75A - PH - MEDICAL MARIJUANA - PROHIBIT

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iVledical marijuana merchant defies Oakland order to close. Othea•s might go underground, as city's new rule gets mixed reaction from consumers, business owners Oakland Tribune (CA) Wednesday, June 02, 2004 By Laura Counts, STAFF WRITER OAKLAND -- Medical marijuana patients who packed into the Dragonfly Holistic Solutions dispensary on Telegraph. Avenue on Tuesday seemed. unaware the business h.ad been told by the city to shut down. They said they were seeking the most potent medicine in town -- a strain of marijuana called "Barney Purple" -- and didn't like hearing that new city rules will limit them to four city-sanctioned establishments. "If you enjoy feeling pain-free, this is the place to be," said Sullivan Wallace of Oakland, who says he has a cannabis prescription to fight chronic pain and anxiety. Seven existing dispensaries and one proposed club had applied for the four business permits available. After a series of hearings and several delays, the clubs were notified Friday afternoon whether they made the cut. Those that received licenses wil] have to pay a $20,000 annual fee. Those that did not were supposed to close Tuesday. Dragonfly did not make it, but owner Ken Estes said he will continue to operate in def7ance of city rules until. he is arrested. He planned a protest outside the dispensary Tuesday morning, but the only sigms of one emerged when the doors to the club opened 15 minutes late. "There is some kind of discrimination. going on behind the scenes," Estes said. "Or else the city is out of touch with the patients, because we are the preferred club. When we opened, we forced prices down and brought in higher quality (than the other clubs)." Other club owners, including some who were issued permits, criticized the city's process as arbitrary and complained that three days wasn't enough notice for them. or the employees on their payrolls. Still, no one except Estes continued business as usual. One dispensary owner contended there are clubs that did not even apply for a city permit and may try to operate under the radar. "There are some who chose not to pay $300 and sign a confession, said Richard Lee, owner of the Bulldog Cafe, who got a permit for his cafe on Broadway but not for h.is sma1I SR71 Cafe on 17th Street, according to the city manager's office. Even though Lee received a permit, he contended the process was arbitrary and the four-club limit does not make sense..He plans to move to a larger location to serve the additional. customers the closures will bring. "This thing is getting too big for them to say there can only be four clubs. There are too many people who appreciate getting marijuana in a civilized way," said Lee, one of the backers of an initiative now collecting signatures for the November ballot that would all but decriminalize adult use of marijuana in. Oakland. Sparky Rose, operator oi' Compassionate Access on Telegraph -- which also was approved -- said he serves 7,000 patients and is expecting more. He plans to soon move to a larger location nearby. "It was difficult to gauge what was important to the city when. we were presenting ourselves. There wasn't a lot of transparency in the process," Rose said, adding that everyone was asked for the same information. "They should have extended the deadline, because a lot of clubs have a lot of employees and a holiday weekend. isn't much notice." The city inspected the clubs for code violations, checked for any complaints against them, and asked for information ranging from number of patients to products to prices. 1n the end, according to a letter from the city's Administrative Hearing Officer Larry Carroll to Estes, the city seemed to put more stock on who had. operated the longest. 52 75A-61