CCTimes on Alameda MMJ Rules

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/11820673.htm
Posted on Sun, Jun. 05, 2005
E L A T E D C O N T E N T

Rules steer medical marijuana vendors into mainstream

By Guy Ashley and Ivan Delventhal

CONTRA COSTA TIMES (CA)

To find the Alameda County Resource Center, one must locate the door
with the locking steel crossbar and the peephole, wedged between the
all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet and the Alcoholics Anonymous meeting
room.

There are no signs announcing the center's presence in a strip mall
near San Leandro, no psychedelic posters, no symbols of the
five-pronged leaf with the serrated edges.

The center, one of seven medical marijuana dispensaries that have
taken root in gritty pockets of unincorporated Alameda County, prides
itself as a friendly refuge for patients who know where to look --
and a place off the map for the rest of the public.

"We operate strictly by word of mouth," said one of the dispensary's
managers, who gave his name only as Burnell. "And the patients don't
seem to have trouble finding us."

Regulating clubs

But thanks to a new wave of government regulation, the center is
being forced to come out from the shadows. Its managers are making an
official pitch to join the nearby manicure shops, liquor stores and
car-repair joints as license-toting members of the East Bay business
community. It's a reluctant shift in strategy, but one necessary for
survival.

That's because Alameda County will soon require permits that will
dictate where and how dispensaries operate, a move that is likely to
force the closure of at least two dispensary operations and that
could radically alter the business methods of those that survive.

It's all part of a mad scramble statewide as local governments seek
some oversight of the dispensaries that have sprouted like hardy
weeds in big-city business districts and suburban strip malls.

"We've got to do something," said Alameda County Sheriff Charles
Plummer. "These places have no oversight. We have absolutely no way
to know what it is they're selling."

The wave of local regulation was unleashed last year, when Oakland
cracked down on dispensaries flourishing in a section near its
downtown, dubbed "Oaksterdam" to invoke the marijuana-friendly
reputation of Amsterdam, by limiting the number of such operations in
the city to four.

The move provoked some criticism for forcing eight other dispensaries
out of town or out of business. But since then, at least 15
communities statewide have adopted similar laws, while dozens more
have banned new dispensaries while they craft regulations.

In the nine years since California voters passed Proposition 215, the
landmark law that legalized the medical use of marijuana,
dispensaries reflecting a broad range of approaches and philosophies
have opened.

Weighing in on politics

"We don't all see things eye to eye," said Sparky Rose, executive
director of Compassionate Caregivers, which serves an estimated 9,000
patients at seven dispensaries around the state, including in
Oakland, San Francisco and San Leandro.

Differences emerge, for instance, over just how politically active
the dispensaries should be. The question of whether to lobby for full
legalization of the drug in California and the nation is one that
divides dispensary operators.

Rose says he prefers that medical marijuana advocates stay out of the
legalization fight, so they don't feed opponents' arguments that
their movement is really an end run around existing marijuana laws.

Down the street, Richard Lee, proprietor of SR71, a drop-in
dispensary located inside a full-service coffee shop, has taken on a
two-pronged fight for medical marijuana and legalization of adult use
of the drug.

"As people come to see medical marijuana being distributed to
patients without any major disruptions, they will begin to realize
that it can be distributed for adult use in a peaceful way that does
not significantly harm society," he said.

Lee said his activism was ignited one night in Houston 10 years ago,
when he and a friend were carjacked at gunpoint. Left without a car,
the two men called police -- and waited for 90 minutes for officers
to arrive.

"To me it was outrageous that the same law enforcement system that
sends people to prison for possessing marijuana was so nonresponsive
to an incident of extreme and random violence," he said.

For Adele Morgan and Tony Cassini, co-owners of We Are Hemp near
Hayward, proximity to chronic pain led them to open nearly five years
ago a business they describe as a "mom and pop" dispensary.

Morgan, 65, worked as a registered nurse for 28 years and said she
wishes she had been able to provide medical marijuana to those under
her care.

Cassini, 40, lost his left thumb and part of his index finger in a
circular-saw accident in 1990.

"Try living with chronic pain on a daily basis," said Cassini, a
burly man with heavily tattooed arms.

Doctors prescribed traditional painkillers like Vicodin, Cassini
said, but in his view those drugs did much more harm than good. He
uses marijuana as medicine to help him cope with the pain that
remains, all these years later.

