Pot Clubs Push Facility Out Of 'Oaksterdam' As city officials move to regulate the burgeoning "Oaksterdam" district, a center for gay and lesbian youth surrounded by medicinal pot clubs is looking to get away from the smoke and safety risks, the group's leaders said Monday. The decision by the Sexual Minority Alliance of Alameda County to move out of the Uptown neighborhood between City Hall and the 19th Street BART station marks the latest twist in the struggle to define Oaksterdam. [continues 505 words]
Patients claim unique relief. How medicinal is pot? For Kathy E., a mother of four in Sonoma County, cannabis makes the difference between misery and a life that is merely uncomfortable. "It gives me relief now," said Kathy, who suffers from a chronic immune system disorder that for 15 years clouded her days with flu-like symptoms. "I do just enough to where I feel better. It gets me just to the level where I can function." But for Dr. Shan Lin, who tends to patients with the eye disease glaucoma, marijuana's benefits in reducing the short-term, damaging pressure inside the eye do not outweigh its negative effects, such as depressing patients' nervous systems. [continues 620 words]
They Had Received Long Drug Sentences In a rare move, President Clinton has granted clemency to four women imprisoned on drug conspiracy charges because they received stricter sentences than the men who were involved in their crimes. White House officials gave scant details of the releases and did not want to discuss them. But Amy Pofahl, released from the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, said yesterday that the three others included Serena Nunn, whose cause, like Pofahl's, had been taken up by publications and several members of Congress. All four women were first-time drug offenders. [continues 774 words]
Ordinance lets police take autos of alleged drug buyers A pioneering Oakland city ordinance that allows police to seize alleged drug buyers' cars is wobbly if not flat-out baseless under California law, the American Civil Liberties Union said yesterday, citing an opinion by state lawyers. But the criticism was denounced with equal intensity by one of the city's legal advisers, who told police they can continue to enforce the law with confidence that there is no basis on which it could be overturned. [continues 664 words]
