cannabisnews.com: California’s Pot Limbo California’s Pot Limbo Posted by CN Staff on November 29, 2003 at 16:29:20 PT By Ros Davidson Source: Sunday Herald In America’s medical marijuana movement one single, rough, 10-block area of downtown Oakland is ground zero. “Oaksterdam,” as it’s been dubbed because of pot-friendly Amsterdam, has more “pot clubs” than any other city in America.It is also a place in limbo, caught between sympathetic local officials and a federal government that would immediately close down its dozen or so clubs. That rift could become even starker this week, when the city council considers regulating the clubs for ventilation – by requiring business licenses – and with zoning (regulating the uses for property). Even so, the area is unlikely to become mainstream any time soon.Most of the pot clubs in Oakland, a diverse, tolerant working-class city once famed as the home of the Black Panthers militant group, are more than low-key. Their phone numbers are usually unlisted and if they have a sign outside, it is tiny except for one which jokingly calls itself Parking In The Rear.Few of their members or employees are willing to talk openly. Ever since voters in California and six other states started legalising medical marijuana, federal officials have raided the quasi-legal clinics, confiscated goods and arresting owners. People who say they use pot for medicinal uses have also been arrested.A cop car cruises down Telegraph Avenue in the heart of Oaksterdam, and abruptly stops to ticket a car parked illegally outside the Lemondrop Coffee Shop. The café’s name is odd, given the security guards and dainty tables , one with dreadlocks. The rooms downstairs are private, says a guard, a sullen man with big earrings and a t-shirt emblazoned with the street drug slang logo, Stanky Danky.In fact, one of the few pot club people who will go on the record is Ken Estes, owner of 420 Café, a shabby three-story building which he says will eventually house an organic food café, an acupuncturist and a doctor. There is already a chiropractor upstairs.He has expected to see moves towards regulation. “The clubs are definitely starting to push the boundaries, it’s part of figuring out how we fit in the medical world,” says Estes. His café serves about a thousand patients a week. Confined to a wheelchair, Estes has used marijuana to treat pain ever since a motorbike accident paralysed him 20 years ago.The clubs sell the medical marijuana by the ounce, for anywhere between £30 to £240, as well as variants such as butter, brownies and icicles. At one club, a smoke-free inhaler costs £300. Down the street, near City Hall, the last of the day’s shoppers are leaving the Thanks giving sales and prostitutes are starting to work the streets near the freeway.Only a whiff of marijuana is discernible outside the Community Acceptance Clinic. A businesswoman with a mobile phone clamped to her ear shows her city-approved identification and a membership card – which requires a doctor’s recommendation – and is ushered in.Security guards will accompany patients both in and out, in part because some have been harassed, says one of the bouncers, who again declines to give his name.The density of clubs is especially good for the consumer, some would argue. “It’s great for it to be in one area – it’s a community,” Curtis Thomas, 32, told a local newspaper. “If this continues, it will be a boon for Oakland.” He has a doctor’s “recommendation” to use marijuana for a wrist injury.Whether it continues remains to be seen. The city’s proposed zoning rules will limit the number of clubs in an area. The city’s far-reaching anti-smoking ordinance, which prohibits smoking in any commercial building unless it has a separate ventilation system, will likely be applied as well, giving some owners heavy refit costs.“The industry has expanded quite quickly in our city, and we need to put some regulations in place,” says Oakland city councillor Nancy Nagel. A city council considering restrictions on the clubs is a change for Oakland.Federal law bans the use or sale of marijuana for any reason, but as of 1997, California – and other states – allow it for patients. In 1998, Oakland passed what many advocates consider to be America’s most sweeping protection of medical marijuana.Patients are allowed to have 24 times as much marijuana as allowed by state law. Operators of cannabis collectives are even known as “officers of the city”, which gives them some protection from local police. Medical marijuana can be used for pain from HIV/Aids, to increase appetite for someone undergoing chemotherapy or to medicate severe anxiety.Many local businesses do seem to welcome the clubs, saying they have helped the economy; the area is gentrifying. Indeed an association named the Uptown Merchants Association formed recently to boost them, although it has to be said that some of the members are in the business themselves.“Until the dispensaries opened, the area was shut down, quiet and dirty,” says the association’s Kenny Mostern. “They are the best thing that could have happened to the area.”Others are not so sure. The clubs have attracted some crime, not surprisingly given their business. In one recent incident, a car rammed through the brick front of a clinic, and the thieves stole the stash.Armed robbers recently tied up a bouncer outside another club and fled with pot and cash. It was the last straw for a gay and lesbian youth centre next door. Its director says he will move the centre to what he hopes will be a drug-free neighbourhood, although some might say that could be hard to find in Oakland.In the youth centre’s window is an angry sign: “Temporary closure due to increasing neighbourhood violence and hostilities against staff and participants.”Adam Lerch, a lifelong Oakland resident who just opened a restaurant called The Hot Dog Stand , says he is a strong supporter of the clubs. He likes the commitment to the sick, he said, and thinks they’ll be good for business. Note: Despite growing respectability, Oakland’s experiment with legal marijuana and ‘pot clubs’ is coming under threat, reports Ros Davidson in San Francisco.Source: Sunday Herald, The (UK)Author: Ros DavidsonPublished: November 30, 2003Copyright: 2003 Sunday HeraldContact: editor sundayherald.comWebsite: http://www.sundayherald.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Americans For Safe Accesshttp://www.safeaccessnow.org/ Marijuana 'Du Jour' in Oakland http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17876.shtmlMedical Marijuana Clubs Spur Regulationshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17872.shtmlCouncil To Look Again at Hempery's Statushttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17870.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #2 posted by jose melendez on December 01, 2003 at 05:47:49 PT here's the new boss, same as the old boss . . . Premeditated? Paroled!Intoxicated? Punished. Got Hypocrisy?http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/11/27/schwarzenegger.parole.ap/index.html Crooks with guns and badges fight pot, but drink and pop pills. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by gloovins on November 30, 2003 at 14:08:34 PT mmmm.... "The clubs have attracted some crime, not surprisingly given their business " Yes but if this business was legitimized -- which our archaic, back-ass ward United States Fedurall Guvernment, with Bush and Asscroft at the front of the ignorant ship, will not see this is a plant that will ALWAYS exsist and be used by intelligent, apt citizens who obviously are just victims of your failed, tired drug war. With my tax dollars.The drug was is treason......... [ Post Comment ] Post Comment