BUSINESSES UNITE TO SUPPORT POT CLUBS

As the Oakland City Council revs up to crack down on downtown medical marijuana
clubs, some neighborhood merchants are fighting back.

The newly formed Uptown Merchants Association -- so far comprising two pot
clubs and five businesses unrelated to the dispensaries -- has banded together
to lobby on behalf of the dozen dispensaries in the neighborhood. They say that
regulation by the city is crucial but that the clubs should not be shut down
because they bring desirable commercial activity to the blocks just north of
City Hall.

"We support regulation. We support standards. We support city licensing. We
support taxes," spokesman Kenny Mostern said. But they also support the
dispensaries' right to operate.

"Until the dispensaries opened, the street was shut down, quiet and dirty," he
said. "The dispensaries are the best thing that could have happened for the
area." He is expecting the number of dispensaries and other businesses in the
association to double in the next week.

City officials have said that until recently they were unaware that the pot
clubs had been sprouting up in the neighborhood that some have dubbed
"Oaksterdam," after the pot-tolerant city of Amsterdam.

The dispensaries are in legal limbo. Although the city and state consider them
legal, the federal government does not.

At a City Council meeting in late September, some council members expressed
reservations about the large number of neighborhood pot clubs. Discussion of
the issue was delayed for further study. The council's public safety committee
will take it up again on Oct. 28.