DEBATE ON POT CLUBS SMOLDERS

Wednesday Forum to Address Plan for Dispensaries in Unincorporated Areas

Arnie Glassberg is a reasonable guy who recognizes that medical
marijuana dispensaries have legal backing and that Alameda County
should regulate their operations in unincorporated areas.

However, as superintendent of the San Lorenzo Unified School District,
Glassberg is uneasy that a proposed county ordinance would allow
marijuana sales in five locations, three of which fall within school
district boundaries.

"I would like more equitable distribution of the establishments,"
Glassberg says. "If there are going to be (marijuana sales)
establishments in our district, we would like to see that they not be
in the natural routes kids take to and from schools."

On Wednesday, the community will have its first chance to debate a
county proposal that would spread now-clustered marijuana dispensaries
throughout unincorporated areas, drop the number of clinics from seven
overall to just five and tightly regulate their operations.

Dispensary operators and their clients are lobbying to retain the
status quo.

However, supervisors AliceLai-Bitker and Nate Miley - who represent
unincorporated areas - already say they may be leaning toward reducing
the number of cannabis sales centers.

And the county's tough-talking top cop, Sheriff Charles Plummer,
pledges, "if they (dispensary operators) don't do right, we're not
going to cut them any slack."

Plummer, a self-described marijuana opponent, will have the main
responsibility to select which dispensaries receive a coveted
operating permit. His department also will monitor the marijuana sales
centers, and the proposed county ordinance would afford law
enforcement access 24 hours a day.

"I'm not trying to drive them out of business," Plummer insists. "It's
the law that they can operate, and we're going to control it the best
we can."

However, since the sale of medical marijuana remains illegal under
federal law, Plummer promises, "If the feds come in and say they want
to bust this place (one of the dispensaries), we'll help them, no
questions asked."

Last October, supervisors banned new cannabis clubs in unincorporated
areas while regulations were developed to manage over-the-counter
marijuana sales. No guidelines are in place for the existing clubs,
which opened during the last few years.

The proposed ordinance would limit marijuana sales to five locations,
where individuals or organizations selling cannabis would compete for
available permits.

Ashland, Castro Valley, Cherryland and San Lorenzo each would have one
sales site. The last locale would be a lineal slice of Foothill
Boulevard, which includes slivers of Ashland, Castro Valley and
smaller unincorporated communities.

San Lorenzo district schools are in Ashland, Cherryland and San
Lorenzo.

The ordinance would limit dispensaries to business or commercial
districts. Dispensaries also must be at least 1,000 feet away from
each other, and 600 feet away from schools, parks or
playgrounds.

"They should let all seven of us stay open," contends Sean Bruett,
Manager of The Health Center, one of three dispensaries within two
blocks of each other on East 14th Street in Ashland.

"We have a lot of patients (whom) we try to help," explains Bruett,
whose dispensary has been open for just more than a year. He said
letters of support from patients have been turned over to the county.

Lai-Bitker says five dispensaries are too many.

By comparison, Oakland, with about 400,000 residents, has four
dispensaries. Hayward, with 140,000 people, has two.

Miley doubts the five-member board of supervisors will approve five
dispensaries, although he calls it a "legally defensible" number.

The unincorporated communities also have about 140,000 residents that,
if they incorporated into one city, would make it the third-or
fourth-largest in the county. The five dispensaries, distributed among
geographical and population lines, would represent one marijuana sales
location for about every 28,000 residents of unincorporated areas.

"Clearly, there are people who need cannabis as their medicine, and
who live in this part of the county or adjacent to this part of the
county," Miley explains.

The medical marijuana ordinance will be discussed at 6:30 p.m.
Wednesday at the Unincorporated Services Committee, San Lorenzo
Village Homes Association hall, 377 Paseo Grande, San Lorenzo.