Pubdate: Fri, 28 Nov 2003
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2003 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author: Beth Fouhy

'OAKSTERDAM' POT CLUBS MAY FACE LICENSING, ZONING RULES

If there's an epicenter of the nation's medicinal marijuana movement, it 
may be right here in a gritty six-block area near Oakland City Hall, where 
at least 11 dispensaries sell pot to any California resident with a 
doctor's note.

Some of the people who use pot to ease symptoms of AIDS, cancer and other 
illnesses leave quickly, tucking small bags of the drug into their purse or 
pockets. Others stay at the clubs, where pot smoke occasionally wafts into 
the street, earning the neighborhood the nickname ``Oaksterdam,'' after the 
freewheeling Dutch capital where marijuana use has been decriminalized.

While federal law prohibits the use or sale of marijuana for any reason, 
nine states including California permit the use of marijuana for medicinal 
purposes. Since voters approved a state ballot measure legalizing medicinal 
marijuana in 1996, ``pot clubs'' have popped up in California cities 
including San Francisco, Hayward, Los Angeles and Santa Cruz. But nowhere 
is their concentration as high as in Oakland, leading some residents of 
this famously tolerant city of 400,000 to wonder whether the proliferation 
of clubs has gone too far.

``I'm a strong supporter of implementing voters' wishes in making sure 
medical marijuana is available to patients who need it,'' said Councilwoman 
Nancy Nadel, whose district includes Oaksterdam. ``But because the industry 
has expanded quite quickly in our city, we need to put some regulations in 
place.''

The so-called Oaksterdam neighborhood is gentrifying, and most businesses 
in the immediate area have welcomed the pot clubs, saying they've helped 
the local economy.

But the city council is set to vote as early as next week on several 
proposed restrictions, after complaints from some business owners about 
problems ranging from the smoke to an escalation of street violence.

Armed robbers recently tied up a bouncer outside one marijuana club and 
fled with marijuana and a significant amount of cash. It was the last straw 
for the Sexual Minority Alliance of Alameda County, a gay-and-lesbian youth 
center next door. Its director decided to move the center.

``It's very good to have the clubs, but it brings in a lot of sketchy 
people who are trying to profit off the legalization,'' said Brian Bauman, 
who owns a record store near three of the clubs. ``It brings people who 
hang around the streets and harass patients coming to pick up their medicine.''

That the council would consider any restrictions on the clubs is a striking 
departure from the past.

In 1998, the city enacted what many advocates consider the most sweeping 
protection of medicinal marijuana use in the country, allowing patients to 
possess 24 times the amount of pot permitted under state law, and 
deputizing operators of a cannabis collective as ``officers of the city,'' 
a title that confers some protection from local police enforcement. With 
the Oaksterdam area's relatively cheap rent and access to public 
transportation, the policy made Oakland a magnet for distributors.

Now the council is considering a requirement that clubs carry business 
licenses, or zoning rules that would limit the concentration 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, probably will be applied to the clubs as well.

Even the club owners have concluded that some limits could be a good thing.

``The clubs are definitely starting to push the boundaries -- it's part of 
figuring out how we fit in the medical world,'' said Ken Estes, owner of 
the 420 Cafe, a pot club that serves about 1,000 patients each week.

Estes, who has used marijuana to treat pain ever since a motorcycle 
accident paralyzed him 20 years ago, said he would favor limits on the 
growth of the clubs.

``To slow fear down, I would really like to come up with a moratorium to 
stop growth and then revisit it after a few months,'' Estes said.

But Ed Rosenthal, an Oakland resident and leader in the national medicinal 
marijuana movement, said the clubs could remedy many problems on their own, 
like beefing up security and purchasing ``negative ion generators'' which 
would cut the smell of smoke. Any government efforts to regulate the clubs 
would only hurt sick patients, Rosenthal argued.

``By having a number of facilities, there is competition and it brings down 
the price,'' Rosenthal said. ``If there are fewer of these clubs, it means 
more people will be buying on the street.''

Earlier this year, Rosenthal himself was at the center of a pitched clash 
with federal drug laws: He was convicted on charges of cultivating 
marijuana, though the city of Oakland had deputized him to do so.

Adam Lerch, a lifelong Oakland resident who just opened a restaurant called 
the Hot Dog Stand, down the street from the 420 Cafe, said he is a strong 
supporter of the clubs. He likes their commitment to sick people, he said, 
and he thinks they will be good for his business.

``You smoke pot, you get the munchies -- and I'm selling the food!'' Lerch 
said.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens