POT CLUB MORATORIUM EXTENDED

Supervisors to Use the Time to Devise New Regulations

Pot club moratorium extended Supervisors to use the time to devise new
regulations - Suzanne Herel, Chronicle Staff Writer Wednesday, May 18, 2005

A San Francisco moratorium on new medicinal marijuana clubs has been
extended for six months to give city officials more time to address the
complex problem of regulating dozens of businesses that have been operating
under the radar of city regulatory agencies.

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved the moratorium
extension without comment -- with about a dozen members of the public
testifying on the topic, mostly in favor of the action.

"We are taking very measured steps to develop pragmatic laws that have been
absent to date," Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who spearheaded the initial
45-day moratorium in March, said in an interview after the vote.

Trying to devise laws that both regulate the business of providing
medicinal marijuana while protecting the confidentiality of those who use
it "is what makes this a very, very complex process," he said.

Mirkarimi, who along with the rest of the supervisors supports the idea of
having pot clubs, said he would like to see the city Department of Public
Health play the lead in regulating them, in part so the city could employ
doctor-patient confidentiality.

The use of marijuana for medicinal purposes at the recommendation of a
physician was deemed legal in California after voters in 1996 approved the
Compassionate Use Act, also known as Proposition 215. However, any use of
the drug remains illegal under federal law.

That puts the city in the sticky position of regulating federally illegal
operations. Now, many of the clubs don't keep records, which could be used
against them in federal court. Even the Public Health Department, which
issues identification cards to patients so that they can get marijuana from
the pot clubs, doesn't keep track of cardholders.

City officials estimate there are as many as 43 pot clubs operating in the
city, but because the businesses don't have to inform the city of their
existence, no one knows for sure how many there are.

One thing is for sure: Their number has been growing steadily as
surrounding municipalities, including Oakland and Berkeley, have begun to
regulate the clubs. Meanwhile, neighbors have started to complain of noise,
loitering, double-parking -- and people reselling the drug on the street.

At the public hearing last month, former District Attorney Terence
Hallinan, now a defense attorney, said that the pot clubs wouldn't be able
to be regulated in the traditional business sense. He also said he would
advise his own clients not to sign documents or keep incriminating records.

The board turned its attention to the issue of regulating pot clubs in
March after Mayor Gavin Newsom learned that one such business was scheduled
to open in a city-funded welfare hotel in the Mission District.

Late last month, Newsom released a list of what he called commonsense
recommendations for the board to consider in drafting legislation. Among
them: forbidding alcohol consumption on the premises, keeping the clubs
away from schools and playgrounds, and creating good-neighbor policies.