Pubdate: Mon, 18 Apr 2005
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Page: B - 1
Copyright: 2005 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact:  http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Chip Johnson
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)

MORE RULES NEEDED FOR POT CLUBS

Problems Caused by Lack of Regulations

Nearly a decade after forward-thinking officials in several Bay Area cities 
approved laws allowing medical marijuana clinics, they must figure out how 
to regulate them -- because few people on either side of the debate deny 
that the clubs are running amok.

More than 60 of the dispensaries operate in the region -- from Livermore to 
Belmont -- as a result of Proposition 215, which California voters approved 
in 1996 to make marijuana legal for medicinal purposes.

Two examples highlighting the problem have come to light in the past week.

In Union City, a pot club opened without proper business permits earlier 
this month, and when city officials found out, they shut it down.

The City Council then voted to place a moratorium on medical marijuana 
outlets in the East Bay city until the city has looked for appropriate 
locations and come up with regulations to govern their operations.

About the same time, San Francisco pot club co-owner Jeff Hunter was 
arrested in Emeryville after chasing business partner Jennifer Prasetya 
into the parking lot of the city's police department. He and his wife were 
arrested on the spot for making threats and annoying calls to Prasetya.

The trouble began when Prasetya announced she was pulling her investment 
out of the cannabis dispensary. She complained that Hunter, an ex-con with 
a conviction for cocaine trafficking, was selling pot to people without 
medical cards and allowing the kind of on-site loitering often seen outside 
liquor stores.

San Francisco, where at least 37 of the clubs operate, has put a moratorium 
on new pot clubs while it comes up with regulations.

Oakland also passed a moratorium after pot clubs quickly sprouted last year 
along Telegraph Avenue just north of City Hall -- in an area nicknamed 
"Oaksterdam."

And Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley, who championed the medical 
marijuana initiative as a member of the Oakland City Council, called for a 
moratorium on new pot clubs in the unincorporated areas he now represents.

Less than a year after he lobbied for Oakland to allow eight to 10 pot 
clubs in the city, he came to the realization that seven might be too many 
for his own constituency, and Miley isn't the only politician who is 
backpedaling.

It now seems like the bold steps taken to embrace the 1996 state law may 
have been premature. Many clubs were up and running before most local 
governments had come up with a way to control operations and lay down 
rock-solid rules for them to follow.

The ensuing chaos can be seen outside most of the clubs, and that is 
something that not even the most ardent supporters would attempt to deny.

Jeff Jones, executive director of the Oakland Cannabis Buyer's Cooperative 
and a leader in the medical marijuana movement, acknowledges the problems 
of loitering and perhaps even fraudulent sales at some pot clubs.

But he blames the state for passing a law without regulations to ensure its 
proper use.

When Jones' club ran a pot dispensary, there were times when he was 
suspicious of a patient but had no discretion in filling his doctor's 
recommendation.

"The media casts us in this light, because we are attracting it, but 
without some regulations in place, there is little we can do about it," he 
said. But in the next breath, Jones speculates that many of the 
"able-bodied-looking young men" hanging around clubs are patients without 
recommendations, self-medicating undiagnosed conditions.

I can agree with Jones' assessment as long as he and his ilk can agree that 
there is an equal possibility that the loiterers are relatively healthy 
young men who really like smoking pot.

"Gee, you've made that observation, too," said Alameda County Sheriff's 
Sgt. Kelly Miles, a member of a special investigations unit that tracks pot 
clubs operating in unincorporated areas.

 From Miles' side of the street, the typical pot club customer hardly looks 
as if he or she is suffering from a health malady.

"That's more the exception than the rule," Miles said. "There is one club 
that operates in our district, and none of their patients look like they 
need it."

Those problems are the tip of the iceberg. Transporting the drug or growing 
it for medical use in large quantities is still unlawful, but there have 
been discoveries of huge indoor gardens whose owners claim to be growing 
for medicinal use.

If that weren't enough, Berkeley residents Jessica Gibson and Winslow 
Norton were arrested in Mendocino last week with 40 pounds of pot in their 
vehicle. Sheriff's deputies were unmoved by documentation showing they were 
transporting for medical use. They each were held in lieu of $250,000 bail.

When Michael Norton, Winslow's father, brought $150,000 cash to post bail, 
the sheriff's department seized that cash as well.

There are more than a few bugs to be ironed out in California's generous 
medical marijuana laws. With such enormous profits at stake, there will 
always be someone willing to take advantage of a poor public policy until 
something is done to clear the smoke.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake