San Jose's "pot clubs" to go from 110 to 10 -- this should be "interesting..."

City Council Slashes Number Of Pot Clubs In SJ
https://www.ktvu.com/politics/27605837/detail.html

SAN JOSE: City Council Drastically Cuts Allowable Number Of Pot Dispensaries


The 110 medical marijuana dispensaries in San Jose will be reduced to only ten after a city council vote to impose new restrictions on pot clubs.

A vote that came in early Tuesday evening would limit the city to only ten dispensaries and only two such establishments in each of the city's eleven districts. The new regulation would also require that marijuana be grown on site at the dispensaries.

The city council voted on regulating the sale of medical marijuana after three hours of spirited discussion.

"My count that passes on a 6-5 vote, so the motion is approved," said San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed.

Medmar is one of those 110 medical marijuana dispensaries in San Jose. Tuesday night, its operators were trying to position the collective as one of the only ten that will be allowed to be in business in the Bay Area’s largest city.

The cannabis club has 3,000 members and has been in existence for 13 months. It fulfills one of the stipulations of the regulation in that marijuana is grown on the premises.

"Hopefully, the city does what it says and they do go through a process where they do a process of elimination where you are the best of the best," said Nicole Bock of the CalMed Wellness Collective.

But other club operators weren't happy, arguing that ten dispensaries was not enough to serve a city with a population of one million residents.

"There may very well be lawsuits," said All-American Cannibas Club’s Dave Hodges. "Hopefully we can all avoid that."
San Jose Police Chief Chris Moore wanted a ban on all clubs citing seven violent robberies that have occurred at marijuana collectives.

"We still have some questions around legality under federal law and clearly it's against federal law," said Moore.

Mayor Reed said the intent was to serve only those who really need medicinal marijuana.

"If we're just providing medicinal marijuana to people who are seriously ill, ten will be plenty," explained Reed.

The ten cannabis clubs will be chosen through an extensive process. Permits will be issued on a first come first serve basis
To qualify, applicants must go through a 30-day trial period. Additionally, they must pass a criminal background check and pay more than $6,000 in fees.

Mayor Reed said he hopes to have the ten clubs chosen by the end of the year. The medical marijuana clubs will also have to pay the city a seven-percent sales tax.

from PressDemocrat:

April 20th, 2011 10:03am
Why write about marijuana?
by Marijuana.Empire

Over meatloaf, mashed potatoes and salad the other day at Santa Rosa Fire Department’s station one, the conversation turned to the growing number of people tending marijuana plants inside their homes.

Actually, they were telling me about the various electrical re-jiggering people do to power the lights and fans required in makeshift plant operations. And the electrical fires that result.

Last fall, a Press Democrat photographer and I trekked into the back woods of a woman’s property with a bunch of her friends (and their guns) to find the camp of people she believed were growing the pot plants on her family’s sprawling, rural northwest Sonoma County property. We found the camp and the plants. That got people talking about how to protect themselves from armed land-poachers.

I also often talk with an 87-year-old man who calls after most marijuana-related stories I write for the Press Democrat and tells me about how the drug has helps him through painful illnesses. And a woman called last week because she’s concerned about a rental property next to her house that seems to have a revolving door of pot-growing tenants.

Meanwhile, pot aficionados openly try various buds and vote for the best at the end of harvest as federal regulators pressure banks to look into possible money laundering schemes, prompting banks to close the accounts of medical marijuana dispensaries perhaps to avoid the staff-intensive efforts of scrutinizing their accounts.

And the SF Chronicle just reported the debut of a medical marijuana lobbying group, the National Cannabis Industry Association, and its efforts to represent the $1.7 billion medical marijuana industry in Sacramento and Washington, D.C.

Clearly, there’s a lot to discuss.