Pubdate: Mon, 21 Apr 2008
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Page: A - 1, Front Page
Copyright: 2008 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact:  http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Justin Berton, Chronicle Staff Writer
Cited: Oaksterdam University http://www.oaksterdamuniversity.com
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Marijuana - California)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Marijuana)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)

MARIJUANA 101: SCHOOL TEACHES INS, OUTS OF POT

Oakland -- Ryan and Matthew Epperley awoke at 4 a.m. in Redding, 
loaded their Dodge Durango with clothes for the weekend and arrived 
in Oakland on a Saturday morning just in time to attend their first 
class at Oaksterdam University.

The brothers were among 20 people enrolled in the two-day course 
that, by Sunday evening, would teach them how to own and operate a 
pot club in California. They'd learn how to grow their product 
indoors, harvest it and cook with it, and hear from several lecturers 
on the legality of such a practice.

Ryan, 30, resembled Larry the Cable Guy with his well-worn baseball 
cap and a sleeveless shirt that revealed a shoulder tattoo of a skull 
and dagger. He was awake late one night watching television when he 
saw a report on Oaksterdam.

"I jumped right up and wrote down the phone number," Ryan said. "I 
knew right then, if we can get in on the ground floor and this thing 
takes off - we'll make a killing."

Ryan is not alone in his exuberance. Almost 12 years after California 
voters passed Proposition 215, the state initiative that allows 
dispensaries to sell marijuana to people with medical recommendations 
from a doctor, pot clubs have become a lucrative business. About 500 
clubs in California bring in an estimated $870 million to $2 billion 
in revenue annually, according to the State Board of Equalization.

Yet the mixed legal messages over pot clubs - California allows it, 
but the federal government does not - is what caused Ryan's brother, 
Matthew, to get in the car and join his older brother.

Unlike Ryan, Matthew viewed a pot club business with caution. The 
27-year-old said the only pot club in Redding had been quietly shut 
down three times, and the owners lived in constant fear of being 
raided and sent to prison. He was hesitant to open a shop if the 
consequences were too severe.

"I want to see if it's worth sticking our neck out for," Matthew said 
on the first day of classes. "I've got a wife and two kids at home. 
But I don't want to lose everything I have and go to jail over it."

Horticulture, Law Lessons

When Oaksterdam owner Richard Lee opened the school in November, 
inspired by a similar operation in Amsterdam, he did it to help 
educate future club owners but also to pull back the curtain on pot 
clubs. Lee has grown and sold marijuana for 17 years and has never 
been arrested, a clean record he credits to his transparent practices.

"We're doing this to show our cities we can be good neighbors," Lee 
told the class. "That we've got nothing to hide. That we can run a 
business on the up-and-up, and it's nothing to fear."

Oaksterdam University has held eight classes and graduated 160 
students. The response has been so overwhelming that a Los Angeles 
chapter is opening this month, and Lee said he's about to sign a 
lease on another Oakland space that could hold 45 students every 
weekend, charging $200 for the course and $75 for textbooks.

Danielle Schumacher, the university's chancellor, told the class she 
figured at least one undercover narc had taken the course.

Aside from the Epperley brothers, the April class included three 
middle-aged men from Shasta County who grew outdoor plants and were 
looking to bolster their "grow skills"; an older, extremely polite 
and well-coiffed gentleman who wore a cell phone device on his right 
ear and was most interested in pot's effects on sickle-cell anemia; 
three men under 25 who kept to themselves; and three female students, 
none of whom fit the profile of Nancy Botwin, the suburban mom played 
by Mary-Louise Parker who sells pot for a living in the Showtime 
series "Weeds."

In a narrow classroom decorated with an American flag, Chris Conrad, 
a quick-talking attorney who has been trying to legalize marijuana 
since 1998, summarized the history of government interventions he 
said conspired to keep marijuana a controlled substance.

"How many of you knew there was a report that went to the White House 
that recommended the legalization of pot in this country?" Conrad 
asked the class.

Two students knew about the Shafer Commission, which was convened by 
President Richard Nixon and which Conrad said recommended 
legalization (though it only recommended decriminalizing marijuana 
for personal use).

Oaksterdam University's most popular class is horticulture, taught by 
Ilia Gvozdenovic, a growing expert from Marin County. He explained 
that for about $700 in supplies, students could build a "grow hut" 
and get their operation started.

