DE LA FUENTE DECLARES WAR AGAINST OAKSTERDAM CLUBS

OAKLAND -- If City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente has his way,
Oaksterdam -- downtown Oakland's web of eight or so medicinal cannabis clubs
- -- will be a hazy memory. "We want to be true to the policy of the city," De
La Fuente said, referring to a city ordinance allowing the operation of only
one medicinal cannabis club. He wants the city to enforce that law, which
the City Council Public Safety Committee will review Tuesday.

"There should not be more than one (club) to sell and we shouldn't be an
open door to people who want to sell medical marijuana for recreational
purposes, which is what they are doing," he added.

But if all the marijuana-dispensing clubs are closed, say owners of both the
cannabis clubs and other businesses, thousands of very ill medical marijuana
patients who visit the area will not get their medicine.

And, they say, the now lively commercial district, bounded by 17th and 19th
streets and Telegraph Avenue and Broadway, will be come a ghost town without
the cafes and restaurants that attract cannabis-using patients and downtown
business people alike.

"If every one of the pot clubs closed tomorrow, the economy in this area
would go to (the dumps)," said Mario Pacetti, owner of Fat Cat Cafe, which
he said serves both workers at the Federal building and medicinal marijuana
buyers.

Part of the problem with the cannabis clubs, De La Fuente said, is they are
operating outside city, state and local laws. The city tried to legitimize
use of medical marijuana by deputizing the Oakland Cannabis Buyers
Cooperative on Broadway. Its founder, Jeff Jones, pioneered standards that
made his business a nonprofit, educational venture. Still, the federal Drug
Enforcement Agency shut it down in 1998.

The issue went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled clubs
could not use a medical necessity defense, but left open some legal avenues
for clubs to pursue.

In the meantime, several cannabis clubs have sprung up around the original
Broadway shop, even though it no longer dispenses cannabis. Police, acting
under council policy and swamped with higher priorities, essentially turn a
blind eye.

De La Fuente's plan has the support of Interim City Manager Deborah Edgerly,
who said the clubs are not properly monitored.

"I am trying to get ahead of the problem, for once, before it becomes a
problem," Edgerly said. "Once we certify one, we will shut the rest down."

Calling Oaksterdam a problem is a matter of perception, said many in the
district Friday.

One coffee shop and cannabis club owner, who asked that his name not be used
for fear of a crackdown by federal authorities, said it makes sense that
several medical cannabis suppliers occupy one spot.

"It gives the patient a chance to shop, look and find the best stuff and the
best price," he said. Some marijuana users are allergic to certain strains
of marijuana, and different clubs carry different products.

Plus, he said, zoning ordinances keep the clubs far from schools and other
areas where children congregate.

It is quiet and clean in the area. Coffee shops greet customers in a
district dotted with boarded-up buildings and graffiti. Medical marijuana
users trickle in and out of the coffee shops' back rooms, some hobbling
around on canes, some appearing to be healthy.

The club owner said up to1,000 people visit the area's cannabis clubs each
day, some coming from as far away as the Sacramento Valley to buy the
medicine and to shop Oakland.

He also pays about $250,000 in state, federal and city taxes, he said. All
his employees have health insurance benefits.

He said he is a respectable business owner -- his coffee shop is clean and
well-run -- and is providing a service the majority of California voters
agreed was humane for very ill patients. And he is part of the neighborhood
revitalization, he said.

Shop owners, such as Tom Grossi of Oakland Coin and Jewelry Exchange, agree.
Grossi said there has been a noticeable improvement in the quality of
services and amount of foot traffic in the years the clubs have been open.

Plus, he said, the people who frequent the coffee shops to buy medicinal
marijuana are often very ill, he said.

"I can't emphasize that enough," he said. "If you sit there on a daily
basis, you will see people who are definitely ill and seeking comfort and
solace and relief."

Vice Mayor Nancy Nadel (Downtown-West Oakland) said she does not believe De
La Fuente's plan to close down all the clubs in Oaksterdam has the full
council's support.

Nadel said she would like to see the city and the clubs work together to
develop operating standards so more than one club could dispense marijuana
to ill patients.

"I don't think just one is appropriate," Nadel said.

The Public Safety Committee will review the issue at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in
Hearing Room One at City Hall, One Frank Ogawa Plaza.