COUNTY CLOSES ASHLAND POT CLUB

Criminal Activity, Proximity To Elementary School Lead Supervisors To
Deny Permit

OAKLAND -- Last summer, A Natural Source was in the headlines when a
would-be robber was shot to death outside the Ashland medical marijuana clinic.

On Thursday, the company's link to criminal events and its location
near an elementary school prompted Alameda County supervisors to deny
the cannabis club an operating permit.

Club operator Billy McDonald has 30 days to close, despite support
from customers who described the Foothill Boulevard sales outlet as
clean and safe.

Mary Lewis, a mother of grown children who knitted during the
hearing, told supervisors marijuana eases her pain from congenital
joint problems and allows her to function. Other drugs have side
effects, she added.

Lewis described herself as a nonstereotypical medical marijuana user
who appreciates A Natural Source because it is clean and tidy,
employees are polite and the medications are good quality.

The supervisors' decision will leave no dispensary in east Ashland
and Castro Valley, the third of three areas designated by supervisors
as sites for medical marijuana clinics.

However, supervisors later this month will reconsider shifting
boundaries so that Foothill Boulevard

in south Cherryland, where the Garden of Eden is located, is added to
Area Three. The Garden of Eden dispensary then could qualify for the
prized permit since it has been cleared by sheriff's investigators.

We Are Hemp on Lewelling Boulevard is the only dispensary to win
permit approval for Area One, San Lorenzo and north-central Cherryland.

If Area Three is expanded to include the Garden of Eden, the Alameda
County Resource Center and Compassionate Caregivers of Alameda County
would compete for the operating permit in Area Two, northwest Ashland
and the remainder of south Cherryland.

McDonald appealed denial recommendations from the sheriff's
department and a county administrative panel. Supervisors Scott
Haggerty, Nate Miley, and Gail Steele voted to deny McDonald's
appeal. Supervisors Keith Carson and Alice Lai-Bitker were absent.