COUNTY POT DISPENSARY LIMITS FORMALIZED; PERMITS OUT SOON

Operators Already Lining Up To Be On List Of Three Medical Marijuana
Facilities Approved For Unincorporated Areas

The specter of legal medical marijuana dispensaries operating under
government controls in unincorporated Alameda County prompted very
different responses Tuesday.

Supervisors gave their second and final approval to plans that limit
the number of outlets to three, set up a process for county Sheriff
Charles Plummer to select the trio of operators and place dozens of
restrictions on everything from location to banning people younger
than 18 on the premises.

After the meeting, Plummer said he hopes to have applications for the
three prized dispensary permits ready in three weeks.

Operators should be selected -- and permits signed, sealed and
delivered -- by the end of July, Plummer said; there will be no
on-site smoking.

"I'm thinking back to 150 years ago, when the smoke rose from opium
dens," Plummer said. "There will be no consumption on the premises."

There are six dispensaries currently operating in Ashland, Cherryland
and San Lorenzo. The new county ordinance will permit only three
medical marijuana dispensaries but will add Castro Valley as one of
the communities where a marijuana sales outlet could be located.

In the fall, there were seven dispensaries in Ashland, Cherryland and
San Lorenzo. Supervisors banned new clinics while the new regulations
were researched and written. In the interim, one of the Ashland
facilities closed.

Jack Norton, who operates The Health Center on East 14th Street in
Ashland, hopes to obtain one of the permits.

Norton attended Tuesday's meeting and said he plans to call the
Sheriff's Department to be in line on the day application forms are handed out.

He's already preparing to provide information for any background
checks by the Sheriff's Department, has hired a new security firm to
patrol the perimeter of his building and is adding on-site bathrooms
as required in the new ordinance.

The entire discussion Tuesday took only 15 minutes, but that was
enough time for fiery differences to be voiced about federal versus
state laws on marijuana use and sales.

San Lorenzo resident Peter Hagberg accused supervisors of flouting
federal restrictions against marijuana sales.

Supervisor Nate Miley saw red when Hagberg compared him and other
supervisors to former Georgia Gov. Lester Maddox and former Arkansas
Gov. Orville Faubus, both outspoken racial segregationists of the
1950s and 1960s who challenged federal civil rights legislation.

"If you try to compare me to Lester Maddox, you are an idiot," Miley
told Hagberg. "I'm not a racist."

Hagberg suggested supervisors would violate federal laws by allowing
the use and sale of marijuana, making unincorporated areas "a
prosecution-free zone" for the distribution of marijuana.

County Counsel Richard Winnie, acknowledging a clash between federal
and state laws, said the county is "facing reality" by attempting to
control the numbers of dispensaries and to control problems that
might otherwise plague neighborhoods.

California voters and legislators have approved measures enabling
people in need of marijuana for medical purposes to obtain it, and to
allow local governments to adopt rules and regulations.