POT CLUB COUNTS POLICE HQ AMONG NEW NEIGHBORS

Law Regulating Location Forces Dispensary Out Of Oaksterdam

OAKLAND -- In a month's time, the once-thriving Oaksterdam district
has lost all but one of its medical marijuana outlets, and the number
of permitted pot clubs citywide has dwindled to two.

California Advocate Relief Exchange has taken root at Seventh Street
and Broadway, sandwiched between a tattoo parlor and bail bonds
business, across the street from Oakland police headquarters.

The owners were forced to relocate from 19th Street and Telegraph
Avenue because city laws do not allow medical pot outlets within 1,000
feet of churches or schools. Mayor Jerry Brown's School for the Arts
relocated to the Fox Theater last year, and CARE had to move to keep
its permit, said Stacey Traylor of CARE.

Two other clubs -- Compassionate Caregivers at 2135 Broadway and the
nonprofit Oakland Compassionate Resource Center at 578 W. Grand Ave.
- -- were given 90-day permit extensions so they could fix building code
violations noted when they received their licenses last year.

When both businesses failed to get the work done by Sept. 7, their
permits expired, and they had to stop dispensing marijuana. The
dispensaries have reapplied for permits, but they must compete with
five other applicants for two available licenses that will be awarded
later this month, something that neither business feels is fair.

City hearing officer Barbara Killey said she gave the businesses
90-day permit extensions because the city had not provided a list of
code violations to the clubs last year. But when they did not complete
the work, she said she had no choice but to make them reapply to be
fair to other applicants.

In the meantime, CARE and SR71 at 377 17th St. are the only outlets in
Oakland for patients to legally obtain the medicinal herb.

That's a far cry from the days when downtown Oakland's tiny,
wedgeshaped neighborhood between Broadway and Telegraph Avenue was
dubbed Oaksterdam because of pot clubs and cafes that sprang up before
the city stepped in and regulated them last year.