Newark council: No additional pot clubs

Article Last Updated: 08/01/2006 02:33:07 AM PDT



Newark council: No additional pot clubs



By Angela Woodall, STAFF WRITER



NEWARK � Just say no. That's what the City Council did by approving a
move to keep more pot clubs from setting up business in Newark.



"It seems like a prudent course of action," Mayor Dave Smith said at
last week's council meeting.


The move will not shut down the Kindcare Resource Center, a medical
marijuana outlet at Central Avenue and Cedar Boulevard, although the
city is seeking to oust that business through other methods.

Council members voted 4-0 to give city officials the muscle to reject
permit applications by such outlets or any other businesses that do
not meet federal or state laws. Councilman Luis Freitas was absent.

Pot clubs already are prohibited in Newark, City Manager John Becker said.

"Common sense would tell you a business should be in compliance with
federal and state laws. This further clarifies that," Becker said. "We
felt it was necessary to be crystal clear" so the city did not in any
way break federal law, he added. The ordinances came about when city
officials discovered Kindcare was selling medical marijuana (consuming
it on the premises is prohibited), though it had stated that it was a
vitamin and food supplement store on its business license application.

The city already has moved to shut the center down through a zoning action,
Assistant City Manager Jim Reese said.

James Anthony, an attorney representing the center, said he was not
aware of any such action.

Before council members voted, Anthony asked them to reconsider. Using
zoning to regulate outlets is a better way to balance community safety
with the rights of medical marijuana patients under state law, he
said. California law permits marijuana dispensaries, whereas federal
law prohibits them.

Licensing and regulating dispensaries allows cities such as Berkeley
and Oakland to control them instead of driving them underground, the
land-use attorney said.

Newark chose to follow the example of Union City, which adopted an
identical measure in May to prevent medical marijuana outlets from
opening in the city.

Fremont banned the outlets outright.

The council decision will not change the Newark Police Department's
enforcement policy, Chief Ray Samuels said. The department follows the
district attorney's lead on whether to prosecute cases involving
marijuana, he said.

But the federal Drug Enforcement Agency can prosecute dispensaries and
likely would, he added. Just because the state declines to prosecute
"doesn't mean the DEA won't do it."

Staff writer Angela Woodall covers Newark and Ohlone College. She can
be reached at (510) 353-7004 or at awoodall [at] angnewspapers.com. � � �

http://www.insidebayarea.com/argus/localnews/ci_4120234