cannabisnews.com: Oakland's Noble Pot Experiment





Oakland's Noble Pot Experiment
Posted by CN Staff on April 05, 2005 at 07:59:46 PT
By Ian Mulgrew, Vancouver Sun
Source: Vancouver Sun
Oakland, Calif. -- I emerged from the BART subway station squinting into the sunlight glinting off a red Ferrari ostentatiously parked outside the Cannabis Buyer's Co-op. The licence plate read: "Growhydroponics.com."Inside the co-op there was the usual head-shop collection of vapourizers, rolling papers, lighters, paraphernalia and hemp products. Those with a doctor's recommendation or a recognized cannabis-patient card -- good across the state -- can also buy from a menu of cannabis products -- kif, several strains of marijuana, hashish and selection of edibles.
Next door, the hydroponic shop offers equipment and advice on growing.Two doors down is the Bulldog Cafe -- named after one of the legendary coffeeshops in Amsterdam that successfully challenged the Netherlands' pot prohibition policies in the mid-1970s.Here, recreational users can order from a menu of cannabis products, sit and enjoy a cappuccino and a smoke.Prices are about twice what they are in Vancouver -- an eighth of an ounce of good stinky sold for $40 US -- about $48 Cdn-- less potent weed for $30 US -- about $36 Cdn -- plus state sales tax, of course."It's called goo," Richard Lee, the owner, told me holding up the crystal-encrusted bud of marijuana that smelled of citrus and sandalwood. "As good as any of your B.C. Bud."From his wheelchair in a small room behind an appropriate Dutch door, he dispensed the pot in small glassine bags and the edibles packaged in appropriately satirical wrappings -- Kiefkat, Indo' Joy, Stoners, Reefers . . . . There was chocolate milk infused with THC (the most active psychotropic chemical in marijuana) as well as cheesecakes laced with pot."We're trying to be low-key responsible neighbours and so far it's working out well," Lee said. "We're celebrating our fifth anniversary."Throughout this downtown neighbourhood are similar outlets, the oldest dating back to the early 1990s, the co-op to 1995. They call it Oaksterdam. Across California there is a growing network of medical marijuana dispensaries and clubs using the state's constitutional privacy rights to keep police at bay.Believe it or not, there are an estimated 60,000 registered medical marijuana users -- some 20,000 in the Bay area -- and more than 100 pot outlets, some offering more than 60 strains of the demon weed.Lee has been at the forefront of the fight that established this marijuana-friendly enclave in the belly of a country whose federal government is engaged in a jihad against the drug.Forget what you have heard about Vansterdam -- our town is well behind the Bay area in terms of access to medical marijuana and tolerance of recreational pot consumers. Forget, too, what you hear about the U.S. being so afraid of Ottawa liberalizing our laws.The U.S. federal administration is desperately trying to maintain a worldwide pot prohibition.But a dozen states already have decriminalized possession and moved to protect medical users from prosecution. Another handful currently have marijuana initiatives on their political agenda.Over the weekend some 500 primarily American members of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws were in San Francisco to celebrate the advances on the eve of a much-anticipated U.S. Supreme Court ruling on medical marijuana.The acme, in my opinion, is Oakland, where cannabusiness is hailed as the catalyst for urban renewal in a once blighted neighbourhood and the working model that led to the passage Nov. 6 of Measure Z -- the Oakland Cannabis Regulation and Revenue Ordinance. Electors voted by 65 per cent to tolerate private adult sales, cultivation and possession of cannabis with envisioned regulated retail sales and smoking dens.It's a noble experiment, though to truly enact such a policy requires changes to state and probably federal law."This is just the beginning," said Mikki Norris, who leads the Cannabis Consumer Campaign, a lobby group advocating a legalize, tax-and-regulate approach. "The debate is finally moving in the right direction."Her group believes the state could save $150 million or so in enforcement costs and raise an estimated $1 billion in tax revenue.The question, though, is whether pot opponents here will be able to attack the initiative and defeat it the way Vancouver shut the Da Kine Cafe retail pot outlet and dampened optimism among pot users here that liberalization is on the horizon.Ethan Nadelmann, who travels the world on billionaire George Soros' nickel stumping for saner drug policies, and a key player in Vancouver's so-called Four Pillar approach, thinks what happens in Oakland will depend on pot users."San Francisco has a leadership role now," he said. "But people must be responsible. Don't be a target. Be a place we want to bring people to show them what works, not a place for their side to bring people and say look at this disaster."Note: San Francisco area takes leadership role in the fight for saner drug policies in U.S.Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)Author: Ian Mulgrew, Vancouver SunPublished: Tuesday, April 5, 2005Copyright: 2005 Vancouver SunContact: sunletters png.canwest.comWebsite: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/Cannabis Consumer Campaignhttp://www.cannabisconsumers.org/CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help




Comment #23 posted by FoM on April 06, 2005 at 08:53:16 PT
Press Release from The Drug Policy Alliance
