Pubdate: Wed, 28 Aug 2013
Source: East Bay Express (CA)
Column: Legalization Nation
Copyright: 2013 East Bay Express
Contact: http://posting.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/SubmitLetter/Page
Website: http://www.eastbayexpress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1131
Author: David Downs

POT CLUBS PURCHASE POLICE OVERSIGHT IN RICHMOND

The Police Department Collects a Quarter-Million Dollars in Fees From 
Dispensaries a Year - and the System May Provide a Way to Get Police 
Buy-in for Legalizing Weed.

California's medical marijuana system - badly in need of tighter 
regulations - won't get new rules this year, thanks to law 
enforcement officials who defeated such efforts in the state 
Assembly. "There is a reason that over 200 cities have ... bans on 
marijuana dispensaries - they create significant public safety and 
quality of life problems in communities," the California Narcotic 
Officers Association (CNOA) stated in its official opposition to the 
latest regulation bill.

But the CNOA's claims are inaccurate. Scores of cities have regulated 
clubs to reap tax revenue and boost public safety spending - and have 
not a suffered a crime wave as a result. Harborside Health Center 
sees 700 to 1,000 patients per day in Oakland and has had only one 
arrest in its entire history of operation - when the club turned away 
an unqualified patient and he got upset. San Francisco and Berkeley 
clubs haven't generated crime. And neither have Richmond's four 
permitted collectives. In a recent letter to the Richmond City 
Council, Police Chief Chris Magnus stated: "We have not seen spikes 
in crime in other areas where dispensaries are currently operating."

But what Richmond police have seen is a lot of money. According to an 
email Magnus sent to me, Richmond's four dispensaries have been a 
financial boon for the Richmond Police Department. Since May 2011, 
the clubs have paid $486,390 in police fees. Overall, the clubs have 
paid a total of $599,622 in fees to the city in that time. The total 
includes application review fees ($2,085 per application), 
application completion fees ($16,787 per application), and "quarterly 
permit fees" that are paid to the Richmond Police Department.

"The quarterly fees that are collected are used to help maintain the 
Regulatory Unit," Magnus explained in his email. "The Regulatory Unit 
of the Police Department handles education, oversight, and 
enforcement associated with the dispensaries as well as businesses 
that serve or sell alcohol, smoke-shops, taxicabs, and false alarms."

The fees were instated in May 2011 when the city received six 
dispensary applications, and by July 2012 there were six permitted 
collectives. In 2012, the clubs kicked in $266,730 to the RPD. In 
2013, the RPD has collected $219,660 so far from four collectives 
(Green Remedy, Holistic Healing, 7 Stars, and Granddaddy Purple). A 
fifth collective, Greenheart, paid police fees as well, even though 
it had never opened its doors.

Greenheart's owners were paying "while they searched for a new site 
to locate to," Magnus added. "They paid until July 2013 when their 
proposed relocation was denied by the City."

And how are the CNOA's promised public safety problems going in 
Richmond? "According to the stats from our Crime Analysis Unit, there 
are no discernible increases or decreases in the crime rate that can 
be directly tied to any of the currently operating dispensaries," 
Magnus wrote in his email to me.

In other words, Richmond is a prime example of pot clubs doing the 
exact opposite of what police brass are telling lawmakers: They're 
not creating public safety problems. Instead, they're funding more 
cops. They're also boosting city sales tax revenues, while regulating 
access to weed - instead of sending patients to drug houses or 
open-air markets.

The Mendocino County Sheriff's Office collected more than $300,000 in 
medical garden fees, which it used to go after big, illicit growers, 
until the feds shut that program down earlier this year. Richmond 
police appears to be the only local force that is receiving public 
safety fees from clubs.

To some, this situation evokes a much more classic relationship 
between marijuana sellers and local law enforcement: the protection 
racket. In July, Richmond residents swatted down a proposed 
collective off Interstate 580 in a commercial area, even though the 
collective was going to pay for two full-time cops to patrol the 
neighborhood, at a total cost of $450,000 a year. According to a 
letter from Magnus to the council, two extra cops would have had a 
"meaningful impact" on public safety in the desolate area, which sees 
crimes of opportunity like car thefts and commercial burglaries.

But the Santa Fe Neighborhood Group wasn't interested in more police 
and tax revenue. "They saw it as, 'Oh you're being paid off," said 
Richmond Councilman Jael Myrick, referring to claims by members of 
the group about the city's interest in allowing the club to open in 
their neighborhood. In the end, the council voted down the pot club 4-3.

Although high police fees may look like a payoff to prohibitionists, 
Richmond's system for regulating medical cannabis dispensaries is not 
that surprising - and may offer a vision of the future. Cities 
extract all kinds of fees from businesses to mitigate impacts on 
things like water usage, traffic, and parking. Why not use pot fees 
to hire more cops?

Moreover, police stand to lose billions of dollars each year in 
federal grant money if marijuana laws are changed. And if 
Californians want to pass tighter regulations and institutionalize 
medical marijuana in the coming decades, they're going to need Big 
Police's approval or at least its tacit neutrality.

A long list of SoCal cop groups - including the Riverside Sheriffs 
Association and the Sacramento County Deputy Sheriffs Association - 
opposed tighter pot regulations this year. But notably missing were 
police departments in Northern California that have taxed and 
regulated the drug.

The promise of "fees" to offset police's shrinking drug war budgets 
might do the trick of convincing police groups to go along with 
regulation and, perhaps, even legalization. Don't think of it as a 
payoff; it's more like a drug warrior's golden parachute for a job 
that's well-done.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom