BERKELEY CONSIDERS LIMITS ON POT CLUBS

Proposal's Critics Call Fear of Oaksterdam-Type Proliferation
Unwarranted

BERKELEY -- City officials want to limit the number of medical
marijuana dispensaries to three, hoping to avoid a mecca of Berkeley
pot clubs similar to Oakland's once-thriving "Oaksterdam" area.

The plan, by Councilmembers Linda Maio and Margaret Breland, would
keep medical marijuana dispensaries away from schools and prohibit
them from clustering in one area of the city.

With Oakland now limiting its medical marijuana clubs to four,
Berkeley city leaders -- who will tonight consider limiting the number
of dispensaries -- aren't the only ones scrambling to keep pot clubs
out of their city.

In July, Emeryville temporarily banned medical marijuana outlets after
one of Oakland's spurned clubs, The Green Door, came calling and the
city realized it doesn't have a way to regulate the outlets, said City
Attorney Michael Biddle.

Berkeley currently has three permitted dispensaries, which are in good
standing and free from neighborhood complaints, said Don Duncan,
director of the Berkeley Patients Group and an ardent medical
marijuana advocate.

Police and even Maio and Breland agree the clubs abide by the rules
and have not been magnets for crime or violence. There have, however,
been robberies inside and outside the clubs, said police spokesman
Officer Joe Okies.

The proposal has distressed some medical marijuana advocates and city
leaders.

"I think (three) is an unnecessary limit," Duncan said. "My problem
is, what's motivating it? We don't have any problems with our
dispensaries. They are models of safety and good operations."

Duncan said a group of medical marijuana patients and advocates will
be at the meeting to protest the limit.

"I'm always concerned when I see a local government trying to limit
safe access as opposed to facilitating safe access," Duncan said.

Councilmember Kriss Worthington said, "I think it's needlessly
alarmist in placing the number at three," adding that he doesn't
expect a proliferation of clubs because Berkeley has stringent zoning
laws that require full disclosure before a permit is issued.

"This legislation is a solution in search of a problem," he
said.

Berkeley has rules that require a public hearing before a use permit
is granted.

But an initiative on the Nov. 2 ballot could change that. The proposed
Patients Access to Medical Cannabis Act would amend the zoning
ordinance to grant a use permit without a public hearing. It also
would set up a peer review committee to oversee the safety and
operations at the outlets and replace the 10-plant medical cannabis
limit with a patient's "personal needs" defined by a doctor and the
patient.

But those proposing the cap don't want Berkeley to deal with the same
problems that roiled Oakland earlier this year.

"Berkeley needs to consider the Oakland experience and be proactive in
establishing a reasonable number of dispensaries that are needed to
serve Berkeley's patients," Maio and Breland wrote in a city memo.

"By limiting the number of dispensaries, our police department can
better monitor the operations of each dispensary to ensure our public
safety goals are met."

Neither Maio nor Breland returned calls for comment Monday.

In May, the Oakland City Council limited the number of medical
marijuana dispensaries to four, putting an end to the proliferation of
pot clubs in an area of Oakland north of City Hall nicknamed
"Oaksterdam."

At the time, five established clubs were operating there, with others
nearby. City leaders cracked down on the clubs to aid in the
redevelopment of downtown Oakland, weed out bad operators and avoid a
proliferation of illegal resale of medical cannabis.

In Berkeley, the clubs with permits are Patients Care Collective on
Telegraph Avenue, the Cannabis Buyers Collective of Berkeley on
Shattuck Avenue and the Berkeley Patients Group on San Pablo Avenue.
But some say there are other "collectives" and doctors distributing
the drug.

The Berkeley City Council meets at 7 p.m. in City Council chambers,
2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way.