cannabisnews.com: Vote in Fall on Pot Club for Albany





Vote in Fall on Pot Club for Albany
Posted by CN Staff on August 25, 2006 at 11:35:13 PT
By Kimberly Geiger, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
California -- Federal authorities dead set against the spread of medical marijuana dispensaries in California may soon have another leak in the dike. In November, Albany residents will vote on an advisory measure over whether to allow a pot club in the small East Bay city of 14,000 residents on Berkeley's northern edge.
Unlike some of its neighbors in the university town, Albany residents are known as a well-behaved collection of families, with few problems other than occasional high school shenanigans and over-imbibing customers at bars along San Pablo Avenue. The city prides itself on well-maintained streets, good schools and city services and holds an annual festival along Solano Avenue, its main thoroughfare, which brings out the whole town. It's one of those Bay Area cities whose politics wouldn't disqualify it for inclusion on the list of All-American cities. Albany is also a liberal California city. And if the 1996 statewide vote on Proposition 215, which allows the use of marijuana for medical problems, provides any insight into the upcoming vote, it's going to be a landslide. A decade ago, Albany voters approved Prop. 215 by nearly 4 to 1. After a two-year moratorium on marijuana dispensaries while city leaders studied the issue, the Albany City Council voted unanimously to let voters decide whether to let a pot club open its doors in town. Judy Lieberman, the assistant city administrator, said city officials had been approached at least once during that period by pot club operators who wanted to open a facility. If there is strong objection to the measure, it's not evident in the business community.  Snipped:Complete Article: http://tinyurl.com/lyaxbSource: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)Author: Chip JohnsonPublished: Friday, August 25, 2006 - Page B - 1Copyright: 2006 Hearst Communications Inc.Contact: letters sfchronicle.comWebsite: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #11 posted by whig on August 26, 2006 at 12:57:07 PT
Max
I would be totally all about a BYOM lounge.I don't know if there are any yet, or where to find them, or how to find others that can start something like that if it doesn't exist presently.It's a hard problem from a real estate perspective because rents are so expensive in the Bay Area. If you have a lounge but you aren't selling anything but coffee and pastries, you need a large enough number of customers, or else a large amount of donations to keep it going, and requiring everyone to be a card holder also means you have to have some kind of security.
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Comment #10 posted by Max Flowers on August 26, 2006 at 11:06:58 PT
whig
I have actually imagined something like you are talking about many times before. I visualize a "medical lounge" of some kind, that is, a place where people who are cardholders can congregate and medicate. I don't see why it woudn't go over well, especially considering that there are getting to be so many of us out there. True, certain people with really debilitating illnesses would probably not be interested, but there are lots of others whose recommendations are for less intense things who might like it. I imagine it as "BYOM" thing, where the lounge is just providing the place to assemble, comfortable couches and chairs, tables, drinks and snacks, good music, atmosphere. In that way it would be similar to the Amsterdam experience, except that instead of getting the medicine from the place, they bring it with them. That's essentially what they had going in "Vansterdam." I smoked in the Blunt Brothers place before it closed (from fire) when I went to BC last summer. It was okay but it didn't seem like people were socializing as much as just keeping to their own tables. I like the idea of patients meeting each other and talking to each other. There is extra power in networking that way.
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Comment #9 posted by whig on August 25, 2006 at 14:58:52 PT
Max
Yep, I read about it coming up in the Daily Planet or something recently. It's pretty tame, they're going for a nonbinding referendum. It's good to see that the support is so evidently strong, because that will give excellent cover to the city when they want to approve it.But it's still overly restrictive I think in that they are only going to approve at most one dispensary. But one is more than zero, and it will be more convenient for a lot of people than having to go down to Oakland or the BPG if this one will be in easier walking distance.I'm meaning to write up a little post for the blog about how dispensaries work, or at least the ones I've seen so far, if I can extrapolate a bit. I don't assume that they are all the same but they are very efficient and although they try to make it a pleasant and comfortable experience they aren't social clubs they are places for people to get their medicine. So I don't have much to compare it with by way of the coffee shop approach of Amsterdam. I guess I kind of hoped it would be more like that but these are people many of whom are in pain and suffering so you don't exactly expect them to be having a jolly time.
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Comment #8 posted by Max Flowers on August 25, 2006 at 14:23:03 PT
The Chronicle one
...that is
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Comment #7 posted by Max Flowers on August 25, 2006 at 14:20:44 PT
whig
This article is RIGHT up your alley, buddy... very relevant to you.
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Comment #6 posted by Hope on August 25, 2006 at 13:26:25 PT
In our town there used to be an alcoholic 
that walked the streets when he was drunk. He didn't cause trouble...he just walked around looking drunk, miserable, and defeated.They don't allow people, especially children, to see anything like that anymore. That poor man probably scared lots of people away from alcohol in those days just by people being able to see what could happen.I worry what is going to happen to society when they finally get everyone bound up so tightly that they can't breathe. They will either die or break out of their overly restrictive bounds violently. It's going to be very bad either way.There are people who are afraid of freedom...even their own, but there are others who can't live without it. I can't see anything about the future of society in general looking very good at all right now.It's far easier to be a pessimist right now than an optimist.Yet...keep looking for something good. Keep looking for something wonderful.I have to tell myself that just to endure all this.
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Comment #5 posted by Hope on August 25, 2006 at 13:14:46 PT
No "bad habits" in the future!