More Cannabis Clubs in Jeopardy of ClosureWednesday, April 6, 2005In response to recent municipalities’ efforts to temporarily ban the opening of new cannabis clubs in California, Alliance Director of Legal Affairs, Daniel Abrahamson told the Los Angeles Times this week, “There’s a sense that there needs to be regulations and controls to ensure the dispensaries provide quality services and are being good neighbors. But simply prohibiting them leads to bad results for everyone. If you permanently ban dispensaries, you’re essentially driving them underground, and you lose all ability at regulating them.” In 1996, California voters passed Proposition 215, which legalized the use of marijuana for medicinal use. Since then, clubs have opened throughout the state to dispense the medicine to patients who provide a doctor’s recommendation. Some cities and counties have complained of illegal activity in the vicinity of the clubs, including the re-selling of marijuana, petty crimes and DUI.So far, San Francisco, Rocklin, West Hollywood, Ontario, Modesto and others have imposed moratoriums on any new clubs until government officials consider strict guidelines and regulations on the clubs. Some city leaders say they will wait until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on whether the federal government’s zero-tolerance policy overrides the medical marijuana law in California and 10 other states. 
http://www.drugpolicy.org/news/040605cannabisclubsupdate.cfm
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #22 posted by Nick Thimmesch on April 06, 2005 at 01:59:29 PT:
Man Bites Dog...
....NORML Bumps Pope:NORML bumps The Pope? We carried the story Sunday above the fold on A1, but below the Redwood Coast Jazz Festival and below an interview with the president of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, the last in our special series on NORML's national convention in the San Francisco Bay area. Although discussion of pot issues is of vital importance to our region, like it or not, and although the jazz fest is a huge, once-a-year event for our city, the four readers who contacted me were right. We should have made the death of the pope even more front and center, and we should have shuffled things around even more than we did for our Sunday A1.http://www.times-standard.com/cda/article/print/0,1674,127%257E2906%257E2799280,00.html
 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #21 posted by herbdoc215 on April 05, 2005 at 21:23:20 PT
This is a little quote from bottom of article
It shook me to my toes....
It’s an authorised ‘use of force operation’ – so a guard is videoing what happens. They’re going to Taser a prisoner for refusing orders. The tape shows a prisoner lying on an examination table in the prison hospital. The guards are instructing him to climb down into a wheelchair. ‘I can’t, I can’t!’ he shouts with increasing desperation. ‘It hurts!’ One guard then jabs him on both hips with a Taser. The man jerks as the electricity hits him and shrieks, but still won’t get into the wheelchair. The guards grab him and drop him into the chair. As they try to bend his legs up on to the footrest, he screams in pain. The man’s lawyer told me he has a very limited mental capacity. He says he has a back injury and can’t walk or bend his legs without intense pain. The tape becomes even more harrowing. The guards try to make the prisoner stand up and hold a walking frame. He falls on the floor, crying in agony. They Taser him again. He runs out of the energy and breath to cry and just lies there moaning.Wonder what he was in prison for? It doesn't say but I can only guess it was for self-medicating some how! Is this what we've become as a society? Do the ends really justify the means? Someday the youngin's and minorities will take up this torch with us and we'll end this shit faster than a neo-con can start a war! If we don't reach out to try and lead them to us I'm afraid when they become aware on their own it will be extremely violent as they are fed up and it bubbles out from every line of every song, every movie, and the sports they watch....two sets of rules, two Amerika's! Peace, Steve Tuck....in exile 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #20 posted by BGreen on April 05, 2005 at 20:43:44 PT
Sukoi: That's what's in store for MMJ patients
THAT'S why that BBC story belongs here.We all could end up being brutalized in the prison states of amerika.The Reverend Bud Green
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #19 posted by herbdoc215 on April 05, 2005 at 20:25:12 PT
Sukoi, well I for one want to thank you for post
as I will use that in my case. The biggest thing facing me is the disbelief of that crap like this (no matter how distateful) really happens in US prisons EVERYDAY, which is why I am a refugee. It's good for people to see the end result of policy and what they are fighting for! People can put cannabis into a search engine and wind up here, bing that fast but how many people are going to put "violent prison rape or beating of non-violent offenders" into a search engine so how else or where else would they read about it? Also if that motivated one casual smoker to actually do more proactive things then it was worth a million "hit's" in my book. Freedom has nothing to fear from the truth! Peace, Steve Tuck 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #18 posted by FoM on April 05, 2005 at 16:01:22 PT
Sukoi
Thank you. I really appreciate your understanding. Life is hard. Our issue surrounding cannabis is a tough battle. The Internet offers so many web sites to accomplish important goals in all kinds of areas and that is one of the great things about the Net. I barely watch the news on tv anymore because it is so out of balance. At least the Pope's story reminds me of goodness and peace.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #17 posted by Sukoi on April 05, 2005 at 15:55:16 PT
FoM
Of course I understand and you do an absolutely outstanding job!!! No offence meant!
