Wednesday, July 21, 2010
OAK's Pot Farm Regs Win In Extra Innings
Regulation & Legislation David Downs — Wed, Jul 21, 2010 at 9:30 AM
Oakland's historic pot farm regulations passed 5-2-1 at 11:27 p.m. Tuesday night after a heated three-hour hearing featuring over 100 requests from the public to make comment. The city wants to permit four large-scale medical cannabis farms of unlimited size which could grow up to 20 percent of the state's crop and net the broke city about $38 million in annual cultivation taxes. The second reading and vote on the ordinance occurs Tuesday, July 27.
The city council moved Oakland one large step closer to treating medical cannabis like actual medicine, by highly regulating and taxing large-scale production subject to stringent guidelines. A horror show of local pot problems emerged during the session with issues of mercury poisoning, pesticides, mold, and other nasty material said to be present on the unregulated crops of Oakland and beyond. Some clubs like Harborside independently test for molds, but the City of Oakland would set some of the highest standards for medical cannabis quality in the country. Economies of scale would drop the price, and drive out of business reckless home growers who had contributed to a 300 percent increase in residential fires in the city over the last few years.
A motion by council member Ignacio De La Fuente added the possibility of permitting medium-scale grows in the fall, as well as clarifying that busting unpermitted farms would only begin after permits have been issued in January 2011.
Oaksterdam owner Rich Lee came out in favor of the proposition as well as ally and landowner John Wilcox, who plans to rent space to growers and seed the "silicon valley of cannabis in Oakland."
Nearby club owner Stephen D'Angelo, a former business partner of Wilcox but now estranged said it would put hundreds of closeted growers out of business.
"It's not the role of government to choose the winners and losers in the marketplace."
His club buys from 400 to 500 Bay Area indoor farms with as many as half operating in Oakland.
- Harborside operator Stephen D'Angelo says Oakland is making his growers cry
Many complained about ending small grows, but the rules allow for unpermitted cultivation of up to 96 square-feet. Many used the word "corporate" as an epithet to describe who would be growing, despite the fact that all local dispensaries are in effect already corporations, as are many other community-minded concerns.
The final passage of the new pot farm regulations would shift the balance of power in town to landowners and capital owners who can show the space and funds to get a permit, but those landowners will only be as powerful as the growers tending crop there and dispensary clients legally backing such grows.
California NORML official Dale Gieringer said what the city is doing might be illegal at both the federal and state level and could invite DEA raids.
The discussion polarized the medical cannabis community in Oakland, with dispensary battling dispensary and what would otherwise be allies disagreeing vehemently.
Expect to see a lot more rules and regulations on just who is to grow in Oakland and how, including mandates for union card check rights, CO2 emissions limits, taxes and other tough environmental guidelines most activists could only dream of applying to normal industry. NAACP president Alice Huffman supported the rules as part of the decriminalization of the plant, stating "you are rescuing Oakland from financial ruin.”
So did UFCW Local 5 official Dan Rush who added "I'm so proud to be an Oaklander."
Comments (1)
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Lottery for 4 winners = really bad idea. What about quality of medicine for the medical patients with serious needs like M.S., cancer, epilepsy, chrons...etc...? Large commercial grows RARELY are able to produce volume with quality. Just alot of below average medicine. Stealing income and jobs from "MAIN" street hardly seems like and intelligent solution. Bailing out the City of Oakland's, or the State of California's, mis-managed financial crisis on the backs of the Medical Cannabis Community is evil and borderline criminal in nature. Where is Chevron? Where is Bank of America? Where is Wellsfargo? Where is At&t? Let the large corporations that have been doing business in our backyard for years bailout MAIN STREET by paying there fair share. They should be contributing funds for our roads, schools, police, fire, and healthcare. Bailing out MAIN STREET on the backs of the MEDICAL CANNABIS COMMUNITY means un-employment for many in NCAL, OREGON, and WASHINGTON and allows the Elite and Special Corporatge interests to hold on to all of the "chips" and laugh about how all the stoners and suffering medical patients helped them all get richer. Modern day Bank Robbery....just like the U.S. tax payer bailout!! Don't rock the boat...the system is working well...better security and regulation on laboratory testing are the most immediate necessary improvements, and of course the continued clinical research of CBD and its healing effects. Finally, if the penalties for... electricity theft, causing electrical fires, and robbery/theft of medicine are heavy handed and appropriate...many of the underlying problems that Oakland's officials are REALLY trying to address will resolve themselves with proper regulation and enforcement of illegal and reckless activities.
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