HAYWARD'S OWN PLAN TO BE DISCUSSED TODAY

HAYWARD -- A bill Gov. Gray Davis signed into law Sunday creating a state
identification card for medical marijuana patients could snuff out the
city's proposal to create its own ID card program.

The City Council is scheduled to discuss the issuance of ID cards at a work
session at 5 p.m. today at City Hall, Room 2A, 777 B St., Hayward. The
meeting, open to the public, also will address an informal deal city
officials struck with two existing downtown dispensaries that allows them
to exist for three years under certain conditions.

The work session is the council's first chance to consider the conclusions
drawn last summer by Mayor Roberta Cooper's ad hoc committee of city
officials, community members and medical marijuana advocates. The committee
wasformed to look into the possibility of sanctioning, even if informally,
the dispensaries now operating against Hayward's zoning law.

They also may be in violation of criminal law, depending upon to whom you
talk. Proposition 215 legalized marijuana for medical uses in California,
although it is still considered illegal under federal law. The Hayward
Police Department declined a seat on the committee because of the inherent
conflict.

After discussions about some issues facing patients and dispensary owners,
committee members agreed upon a compromise two-part plan, subject to the
council's approval.

The first part is developing an ID card ordinance modeled after one passed
last spring by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.

City Manager Jesus Armas, who spearheaded the compromise plan, couldn't be
reached on the Columbus Day holiday Monday to comment on whether the new
law negates the city's interest in a local ID card program.

But the issue is definitely worth questioning in light of the new law, said
Cooper, who added that she remains torn between compassion for patients and
fear of a federal raid.

The second part of the compromise plan, grandfathering in Local Patients
Cooperative and The Hempery -- both located downtown on the east side of
Foothill Boulevard -- is creating its own uncertainties. The plan's authors
assumed the former Helping Hands Patient Cooperative was moving from its B
Street location to a new location on unincorporated county land.

The dispensary instead has closed and reopened under new management in a
Foothill Boulevard shop on the east side of the street owned by Jane
Weirick, an ad hoc committee member and former president of the Medical
Cannabis Association. Helping Hands' answering system refers customers to
Weirick's shop.

Armas, in a memo to the council, wrote that Weirick's operation is "counter
to the compromise solution."

However, Weirick said her dispensary is consistent with the spirit of the
agreement because it keeps dispensaries off B Street -- considered a focal
point for downtown development -- and maintains the same number of
facilities that had been operating downtown.

If the council agrees to allow the dispensaries to exist for three years,
they would be required to limit the amount of pot on site each day; try to
keep people from hanging out near the facilities; ban advertising;
recognize that the operation is subject to police inspection; and encourage
patients not to smoke on-site or on the streets.

At the end of three years, if the state and federal governments have worked
out the jurisdictional conflict, the city might consider amending its
zoning law to allow the dispensaries to operate under a conditional use
permit, Armas said. If the conflict persists, the dispensaries would have
to close.

However, by that time, if a plan under study to widen Foothill Boulevard
gets implemented, the two existing Foothill shops, both near B Street,
would be forced to move for another reason: They would be right in the path
of wrecking ball.