PETITIONS IN FOR POT LEGALIZATION MEASURE

Cannabis Proponents Say They Collected 12,000 More Than the 20,000
Signatures Required for a City Vote

OAKLAND -- It may be awhile before you can pick up some party pot at
the store when you stop for cigarettes, tomatoes and milk in the city
of Oakland.

But that's the ultimate vision held by advocates for the legalization
of marijuana -- for recreational use, not just medical. And they're
hoping Oakland voters will nudge it closer to reality.

On Monday, members of the Oakland Civil Liberties Alliance turned in
more than 32,000 signatures to city election officials to get the
Oakland Cannabis Initiative on the November ballot.

With at least 12,000 more than the required 20,000 signatures for
ballot initiatives, Alliance members are feeling pretty confident of
the measure's success. Officials at the City Clerk's Office confirmed
the signatures were turned in Monday but said the names must still be
certified in the next 14 business days before the item can proceed to
the voters.

"It makes us feel really good and confident that we're headed to the
ballot in November," said Alliance member Joe DeVries.

The measure would not decriminalize pot in Oakland until cannabis is
legalized by state officials, but it would prepare the city for the
possibility, outlining ways to tax and regulate sales when the time
comes.

Until that happens, the measure, if passed, would merely direct the
Oakland Police Department to treat the private adult use of marijuana
as its lowest priority.

"The measure would ultimately have the city tax and regulate the
private adult use of cannabis in Oakland for people 21 and over,"
DeVries said. "It would help us keep cannabis under control, keep the
city from wasting law-enforcement resources on it and keep cannabis
out of the hands of children."

DeVries said the Alliance is perfectly aware that the city can't
legalize marijuana on its own.

"We know this. That's why, in the text of the initiative, we're giving
the city an out," DeVries said. "It says the city needs to do this as
soon as it is possible under state law. And we believe in the next
couple of years there will be state legislation allowing local

jurisdictions to legalize and regulate cannabis sales.

"And that would get rid of the street dealing of marijuana," he said.
"If you put it behind the counter, put it in a store -- it's basically
a substance up there with caffeine, tobacco and over-the-counter
medicines -- then you basically take it off the black market, take
away the profit for the dealers and get it off the street corners," he
said.

Police, however, dispute the assertion that being able to buy pot
legally in the store would get dealers off the street.

"It's not going to solve all the problems they say it's going to
solve," said Oakland police narcotics Lt. Rick Hart. "How much would
it cost in stores? How difficult will it be to get it? There's still
going to be a black market if it's too expensive in the store and you
can get it for less on the street.

"Also, you'll still have the under-21 folks interested in purchasing
it, and where are they going to get it?" Hart said. "Because stores
would presumably be carding, young people couldn't get it there and
would still buy it on the street. So you won't have less dealers. As
long as it's a lucrative business on the street, it's gonna be out
there."

And Hart said personal adult use of marijuana is already a pretty low
priority in Oakland. "Currently, if we stop someone and they have less
than an ounce, if they have one joint in the car, they only get a
citation anyway," he said. "Even now, we're not handcuffing people and
taking them to jail for that. So the only thing that would change
would be the amount they could have."

Aside from law-enforcement issues, advocates of the measure say money
generated by taxing marijuana sales would help fund vital city services.

"The revenue it could generate for the city is phenomenal," DeVries
said.

While proponents of the measure say it is completely separate from the
medical marijuana issue, some people in the medical marijuana movement
are concerned it might discredit medical users, DeVries said.

"They're afraid people will say, 'See, we told you that's what they
were all after in the first place. They weren't really using it for
medical.' But that's not going to happen. That's why we don't want to
associate this with medical use. This is an economic issue, a
law-enforcement issue. It's entirely separate."

Richard Lee of the Bulldog Cafe on Broadway, one of Oakland's medical
marijuana dispensaries, said he didn't know of anyone on the medical
side who is opposed to the measure.

"If anything, it should help get the prices down for medical users and
raise availability, and we could increase hours," Lee said. "Plus, you
wouldn't have cops saying, 'You don't look sick to me.'

"Exactly how this is going to play out has yet to be seen, but I do
think there's a lot to be learned from how medical marijuana laws have
developed, which could apply to laws for private recreational use,"
Lee said. "The city of Oakland is already permitting clubs, while the
federal government still considers them illegal. That says a lot."

Indeed, the Oakland City Council recently voted to issue permits to
medical marijuana dispensaries -- but only four permits, forcing a
handful of others to close and bringing both praise and objections
from the medical community.

"Medical marijuana started with a local movement, with San Francisco's
Proposition P in 1991, five years before the statewide Prop. 215," Lee
said. "Personal-use laws could happen like that too, if we get another
few cities in the next few years to pass similar ballot measures as
this one, and get more and more support for it -- we'll see what happens."