NATION HAS MARIJUANA ON THE MIND

Measures Mostly Successful, Debates

Berkeley marijuana advocates this month cheered the leafy plant's
successes in elections in traditionally more conservative areas like
Montana, Missouri and Michigan.

Many are anxiously awaiting the final results for Berkeley's Measure
R, which seeks to abolish plant growth limits and zoning restrictions
for medical marijuana dispensaries.

But marijuana measures have not done as well as expected in some areas
known for their liberal stance on the drug. In the Bay Area, the path
to legitimacy has recently hit some speed bumps.

Local governments are grappling with how best to serve patients while
not upsetting neighbors who live near dispensaries.

Nationwide, 17 of 20 marijuana ballot measures passed. Locally,
Oakland voters overwhelmingly approved Measure Z, which effectively
decriminalized adult ownership of pot in the city.

"Clearly there is a willingness around the country among voters to
consider changes," said Bruce Mirken, a spokesperson for the
Washington, D.C. Marijuana Policy Project, which helped get the
measure on the ballot in Montana.

But traditional medical marijuana strongholds are struggling with how
to regulate distribution. Oregonians turned down an initiative to
amend state medical marijuana laws by setting up state-run
dispensaries.

In Berkeley-one of the first cities in the nation to set up medical
marijuana clubs-Measure R's fate hinges on a few hundred votes.
Yesterday the vote narrowed to 49.8 percent in favor to 50.2 percent
against.

Alameda County Registrar officials said nearly all votes are in. Final
results will be released Nov. 30.

Opponents and some supporters said the measure's Achilles' heel was a
clause that would allow new clubs to set up shop without a public
zoning hearing.

Without the push for relaxed zoning, City Councilmember Kriss
Worthington said he thinks the measure "would have won by 70 percent."

Zoning is at the heart of recent East Bay pot club shake-ups. In June,
Oakland officials, citing associated violence and crime, whittled the
city's stock of marijuana clubs down to four.

Oakland sent eight clubs packing from a downtown area known as
"Oaksterdam" after the famously liberal Dutch city.

Berkeley's City Council followed suit last month, slapping a
three-club quota on the city, preempting some of Measure R's looser
zoning regulations. Berkeley currently has three official clubs.

The Berkeley quota satisfied Ted Gartner, a member of Channing Way
Neighbors, a group opposing Measure R.

"It was just trying to keep a lid on this without Berkeley becoming
'Amsterberkeley,'" Gartner said. He praised a nearby club for being
well policed, but worried about relaxed zoning in his neighborhood,
which he said already deals with prostitution and illegal drug dealing.

Similar concerns, as well as increased traffic and parking issues,
prompted Alameda County supervisors to enact an emergency 45-day ban
on new clubs in unincorporated areas. The ban came after neighbors
voiced concern about seven dispensaries that emerged along East 14th
Street in the wake of the Oakland reduction.

"We're still in the early parts of the frontier on this issue," said
Supervisor Keith Carson, who backed the ban to avoid problems like
those that shut down clubs in Oakland. He said the board will likely
study the area's demand and enact an ordinance limiting the number of
clubs in suburban areas when the ban expires Dec. 10.

The move does not surprise Mirken.

"I think all the local jurisdictions are trying to work what works
best," he said. "The bottom line is that there is a balance that needs
to be struck.