COUNCIL SECRETLY SNUFFS POT CLUB

Medical Marijuana Dispensary Says It Will Shut Down This Month

HAYWARD -- More than a dozen patients from the Hayward Patients
Resources Center pleaded with council members at the meeting to keep
the city's last medical marijuana dispensary open.

But their pleas Tuesday were moot because the speakers missed the
vote a week before. The issue never made it to the public agenda
before council members decided in a closed session July 24 not to
extend the agreement with the dispensary at 22500 Foothill Blvd.,
effectively shutting it down.

A flier from Resource Center, located near B Street, said the club
would have to close by the end of August. City Attorney Michael
O'Toole did not return calls Thursday to verify a date.

"The real debate was before the end of last year, when there was a
public discussion and debate," said Councilmember Barbara Halliday.
"We have followed through on what the agreement was at that time."

That agreement allowed the dispensary one 90-day extension to
operate, and then a second 90-day period, which expired at the end of
June. The extensions were designed to allow the resource center to
find an alternative location to operate, away from the downtown area,
where the city has been waging a development campaign to attract more business.

Tom Lemos, the owner of the downtown Hayward Patients Resource
Center, presented at least two options to the council, which were
turned down because of their locations. Responding to a request from
The Daily Review, an Oakland Tribune sister paper, Lemos wrote, "Our
official position is not to comment on any news story about our facility."

Many of the Hayward Patients Resource Center supporters who spoke up
during the public comment period at this week's meeting were from
nearby cities such as Fremont and Newark, which have all basically
banned medical marijuana dispensaries. Halliday suggested that these
supporters address their own city councils if they care about the
issue. Locally, only Oakland, San Francisco and Berkeley currently
have medical marijuana dispensaries.

Halliday added, "We're not as big as those cities, and we're
struggling to revitalize our downtown. And this stuff, unfortunately,
does not fit in with most people's concepts of a thriving commercial
retail district."

An agenda report from April said the city did not formally authorize
the dispensary operations because of "the conflict between federal
and state laws on the issue."

The feds should take their heads out of the sand and make marijuana a
Class 2 drug that people do research on," said Councilmember Bill
Quirk. "When you make something illegal, like in Prohibition, people
just feel like they have to use it."

He added that research on marijuana has shown it to be useful as an
anti-inflammatory and has suggested it as a treatment for dementia.

Councilmember Kevin Dowling noted the large amount of public interest
from residents both favoring and opposing the dispensary.

"Personally, I don't think it should be decided in closed session,"
he said, adding that he did not vote for the item and would not bring
it up for an agenda until there was more support among councilmembers.

Dowling said the resource center showed the council a list of 3,000
people with medical marijuana cards in Castro Valley and Hayward.

He added, "I have a hard time believing there's that many terminally
ill patients."

Mayor Mike Sweeney said the council had received many inquiries from
downtown residents and merchants who felt the dispensary was not an
appropriate use in the downtown and that it was causing problems,
such as attracting crime. Sweeney added that although the matter was
decided six months ago, the closed session was to deal with legal
matters. The city attorney announced later in public session that the
city will bring procedures to close the current location, but did not
elaborate.

According to public records at City Hall, Lemos has been operating
the business from the B and Foothill location since May 2001.

when he took out a license to operate "Phat Chix" as a retail
business. The "Hayward Patients Resource Center" started in December
2003 as a consultant business. Both licenses are paid for through the
end of the year.

Halliday said, "I think we owe it to everybody to try to explain what
we're doing. It's a very difficult issue. We really have given them a
chance. Unfortunately, they were unable to find a location."