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #16 posted by FoM on April 05, 2005 at 15:40:31 PT
Thanks runderwo
Sometimes I can't get real video to play on my computer but Windows Media always works for me. It has always been that way even with my former computers. Thank you because now I know it isn't my computer this time.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #15 posted by FoM on April 05, 2005 at 15:37:08 PT
Sukoi
Sure people need to know but they can go to the web sites that specialize in news like that. We are cannabis news and that's our speciality. I know many people care about cannabis laws because last month was the biggest month ever since CNews started in November of 98. I don't want it to go off in an area where people think this isn't cannabis news. I hope you understand because it is important to me.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #14 posted by runderwo on April 05, 2005 at 15:35:21 PT
pot of gold
It appears the domain that the video is hosted on (space-frog.com) has expired recently.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #13 posted by Sukoi on April 05, 2005 at 15:33:03 PT
FoM
I absolutely understand but at the same time people need to know what happens in our prisons where many cannabis users wind up. I just hope that others pass this on because if the American media won't, it's up to people like us to make America see the reality and the insanity! It is disturbing, I know!
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #12 posted by FoM on April 05, 2005 at 15:20:47 PT
Sukoi
I never read articles like the one you posted. I find them sensational and hard to handle. That's why I keep my focus on cannabis news that maybe something can happen and change can come. 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #11 posted by Sukoi on April 05, 2005 at 15:04:04 PT
Way Off Topic:
I know that this is completely off topic but I found this in one of the forums that I frequent and I immediately thought “I wonder how many innocent people are subjected to this type of horrific torture in the “land of the free” for simply having and ingesting a plant”? Just the thought of it is terribly disturbing; even true criminals don’t deserve this kind of treatment. The BBC did this documentary and I don’t think that it was ever aired in the U.S. (hmm, I wonder why?). This is an excerpt of the article that accompanies the documentary and the actual documentary can be downloaded at the link (83.50 MB and runs about 50 minutes). Some of it is quite shocking and very disturbing:Torture Inc. Americas Brutal Prisonshttp://informationclearinghouse.info/article8451.htmSavaged by dogs, Electrocuted With Cattle Prods, Burned By Toxic Chemicals, Does such barbaric abuse inside U.S. jails explain the horrors that were committed in Iraq?By Deborah DaviesThey are just some of the victims of wholesale torture taking place inside the U.S. prison system that we uncovered during a four-month investigation for BBC Channel 4 . It’s terrible to watch some of the videos and realise that you’re not only seeing torture in action but, in the most extreme cases, you are witnessing young men dying. The prison guards stand over their captives with electric cattle prods, stun guns, and dogs. Many of the prisoners have been ordered to strip naked. The guards are yelling abuse at them, ordering them to lie on the ground and crawl. ‘Crawl, motherf*****s, crawl.’ If a prisoner doesn’t drop to the ground fast enough, a guard kicks him or stamps on his back. There’s a high-pitched scream from one man as a dog clamps its teeth onto his lower leg. Another prisoner has a broken ankle. He can’t crawl fast enough so a guard jabs a stun gun onto his buttocks. The jolt of electricity zaps through his naked flesh and genitals. For hours afterwards his whole body shakes. Lines of men are now slithering across the floor of the cellblock while the guards stand over them shouting, prodding and kicking. Second by second, their humiliation is captured on a video camera by one of the guards. The images of abuse and brutality he records are horrifyingly familiar. These were exactly the kind of pictures from inside Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad that shocked the world this time last year. And they are similar, too, to the images of brutality against Iraqi prisoners that this week led to the conviction of three British soldiers. But there is a difference. These prisoners are not caught up in a war zone. They are Americans, and the video comes from inside a prison in Texas. Continued at link above. 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #10 posted by FoM on April 05, 2005 at 14:07:52 PT
