NEW LIMITS IN OAKLAND FOR MEDICAL POT CLUBS

Oakland will issue business licenses to four nonprofit medical marijuana
vendors and force eight others to close or face possible prosecution.

The new limits adopted by the Oakland City Council will break up the
cluster of downtown marijuana clubs -- collectively known as "Oaksterdam"
- -- by forcing them to operate at least 1,000 feet apart.

During a six-hour meeting Tuesday night, the council voted to adopt new
regulations on marijuana clubs, which have recently sprouted on the
northern edge of downtown Oakland.

Effective June 1, Oakland medical marijuana clubs operating under state
Proposition 215, approved by voters in 1996, must apply for business
licenses. The city will select four vendors from among the applicants.

"We support compassionate use for patients but we needed to set up some
rules that work for the entire city," said Council President Ignacio De La
Fuente, who co-sponsored the measure with Councilwoman Jean Quan.

Both of them agreed to several amendments to the proposal at the request of
critics, including councilwomen Nancy Nadel and Jane Brunner, who both
ultimately voted for the measure.

Councilwoman Desley Brooks was the only opponent, saying she felt that the
city was forcing the plan onto the medical marijuana community.

Cannabis patients will be forbidden to smoke pot or consume marijuana
brownies or cookies in clubs where they buy it. The council agreed to
consider allowing patients to eat marijuana-laced food on site.

The new rules also limit each patient to owning 8 ounces of dry marijuana,
six mature plants and a dozen immature plants.

After six months, the city will review the legislation and could make
changes. Nadel said she hopes her colleagues will agree to allow more than
four clubs, which she feels are not enough for the city's 3,000 medical users.

"I'm pro-regulation and I'm pro-registration, but the details of this
regulation are going to create problems," said Jeff Jones, executive
director of Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative and one of 100 people who
spoke out against the proposal. "The regulations will hurt patients."

Other medical marijuana advocates complained they were left out of the
process to develop the regulations.

"The City Council's new cannabis ordinance is an example of making laws
like baloney," said Dale Gieringer, California Coordinator for the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

"Hopefully a workable accommodation will be reached," he said.

In other action, the council unanimously adopted a tentative plan to
install video cameras in some police cars on a trial basis. The council is
expected to decide this month if the city can afford to install cameras in
10 to 15 cars at about $7,000 to $9,000 each.

The council also approved new regulations requiring taco trucks and
pushcart food vendors to register with the city. The rules affect 40 trucks
and 30 pushcart vendors that will be restricted to East Oakland
neighborhoods adjacent to International and Foothill boulevards.