Morgan and Cassini said they aren't afraid of the regulations pending
in Alameda County, because they do many of the things outlined in the
pending law anyway. We Are Hemp has its county business license
posted inside the club. The owners pay taxes.

Inside the clubs

No smoking of any kind is allowed in the club. There is also a rule
prohibiting hanging around outside the premises.

Inside, patients enter a front room where cannabis-related lotions,
lip balms and soaps are for sale, and sign their first name and card
number, issued for Alameda County users by the Oakland Cannabis
Buyers' Cooperative, on a sign-in sheet. The club gets 20 to 30
patients per day. The dispensary is located in a back room of a small
building that once housed a computer store.

On a recent day, the dispensary listed three top grades of marijuana
for sale, as well as lower-quality, cheaper "specials."

Among the high grades for sale: Sensi Star, Silver Haze, God Bud,
Will's Wonder. They go for $20 a gram, $50 for an eighth of an ounce,
$100 for a quarter-ounce. Patients are usually limited to buying no
more than one ounce at a time.

The dispensary also listed "edibles" for sale, including nut brittle,
"kronik krispies," and caramel corn.

Consumption of marijuana -- smoking or eating it -- is prohibited at
dispensaries throughout the East Bay. But that hasn't stopped the
businesses from adopting a wide range of approaches to doing business.

At SR71, for instance, marijuana is distributed from a closet-size
room in the back of a coffee shop. If you want to hang out, you
better buy a frothy cappuccino or a piece of pie.

But other East Bay dispensaries encourage patrons to linger.

At Oakland's California Advocate Relief Exchange, or CARE, patients
can receive massages to ease their pain and even a free meal.

Occasional yoga classes are offered at one of Berkeley's three
dispensaries, the Berkeley Patients Group, which operates a Web site
inviting patients to enjoy its "warm and friendly atmosphere."

The opportunity to meet and to network is very important to some
patients," said Kris Hermes, legal coordinator for Americans for Safe
Access, a medical marijuana advocacy group.

At a May 24 hearing in Oakland, patients with such life-threatening
diseases as cancer told the Alameda County Board of Supervisors that
the local dispensaries were helping them survive.

Muscular dystrophy patient Nick Sottero, of Tracy, said A Natural
Source on Foothill Boulevard near Hayward was the only place he felt
safe obtaining the cannabis that provides him refuge from agonizing
joint pain.

Yet toward the end of the hearing, some supervisors heard their worst
fears conveyed in vivid clarity by the operator of one of the
county's largest dispensaries, who admitted he will sell up to eight
ounces of marijuana a week to any card-carrying member who comes
calling.

"Eight ounces is more than any person can consume in a week,"
Supervisor Scott Haggerty said. "That's an abuse of the system -- and
it's screwing things up for people who really need medical marijuana."

Here is a partial list of East Bay pot clubs:

BERKELEY

Berkeley Cannabis Coop, Shattuck Ave., (510) 486-1025

Berkeley Patients' Group, 2747 San Pablo Ave., (510) 540-6013,
http://www.berkeleypatientsgroup.com

Berkeley Patients' Care Collective, 2590 Telegraph Ave., (510)
540-7878, http://www.medicalmarijuanainfo.com

CONCORD

MariCare 2155 Colfax St., (925) 459-2929

HAYWARD

Hayward Patients Resource Center, 22550 Foothill Blvd., (510) 581-8640

Local Patients Cooperative 22630 Foothill Blvd., 2nd Floor, (510) 537-2405

Main Street Roasting Co., 22540 Main St.

Compassoinate Collective of Alameda County, 21222 Mission Blvd.,

OAKLAND

Oakland Compassionate Healing Center, 578 West Grand Ave., (510) 839-9002

SR-71, 377 17th St.

CARE, 1900 Telegraph Ave.

Compassionate Caregivers, 2135 Broadway, (510) 839-2217

SAN LEANDRO

The Health Center, 15998 E. 14th St. (510) 278-4251

Alameda County Resource Center, 16250B E. 14th St., (510) 317-2150

A Natural Source , 16360 Foothill Blvd., (510) 276-7224

Compassionate Caregivers, 16045 E. 14th St., (510) 481-5757

SAN LORENZO

We Are Hemp, 913 East Lewelling Blvd., (510) 276-2628

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY

ME Delivery (delivers medical marijuana) (510) 758-3269