FUTURE OF CANNABIS CLUBS DEBATED

Marijuana Outlet Created Fearful Atmosphere, Resident Says

Many area residents rejoiced after federal drug enforcement agents
closed a Cherryland medical marijuana sales outlet last October.

"You were frightened to walk down Mission Boulevard, with 30 to 40
18-year-olds waiting to get in," claimed Kathie Ready of San Lorenzo.
"Now you don't see a huge group of gang members in front. Anything
that allows that horrible place to open (again) is a crime against
this community."

She spoke Wednesday at the county's monthly unincorporated services
meeting in San Lorenzo, where county law enforcement representatives
proposed stiffer controls on marijuana sales in unincorporated areas.

Since 2005, three marijuana dispensaries have operated in Cherryland
under county permits.

At best, cannabis retailers can expect the county to dictate what
they sell, how it's sold and who does the selling.

At worst, county supervisors -- who passed the 2005 law governing
marijuana sales -- could eliminate one permit.

"My constituents would like to see the permits reduced to two," said
Supervisor Alice Lai-Bitker, one of five members of the Board of
Supervisors. Her district includes San Lorenzo.

The permit in question currently is held by the Compassionate
Patients' Cooperative. The marijuana dispensary was shut down last
fall by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration on a variety of
illegal drug sale and conspiracy charges.

The federal agency does not recognize California laws legalizing the
sale of marijuana to patients with doctors prescriptions.

The other two clubs in the area are We Are Hemp and the Garden of Eden.

"I don't know anything about this," Adele Morgan, We Are Hemp's
owner, said Thursday when informed of the proposed changes that
supervisors will consider this summer.

Morgan's current operating permit extends until 2010.

"We haven't had any trouble," Morgan said of her business, which she
described as a "small, family operation."

Morgan was scheduled to meet later Thursday with an aide to
Supervisor Nate Miley.

On Wednesday, Miley defended the supervisors' 2005 decision to allow
and control the clinics. He said medically prescribed marijuana "is a
necessity for some people. Without it, their lives would be nonexistent."

"I'm feeling bold," he added, suggesting that the state legalize,
regulate and tax marijuana like other commodities on the open market.

"We would not have a (county) deficit," now estimated at $73 million
for 2008-09, with income from marijuana sales, Miley claimed.

A handful of residents from Ashland, Castro Valley and San Lorenzo
disagreed with him and the meeting, chaired by Lai-Bitker, became a
verbal free-for-all.

Speakers questioned the state and county's challenging of federal
drug authority by allowing the marijuana sales outlets. They also
described problems with the businesses.

From 2000 to 2005, seven marijuana clinics opened in Ashland and
Cherryland. Some neighbors complained about loitering and crime.
Armed robberies and the murder of a robbery suspect occurred in or
near dispensaries in 2005.

That's when supervisors limited the number of clinics to three.

"We don't want these clubs in our community," said Wulf Bieschke,
president of the San Lorenzo Village Homes Association. "They benefit
the minority, but affect the lives of the majority."