After Gvozdenovic showed the class how to properly mix nutrients, a 
debate broke out among students over whether to wait eight weeks to 
harvest or 8 1/2 weeks. Gvozdenovic said that was a subjective 
decision for the grower.

"The plants will talk to you," Gvozdenovic said. "They'll tell you 
when the time is right."

Earlier, attorney Laurence Lichter, who has represented club owners 
and doctors in federal court, told students that if the feds caught 
them with 100 plants, they would face a five-year minimum sentence. 
One thousand plants results in a 10-year minimum.

But Lichter also noted that it's been a few years since anyone in the 
Bay Area has been prosecuted by the feds. Under Prop. 215, anyone 
with a doctor's recommendation can grow for personal use - 12 
immature plants or six mature plants. To distribute marijuana, one 
needs to be either a primary caregiver - a difficult standard to meet 
for the typical individual - or part of cooperative.

As Lichter put it, "It's tough to be a caregiver, but it's easy to 
grow collectively."

In Oakland, which has the most lenient stance toward marijuana in the 
state, each person is permitted to grow 72 plants indoors, far higher 
than the 12-plant maximum state guidelines recommend. Lichter said if 
a grower in Oakland gathers three friends, all of whom are entitled 
to 72 plants, they can grow 288 together. Each plant yields about 2 
to 4 ounces, which sells for anywhere from $200 to $400 an ounce, 
depending on the strain, potency and demand.

This was all sounding very juicy to Ryan Epperley, who was smiling 
and nodding during this part of Lichter's presentation. Ryan's 
brother, Matthew, raised his hand.

"So," Matthew asked, "if I was to open a dispensary, there's still 
nothing stopping the feds from coming in and closing me down?"

"The feds," Lichter told Matthew, "can take your house for one plant."

Helping Sick People

Students enrolled for a variety of reasons. Tom, a middle-aged sex 
abuse counselor from Angels Camp in Calaveras County who did not want 
to give his last name because he works with children, enrolled to 
learn how to draw a greater yield from his six plants. Tom said he 
started growing marijuana after his girlfriend, who works at a 
hospice, told him about the elderly patients who can't take Vicodin 
or morphine due to the side effects. Tom doesn't smoke pot - "I wish 
I could, but it turns me into an idiot" - and he's not high on pot clubs.

"I think pot club owners are profiteers and scumbags," he said. 
"Cutting out loopholes just to make their millions."

Even though Tom voted for Prop. 215, he described the medicinal 
argument behind the law as "disingenuous."

He had signed up to learn how to grow better pot and cook it so he 
could give it away. "If I didn't know sick people, I wouldn't be 
here," he said.

A 53-year-old student named Sheryle represented another contingent: 
pain sufferers who are fed up with their meds.

Sheryle, an Oakland business owner who did not want her last name 
used because she feared reaction from customers who may read this 
article, was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and arthritis at age 35, she 
said. She took all the pain medications her doctor prescribed, but 
felt zonked out during the day and restless at night. The meds also 
were damaging her liver.

"I don't like getting high," Sheryle said. "I smoked, maybe, a joint 
in high school."

But last year, she ate a pot cookie offered by a friend, and the 
effects were stunning: She got the REM sleep she craved and felt 
productive during the day. It worked as an anti-inflammatory. Her 
liver damage was put on hold.

Sheryle started growing her own plants but, like a lot of novices, 
couldn't yield the maximum amount.

"Being able to sleep has been the biggest enhancement in my life," 
she said. "You might think it's a small thing, but being able to take 
my dogs out for a walk - that's a great joy to me."

After the class picture was taken Sunday, owner Richard Lee gave 
students a 17-page take-home exam. If they passed it with a 75 
percent score or better and returned it to the university within two 
weeks, they'd get a certificate vouching for their education.

Outside the class, Matthew said he felt better about opening a club in Redding.

"A lot of people need it," Matthew said. "We don't have one in our 
community, so why not make it the safe place it should be, where 
people can come get their medicine? I mean, I'd like to open it right 
in the middle of downtown Redding, right where everyone can see it, 
just so they know we've got nothing to hide."

Ryan liked the idea. "Downtown, right next to the courthouse."

"Once you get public support," Matthew said, "it makes it harder for 
the feds to come in and close it down.

"When I get home," Matthew added, "the first thing I'm going to do is 
go down to the Human Resource Center, apply for a business license 
and make myself presentable." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake