Alert: South San Francisco May RESTRICT Collective Cultivation on Th!

The last release erroneously stated that So. San
Francisco had "enacted " MMJ regulations.
It should have said that So. San Francisco is
PLANNING to consider the regulations at Planning
Commission hearings this Thurs. March 2nd - DG

>The Planning Commission's regular meeting will
>be held at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday in the
>Municipal Services Building, 33 Arroyo Drive.

(South San Francisco IS PLANNING to CONSIDER a
remarkably impractical medical cannabis
ordinance, encompassing the worst of two worlds:
On one hand, collectives are limited to just 10
patients. On the other, they must still be
situated 500 feet from a residential area! Do
they really expect every little household of
patients who want to form a collective to go out
and rent commercial space ? That's one way to
make sure that there are no patient services in
SoSF - Dale Gieringer)

New law eyed on marijuana clinics

Planners seeking to help patients while stiff-arming weed abusers

By Saqib Rahim
Inside Bay Area
3.1.06

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO — City planners hope to snuff
out fears of drug abuse when they consider
Thursday a new law designed to keep
medical-marijuana clinics out of residential
neighborhoods.

Coming up with appropriate legislation may prove
to be tricky, though, in light of the broad state
laws that have largely left cities and counties
to figure out what kinds of clinics are legal —
not to mention the contentious history of
medical-marijuana clinics in other parts of the
Bay Area.

The ordinance, which South San Francisco Police
Sgt. Alan Normandy will present to the Planning
Commission on Thursday, would require
medical-marijuana "collectives" to set up at
least 500 feet from residential areas and make
collectives of more than 10 people illegal.

"There's two things that this law does: One is
that it keeps the honest person honest, and two,
it does not interfere with the patient's right to
medicinal marijuana whatsoever," Normandy said.

The law comes after Tariq Alazraie, who runs a
club in San Francisco called Mason Street,
applied to open another club in South San
Francisco last year. The city then placed a
moratorium on marijuana clubs until it could
decide what to do.

In San Francisco and San Leandro, Normandy's
report says, having these clubs near
neighborhoods has resulted in "numerous
collateral impacts on public health and safety,"
such as increases in burglary, assault and use of
weapons.

The South City ordinance also goes into new
territory that hasn't been clearly defined by
state law, such as the definition of "collective"
and the nature of the caregiver-patient
relationship. The proposed law is designed to
allow specially designated "primary caregivers"
to provide marijuana for an individual or small
group already giving other kinds of service, such
as cooking and driving, Normandy said.

But one thing the new law will not do, Deputy
District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said, is permit
anyone to set up "dispensaries" like those in San
Francisco, where there is no limit on the number
of patients a club can have. State law forbids
such clubs, he said, because the operator "has to
be beyond simply providing marijuana, they have
to be providing for the general health and
welfare of the person" through other kinds of aid.

Critics say the 10-person limit may lead to new problems, though.

"Who selects how many people come through? Who's
more serious than the other one?" asked Wayne
Justmann, a medical-marijuana activist and
adviser to the San Francisco-based CannaMed Care
club.

Some club staff also claimed that not all clubs draw trouble.

"I've been here three years, we're low-key, we
have no problems whatsoever. Half of our
neighbors— don't even know we exist," said
Charlie Alazraie, who works at Mason Street with
cousin Tariq.

The Planning Commission's regular meeting will be
held at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday in the Municipal
Services Building, 33 Arroyo Drive.

Contact staff writer Saqib Rahim at (650)348-4337
or by e-mail at srahim [at] sanmateocountytimes.com.

---
California NORML (415) 563-5858 // canorml [at] igc.org
2215-R Market St. #278, San Francisco CA 94114