Pro-Marijuana Advocates Seek Oakland Vote

Initiative Would Put Cannabis Legalization on November
Ballot

A coalition of marijuana advocates launched an initiative campaign
Thursday for a measure that would effectively legalize marijuana for
personal use in Oakland and allow the city to tax and regulate pot
sellers.

The proposed initiative comes one day after the City Council gave its
final approval to an ordinance that will restrict and regulate the
operations of cannabis clubs that serve medical marijuana patients.
Critics of the downtown "Oaksterdam" district claimed that a dozen
unregulated clubs were sometimes selling recreational marijuana.

The initiative, sponsored by a pro-marijuana coalition called the
Oakland Civil Liberties Alliance, does not directly address medical
marijuana issues. Instead, it would legalize all marijuana use for
adults.

The proposed ballot measure would instruct city officials "to tax and
regulate the sale of cannabis for adult use, so as to keep it off the
street and away from children, and to raise revenue for the city." The
measure also asks city officials to advocate state legalization of
marijuana for adult use and directs police to give lowest priority to
investigating private marijuana use.

Clare Lewis, a spokeswoman for the coalition, said the group hoped to
gain the signatures of 10 percent of Oakland's voters -- 19,000 -- to
put it on the November ballot.

If approved, the measure would put the city in direct opposition to
state and federal laws banning marijuana. The Oakland city attorney's
office declined to comment on the measure because it has not yet
reviewed the proposal.

Lewis said that a poll of several hundred Oakland residents indicated
support for taxing and regulating the sale of cannabis. Three quarters
of poll respondents also think that Oakland should make adult cannabis
use the lowest priority for law enforcement, Lewis said.

"In this time of budget crisis, it's crazy to waste taxpayers' money
criminalizing rather than taxing California's No. 1 cash crop," said
Dale Gieringer of Oakland, state coordinator of the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown said the proposed initiative was misguided,
ridiculous and most likely illegal.

"This is not worth the paper it's put on," Brown said. "The City of
Oakland cannot repeal the state laws of California. ... This will
never stand up. There are people shooting each other on the streets
over marijuana. ... I don't see this (proposal) helping us fight
violent crime."

East Oakland Councilwoman Desley Brooks said legalizing and regulating
marijuana might reduce gun violence associated with the illegal
marijuana trade.

"The situation now does not work," Brooks said. The initiative
"provides an opportunity for people to make their own decision as to
whether this is right for the city."