BIGGER IS BETTER FOR POT DISPENSARIES, OAKLAND ADVOCATE SAYS

OAKLAND For Sacramento and other California cities wanting fewer
medical pot clubs, Steve DeAngelo offers a potential model: the
world's largest marijuana dispensary.

DeAngelo is executive director of the Harborside Health Center, a
48,000-member patient collective he says serves more marijuana users
than anywhere else. For sure, the Oakland dispensary one of just
four allowed in the city is a titan in California's legal medicinal
pot trade.

Greeting up to 800 people a day, Harborside's Oakland center has a
neuropathic primary care doctor, an acupuncturist and a chiropractor.
Its staff teaches yoga, stress management and "universal life force
energy" and doles out a harvest of weed.

Harborside, which recently opened a second dispensary in San Jose,
handles $20 million annually in pot transactions at its Oakland
facility, DeAngelo says.

Harborside, by law, operates as a nonprofit. Yet its Oakland location
produces nearly $2 million in state sales taxes and another $360,000
under a local levy that Oakland voters approved for marijuana
businesses, DeAngelo says.

In Sacramento, where the city is trying to figure out what to do with
39 registered pot shops, officials studied Oakland, which is slightly
smaller in population. A proposal before the Sacramento City Council
would cap the number of dispensaries at 12.

Council member Sandy Sheedy said a dozen medical marijuana sites was
viewed as more reasonable for the capital city. "I would not like to
see Wal-Mart clinics," she said.

But DeAngelo, a veteran advocate who smoked pot as a teenager in
pro-marijuana protests outside the White House, insists that fewer,
bigger dispensaries are the way to go.

"I think it's a real mistake to be afraid of the large facilities,"
said DeAngelo, who started as a hemp products importer. "They are
more easily regulated. They provide a familiar, secure base for
services for patients."

He added: "Do we want a lot of 'pot shops' or do we want 'health facilities'?"

Harborside may well be a model for high volume sales outlets should
California voters in November expand legalization from medical pot
users to all adults over 21. For now, dispensary officials insist
their only interest is providing relief for people with medical conditions.

Eighty employees greet medical pot users. And they offer more than
the latest cannabis strains of "Grape Ape" or "Green Blackberry Kush."

Nubian Flunder, an on-site licensed acupuncturist, works with
"patients with chronic pain and mental health issues" to "assist them
on their journey to optimum health."

DeAngelo says the clinic also provides drug counseling because 15
percent of clients have had issues with substance abuse. While some
report problems with tobacco and pharmaceuticals, he said others seek
"peer counseling" to curb their pot use.

Harborside also offers free marijuana incentives up to a gram a
week to patients who volunteer for advocacy work.

So Mo Pierce, 34, writes supportive letters to federal inmates
imprisoned for pot.

"I write to the prisoners of war people who have been incarcerated
over stupid weed charges," said Pierce, who stopped at the dispensary
for a favorite "purple indica" he uses for back pain, digestive
problems and anxiety.

Harborside also provides a "care package" free pot program for
low-income patients such as Frank Knighten, 58.

Knighten, a former aircraft mechanic and Vietnam veteran, says he
suffers from post-traumatic stress. A jazz and blues composer, he
uses marijuana "to help me write music and keep me calm.

"The way society is today," he said, "I think everybody should be
smoking a joint sometimes."

DeAngelo, a dapper figure recognized for his fedora and long, braided
pigtails, established the dispensary in October 2006. His partner was
Dave Wedding Dress, a peace activist named for the flowing gown he
wore at anti-nuclear protests at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Wedding Dress is Harborside's "holistic services director." DeAngelo
is the marketing face of the operation.

He is also a well-traveled medical marijuana advocate who insists
Harborside handles more clients and transactions than any place in
Amsterdam, the world's acclaimed bastion for legal pot use.

On most any day at Harborside, medical marijuana seekers snake
quickly through long lines to reach pot-providing attendants known as
"patient consultants."

Ross Halligan, 32, and Eamonn O'Neal, 26, came to buy seedlings for
home-growing medical users in San Francisco. They marveled at the
scale and pace of the place.

"It's an unenforceable law to try to stop people from smoking pot, be
it for medical or recreational use," Halligan said. "Definitely, if
you're thinking about making it legal, it should be in this style."