all over their face when Ed Rosenthal won his case and now they want to abolish prop 215.[/conspiracy theory of the week]
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on August 07, 2003 at 21:14:00 PT
Thanks Richard!
I appreciate the link! 
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Comment #3 posted by Richard Lake on August 07, 2003 at 21:02:51 PT:
EASTER SUNDAY IN OAKSTERDAM 
http://www.immly.org/10_20_norml03.htm
EASTER SUNDAY IN OAKSTERDAM
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Comment #2 posted by john wayne on August 07, 2003 at 15:42:07 PT
oaksterdam
was a completely shut down, boarded up area before the dispensaries came in. Some used to call it "The Dead Zone". Now it shows signs of revival, not least because of the affluent buyers criss-crossing the area.Of course the author, long schooled in the Bill Bennett video-poker strategy ("push the button and this time we'll win!") of prohibitionist news-hacking has to slip in that "kids ask about [the pot smoke]" coming from the buildings. Do the kids ask: "Hey, isn't that the smell that mom and dad are always tring to hide from us at our house?"
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Comment #1 posted by Virgil on August 07, 2003 at 08:27:06 PT
New Zealand stuff
I say stuff because of an article that appeared on August 5 from http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2600193a6160,00.html I am wondering about the health report concerning cannabis mentioned in the second paragraph. These are the first two paragraphs from the article.The Government gave an assurance in Parliament today it would not change the legal status of cannabis, citing its agreement with United Future. The health committee is due to release its long-awaited report on the health effects of cannabis tomorrow that it has been investigating since late 2000. 
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