Not for the average people anyway. The wealthy can't afford for the workers to have bad habits. It inteferes with the bottom line.And guess who gets to judge what "bad habits" for the workers are?
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Comment #4 posted by Storm Crow on August 25, 2006 at 13:11:39 PT
My 2 sons...
My husband uses tobacco and we both use cannabis regularly and have since before we were married some 40 years ago. We both have medical reasons to use it. I am also an alcoholic (although cannabis removes the desire for it- thank goodness) Neither of our adult sons use either substance and their combined alcohol use comes to about a single 6-pack a year. One son is a computer technologist and the other is a total vidio game slacker, but a great cook- he's looking into a job at the local bakery. I don't think either was damaged by our cannabis use. It made me a mellow mom and more than one kid said they wished I was their mom- not because I let them run wild, I didn't, but because I cared about them and would listen to their problems! However, I know that my alcoholism hurt everyone. My sons both think tobacco is a nasty habit. They observed speed freaks and severe alcoholics (I try to help others) and learned from their observations. They think of cannabis as a "necessary evil" that their parents need for medicine. (I see it as a necessary medicine, sacrament and a recreational drug.) Early exposure to drug use in others can be a powerful way to inhibit drug use! The results all depend on how the lesson is presented.
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Comment #3 posted by Hope on August 25, 2006 at 13:08:53 PT
I'm reminded of the words from a song popular
a few years ago when I read all that "behavior problem" stuff.It went something along the lines of "Why don't you just kill me?"A lot of this stuff is beginning to sound like whispering Eugenics or something.It wouldn't surprise me if it finally gets to the point of just killing the people with "behavior problems" so they won't pass them on. This world is so disgusting and gets more so everyday. It looks like we are going to be left with nothing but zombie worker bee people who have no "behavior" problems, some day, to please the creeps who are so worried about everybody else's "behavior" all the time.They are whispering Eugenics. Soon they'll be shouting it and even demanding it.Our children's futures are looking more and more like they are going to be scripted for them by the busy bodies that are running the world and feeding off the work of the workers, yet are not going to be satisfied until they control every aspect of the worker's lives as though they were nothing more than animals. Well behaved animals, no doubt...but animals, none the less, with no choices, no hopes, no ideas, no dreams....just work... in a well behaved manner until you die...or are gotten rid of by those who think you are no longer useful to the "greater purpose".
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on August 25, 2006 at 12:36:58 PT
A Question
If this is true it isn't the fault of the user since it has been passed on to them. Since substance use is well established in society why do we keep arresting people for what isn't their fault?***Bad Habits May Run in the Family***Kids of smokers, drinkers especially prone to these behaviors, study finds FRIDAY, Aug. 25 (HealthDay News) -- Children with a parent who smokes, drinks heavily or uses marijuana are more likely to adopt these behaviors when they're teens or adults, U.S. research suggests.Children of smokers are especially at risk, say a team from the University of Washington."If your parents were smokers, it is a double whammy because you are more likely to use drugs in general and even more likely to smoke cigarettes," study co-author Karl Hill, a research associate professor at the university's Social Development Research Group, said in a prepared statement."There is something about tobacco that if parents smoke, their kids are more likely to smoke. It may be that parents who smoke might leave cigarettes around where their children can see and get to them. Parents may not leave marijuana and alcohol around in the same way," Hill said.The researchers tracked 808 people who were students when they were first recruited from Seattle elementary schools in 1985. Data was also collected from their parents and their children.In addition to a family/substance abuse link, the researchers found familial links for child behavior problems such as conduct disorder (fighting, stealing); attention-deficit disorder (lack of focus, inability to sit still or maintain attention); and oppositional-defiant disorder (problems with authority)."Children of smokers, heavy drinkers, or marijuana users are more likely to have behavior problems when they are young, and consequently more likely to have drug problems themselves as they get old. These children then grow up to be adult substance users, whose kids have behavior problems and the cycle is repeated," study author and research scientist Jennifer Bailey said in a prepared statement.The study was published in the current issue of the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology.More informationThe American Academy of Pediatrics offers information about preventing substance abuse in children.-- Robert Preidt SOURCE: University of Washington, news release, Aug. 10, 2006 Last Updated: Aug. 25, 2006 Copyright: 2006 ScoutNews LLC. 
http://www.healthday.com/view.cfm?id=534473
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Comment #1 posted by Had Enough on August 25, 2006 at 11:49:03 PT
TeenScreen - Normal Kids Labeled Mentally Ill
found in inbox. I didn't sign up, but they keep sending.TeenScreen - Normal Kids Labeled Mentally IllWe have a couple of eye-opening stories for you today. First, Evelyn
Pringle writes a story about how the TeenScreen program is labeling
normal children as "mentally ill."Every wonder why? Because TeenScreen is a front group for Big Pharma,
Evelyn explains, and the whole point of the screening is to push more
drugs onto children whether they need them or not:http://www.newstarget.com/020092.htmlFrom the article,Despite years of public outcry, based on recommendations by President Bush's New Freedom Commission to screen all school children for mental illness, TeenScreen is now being administered in the nation's public school system and children are being regularly diagnosed with one, or more, disorders chosen from the close to 400 listed in the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV" (DSM), also known as the psychiatric "Billing Bible."The list of mental disorders to chose from when diagnosing children mentally ill with TeenScreen, are "voted" into the Billing Bible by members of the American Psychiatric Association, Read all about ithttp://www.newstarget.com/020092.html
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