Pubdate: Fri, 04 Jul 2003
Source: Daily Review, The (CA)
Copyright: 2003 MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers
Contact:  http://www.dailyreviewonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1410
Author: Michelle Meyers, Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)

POT COMMITTEE SMOKES PEACE PIPE

Members Agree On Proposal For Hayward's Dispensaries

HAYWARD -- The issue of how to deal with the city's medical marijuana 
dispensaries has been pretty much nipped in the bud.

After just two meetings of a city ad hoc committee on the subject, members 
agreed to a plan, subject to the City Council's approval, that would allow 
two dispensaries on Foothill Boulevard to exist for at least three years 
under certain conditions.

A third existing dispensary on B Street is moving to a new location on 
Foothill Boulevard north of the city border on unincorporated county land, 
according to committee members.

The committee of city officials, community members and medical marijuana 
advocates was formed to look into the possibility of sanctioning, even if 
informally, the dispensaries now operating against Hayward's zoning law.

They also may be in violation of criminal law, depending upon to whom you 
talk. Prop. 215 legalized marijuana for medicinal uses in California, 
although it still is considered illegal under federal law. The Hayward 
Police Department declined to participate on the committee because of this 
inherent conflict.

After weeding through the issues and concerns, members said they can live 
with a compromise offered by City Manager Jesus Armas. The plan is to begin 
by asking council members at a work session this fall if they would like to 
consider an ordinance recognizing certain medical marijuana identification 
cards.

The council might, for example, want to deem identification cards that the 
county plans to issue residents in unincorporated areas as acceptable for 
Hayward patients.

The council also would consider an "informal understanding" with the 
dispensaries that they can operate for three years if they agree to: limit 
the amount of pot on-site each day; try to keep people from hanging out 
near the facilities; ban advertising; recognize that the operation is 
subject to police inspection; and encourage patients not to smoke on-site 
or on the streets.

"We don't want marijuana smoke wafting out of buildings," Mayor Roberta 
Cooper said. "We want this to be very quiet."

At the end of three years, if the state and federal governments have worked 
out the jurisdictional conflict, the city might consider amending its 
zoninglaw to allow the dispensaries to operate under a conditional use 
permit, Armas said.

"If the state and federal conflict is not resolved, you would cease 
operations," Armas said, addressing the dispensary owner.

However, if by that time a plan under study to widen Foothill Boulevard is 
implemented, the two existing Foothill shops, both near the intersection 
with B Street, would be forced to move for other reasons: They happen to be 
right in the project's wrecking path on land the city would take.

Committee member Shon Squier, who owns the Local Patients Cooperative, said 
he's concerned about the condition to limit the amount of pot on-site, 
particularly as business has picked up.

But limiting the amount of marijuana will make his facility less vulnerable 
to robberies, not to mention a federal raid, said Mayor Roberta Cooper.

"The more you have, the more risk you run of the marijuana Gestapo coming 
after you," she said. "And keep in mind, you are not allowed to exist under 
the present structure."

The entire committee was present Wednesday: Armas, Cooper, Squier, city 
attorneys Michael O'Toole and Maureen Conneely, Oakland Cannabis Buyers 
Cooperative director Jeff Jones, Medical Cannabis Association president and 
Hayward shop owner Jane Weirick, Chamber of Commerce representative Chris 
Zaballos and Westminster Hills Presbyterian Church Pastor John Wichman.

The Hayward dispensaries aren't new: The youngest is about 6 months old, 
and the oldest has been around for more than a decade.

But their profile was raised earlier this year after a report in The Daily 
Review about a proposed new dispensary. The city turned down the proposed 
new owner and notified the existing dispensary owners that they were 
violating the law.

That led Squier to ask the council to form a committee to consider 
authorizing the dispensaries' existence.