Off Topic: The Corporation On Sale
I know many people have mentioned The Corporation and I got a notice that it is on sale on Amazon and I thought others might be interested to know this information. It's currently number 12 in DVD sales. Here's the link.http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0007DBJM8/ref=pd_ts_d_12/103-3729010-1033447?v=glance&s=dvd&n=404276
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #9 posted by FoM on April 05, 2005 at 13:31:08 PT
A Helpful Link
When Angel Raich's case is ruled on it should appear here. So far no news today.http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/04slipopinion.html
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #8 posted by FoM on April 05, 2005 at 12:40:42 PT
Pot of Gold
I remember seeing the show. I did a search and found a video but my computer won't play it but maybe someone elses might.http://www.crrh.org/hemptv/news_abc.html
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #7 posted by potpal on April 05, 2005 at 12:30:47 PT
Pot of Gold
Pete Jennings did an expose on the pot industry in the usa, I'd say its at least 7 years old already if not a tad older.It was a run down of the northwest indoor pot cultivation and the southeast outdoor variety. Quite eye opening at the time, it could only be more so now...Any one ever see this show? I had it on tape but lent it out and never saw it again.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #6 posted by FoM on April 05, 2005 at 12:00:19 PT
Just a Story
Police Say Patient Had Pot in Hospital Room***Nurse smelled smoke coming from room.By Stan Maddux, Tribune Correspondent LAPORTE -- It wasn't exactly medical marijuana.But police say one man recovering from an accident on the job saw no reason not to light up from his bed at LaPorte Hospital.Late Friday afternoon, a nurse walking by a patient's room detected what she strongly suspected was an odor of burning marijuana.She walked into the room and found the 19-year-old man in his bed, passed out and holding a pipe that police say contained a green leafy substance later determined to be marijuana.After waking up, police said the LaPorte man denied the marijuana belonged to him, claiming someone must have placed the pipe in his hand while he slept.He then admitted to smoking pot in his hospital room, police said.According to authorities, police confiscated the pipe and the 1 gram of marijuana that was packed into both ends of the smoking device.Because the amount of marijuana involved was so minimal, the man was not charged, said LaPorte Police Chief Dave Gariepy.http://www.southbendtribune.com/stories/2005/04/05/local.20050405-sbt-MARS-B3-Police_say_patient_h.sto
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #5 posted by FoM on April 05, 2005 at 11:54:23 PT
Just a Thought About Peter Jennings
Since he has lung cancer smoking cannabis for nausea wouldn't be something that would be likely. Peter Jennings is a Canadian and maybe he will try Sativex when it is allowed in Canada. That would be a good thing I think.
Would a Canadian be able to use Sativex in the U.S.?
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #4 posted by FoM on April 05, 2005 at 11:46:44 PT
potpal
I like Peter Jennings. I don't watch Network news often but I've always found him more believable then many of the news broadcasters. I wish him the best.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #3 posted by potpal on April 05, 2005 at 11:41:58 PT
ot - pete jennings has lung cancer
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4413891.stm Scheduled for chemo...
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #2 posted by goneposthole on April 05, 2005 at 08:50:48 PT
legalize
misspelled the word 'legalize'.  oopsThe US government has borrowed too much money, spent too much on ill-fated military excursions and the chickens have come home to roost. It's just a matter of time. Send your Congressman or Senator a joint, they need one.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #1 posted by goneposthole on April 05, 2005 at 08:44:40 PT
without US gov cannabis prohibition
British Columbian cannabis growers would have never realized their success. They should send 'thank yous' to every single Congressman in Washington, DC (District of Criminals).California would be able to eliminate their debt if they would legaize and tax cannabis.Cannabis pays and it pays to grow cannabis.The days are growing short for the US gov. and especially for the GOP. Noboby will miss them, and America will be able to move forward without them.Have a nice day.
[ Post Comment ]


Post Comment