Pubdate: Wed, 18 Jun 2014
Source: East Bay Express (CA)
Column: Legalization Nation
Copyright: 2014 East Bay Express
Contact: http://posting.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/SubmitLetter/Page
Website: http://www.eastbayexpress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1131
Author: David Downs

OAKLAND'S WEED SPEAKEASIES DRAW HEAT

Measure Z Designates Oakland Pot Crime As the Police Department's 
"Lowest Enforcement Priority" - Yet Raids and Arrests Persist.

Oakland's marijuana speakeasies - dispensaries that do not have a 
license to operate from the city - are facing renewed heat despite 
the fact that we're in the waning days of the war on pot. The Oakland 
Police Department has raided at least three unlicensed cannabis shops 
since December. Police rousted so-called "Measure Z" clubs in North 
Oakland and Uptown in December and January. And last week, 
authorities raided "Herbal Wellness Center" at 1921 Martin Luther King Jr. Way.

Despite the crackdown, OPD has been using a light touch when it comes 
to charging crimes, sources said. One club owner caught with nearly 
thirty pounds was charged with simple possession of marijuana. "It's 
like they moved Holland to Oakland," said longtime Uptown 
canna-businessman and activist Jeff Jones, "because nobody's getting 
[put in jail]."

OPD's actions are emblematic of the city's hazy policy regarding 
weed. Oakland helped carry Proposition 215 in 1996, and passed the 
nation's first dispensary regulations in 2001. In 2004, Oakland 
voters resoundingly passed Measure Z, a citywide initiative that 
endorsed full-scale legalization and designated pot crime the 
official "lowest enforcement priority" for OPD.

According to the minutes of the city's Measure Z committee from 
November 2013, OPD's Sergeant Fred Shavies said that, in his 
experience, arrests he observes "are made very infrequently" for pot. 
"The District Attorney won't charge marijuana cases anyway," Shavies 
also told the committee.

Oakland has eight licensed medical cannabis dispensaries. The city's 
permit process emerged because an unlicensed pot shop free-for-all 
erupted in the city's Uptown district in the early 2000s. The 
"Oaksterdam District" was tamed, but Measure Z clubs, so-named 
because they are not part of the city's permitting process, still 
exist and typically sell weed to any adult. "They've been operating 
for a while," said Measure Z committee member Dale Gieringer said. 
"Most people don't know where they are."

Longtime cannabis attorney and Oakland resident Robert Raich said 
about ten Z clubs are open at any given time. Finding them is easy 
enough in Uptown - look for foot traffic, a security guard fronting a 
grimy retail storefront, and a dimly lit interior. A doctor's 
recommendation to enter is sometimes required, other times not. 
Measure Z clubs have a basic selection of cheaply priced pot and 
hash. "They are like speakeasies," Gieringer said. "They are really 
out there beyond the pale, some less so."

To get a visit from the police, Z clubs usually have to generate 
complaints. OPD can arrest operators on felony distribution, 
Gieringer noted. "But they don't do that .... From time to time, one 
gets busted, but police have been very civil," he continued. "The 
city administrator has been handling these complaints .... Usually 
they just request them to close."

According to Measure Z committee minutes, OPD visited a North Oakland 
Measure Z club in December after it "sold to a non-medical 
individual" and generated a complaint. OPD raided Uptown's Sunny Spot 
Cafe on 17th Street after a buy/bust investigation in Bushrod Park 
yielded a tip, according to a police search warrant.

And Greg Minor, assistant to the city administrator, said OPD shut 
down Herbal Wellness Center at 1921 Martin Luther King Jr. Way near 
Uptown last week after a neighbor filed a complaint.

Measure Z clubs may be under new federal pressure, Jones said. "This 
came from an inside person at City Hall that the federal government 
has cracked down on Measure Z clubs and has asked the city police 
department to do their dirty work and go out and find [clubs] for 
them," he said. "If [the clubs] won't shut down, [the feds] will come 
and shut them down, but if [OPD] can shut them down, they'd rather 
have them shut down.

"[The Feds] are trying to say, 'If you are unregulated, if you're not 
paying your taxes, you're not going to be operating under the 
auspices of the city, you have no state law protection.' ... Oakland 
has done its best to try not to draw a light onto them, but when 
things come to their desk, and complaints are lodged - and it can 
take just one - the place will get raided," Jones said.

Minor said he had not heard of a federal request. Representatives 
from OPD did not respond to calls for comment for this report.

"If that's what happening, then that's really a problem," said Raich 
of the reported federal pressure and OPD's alleged response to it. 
"That's just infuriating .... This is a complete violation of the 
spirit of Measure Z." It's also a waste of police time and money, 
especially considering the fact that "a jury in Alameda County is not 
going to convict somebody for marijuana offenses and the DA knows 
[it]," Raich added.

As such, OPD files minor charges in hopes of a plea, Raich said. The 
cops seized 29 pounds of pot from The Sunny Spot Cafe and charged the 
operator with simple possession. "The biggest problem they had was 
the security guard had a gun," Jones said. "He got charged and then 
the charge was dropped the next day by the DA, because [the DA was] 
like, 'He's a bonded security guard - you can't charge the guy.'"

OPD still arrests hundreds of people for marijuana every year, the 
vast majority of whom are young black males, Raich said. Measure Z 
should be followed to the letter. "OPD shouldn't be referring 
marijuana offenses of any sort to the DA for prosecutions in the 
first place," he said. "To me, 'lowest law enforcement priority' 
means if there is any unsolved crime, if somebody is spitting on the 
sidewalk or jaywalking, the police need to do that instead of 
enforcing a cannabis offense ... We've got real serious crime in 
Oakland," Raich continued, "and we should not be diverting resources 
to marijuana enforcement at all."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom