Pubdate: Fri, 03 Mar 2006
Source: Daily Review, The (Hayward, CA)
Copyright: 2006sANG Newspapers
Contact:  http://www.dailyreviewonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1410
Author: Karen Holzmeister, Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

COUNTY CLOSES ASHLAND POT CLUB

Criminal Activity, Proximity To Elementary School Lead Supervisors To 
Deny Permit

OAKLAND -- Last summer, A Natural Source was in the headlines when a 
would-be robber was shot to death outside the Ashland medical marijuana clinic.

On Thursday, the company's link to criminal events and its location 
near an elementary school prompted Alameda County supervisors to deny 
the cannabis club an operating permit.

Club operator Billy McDonald has 30 days to close, despite support 
from customers who described the Foothill Boulevard sales outlet as 
clean and safe.

Mary Lewis, a mother of grown children who knitted during the 
hearing, told supervisors marijuana eases her pain from congenital 
joint problems and allows her to function. Other drugs have side 
effects, she added.

Lewis described herself as a nonstereotypical medical marijuana user 
who appreciates A Natural Source because it is clean and tidy, 
employees are polite and the medications are good quality.

The supervisors' decision will leave no dispensary in east Ashland 
and Castro Valley, the third of three areas designated by supervisors 
as sites for medical marijuana clinics.

However, supervisors later this month will reconsider shifting 
boundaries so that Foothill Boulevard

in south Cherryland, where the Garden of Eden is located, is added to 
Area Three. The Garden of Eden dispensary then could qualify for the 
prized permit since it has been cleared by sheriff's investigators.

We Are Hemp on Lewelling Boulevard is the only dispensary to win 
permit approval for Area One, San Lorenzo and north-central Cherryland.

If Area Three is expanded to include the Garden of Eden, the Alameda 
County Resource Center and Compassionate Caregivers of Alameda County 
would compete for the operating permit in Area Two, northwest Ashland 
and the remainder of south Cherryland.

McDonald appealed denial recommendations from the sheriff's 
department and a county administrative panel. Supervisors Scott 
Haggerty, Nate Miley, and Gail Steele voted to deny McDonald's 
appeal. Supervisors Keith Carson and Alice Lai-Bitker were absent.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom