LOCAL MEASURE SEEKS TO LESSEN RESTRICTIONS ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Existing restrictions on growing and possessing medical marijuana in
Berkeley may be lifted and dispensaries may be able to relocate more
easily if Measure JJ passes at the polls next week.

If approved by 50 percent of Berkeley voters, the measure would take
away limits on the number of plants a medical marijuana patient or
dispensary can grow as long as only 10 or fewer are visible. It would
also remove restrictions on the amount of marijuana a patient or
dispensary could possess, provided it is a "reasonable quantity."

Berkeley City Councilmember Kriss Worthington, who endorses the
measure, said that dispensaries would no longer be required to have
public hearings to get use permits, making it easier for them to relocate.

This is important because two of Berkeley's three dispensaries plan
to relocate in the next year, said Amanda Reiman, a UC Berkeley
lecturer and the academic coordinator for the School of Social
Welfare, who also endorses the measure.

Reiman, who has researched medical cannabis for three years, added
that removing restrictions would allow for more flexible treatment of patients.

"In the past, the limits have kind of been pulled out of thin air,
mostly due to a lack of research on what medical cannabis patient
needs are," she said. "You may have a patient that uses cannabis only
a couple times a week, and then you may have a patient that uses it
several times a day."

Worthington agreed that current limits on medical marijuana do not
accurately reflect its use.

"There's really no need to have a specific limit," he said. "It's
really up to the doctor and the patient."

Worthington said the measure has a high likelihood of passing and
that there are no campaigns opposing it.

Charley Pappas, a 61-year-old paraplegic Berkeley resident who uses
and produces medical marijuana, said the measure would make patients'
access to cannabis more secure.

"I think it reminds elected officials that the citizens of Berkeley
and California in general really support medical cannabis and want it
to be available to qualified patients in a responsible, orderly
manner," he said.

Becky Dekeuster, community liaison for Berkeley Patients Group, a
local dispensary, said the measure would not increase marijuana-related crime.

"Historically, Berkeley has not seen crime around medical cannabis
collectives and they have not seen patients abusing the existing
standards as they are," she said. "Honestly, I think the potential
there has been overblown, perhaps by people who haven't thought it
through all the way."

The measure would also make medical cannabis-related activity the
lowest priority for the Berkeley Police Department.

Although the city of Berkeley became a medical marijuana sanctuary
earlier this year, cannabis is still illegal under federal law. The
local measure would not change federal regulation, said Casey McEnry,
a special agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in San
Francisco, which oversees Berkeley.

"Any possession, cultivation, or distribution of marijuana,
regardless of its purported use or destination, is illegal," McEnry
said. "Anyone who distributes or cultivates marijuana is at risk for
arrest or prosecution, even if Measure JJ passes."

But Reiman said the measure would support patients' ability to decide
for themselves what medication to use.

"It's a matter of a patient having a choice about how they treat
their illness," she said. "I think it's really about maintaining that choice."