Free Republic

Once again, Oakland is barreling into the pot frontier on its own. Federal officials have forced the shutdown of more than 200 medical marijuana dispensaries throughout California since fall, and the state Supreme Court agreed last week to hear a case that could throw the industry into chaos - but is that discouraging the city of Oaksterdam? Hardly. Oakland officials are planning to issue permits . . .

Ryan and Matthew Epperley awoke at 4 a.m. in Redding, loaded their Dodge Durango with clothes for the weekend and arrived in Oakland on a Saturday morning just in time to attend their first class at Oaksterdam University. The brothers were among 20 people enrolled in the two-day course that, by Sunday evening, would teach them how to own and operate a pot club in California. They'd learn how to grow their product indoors, harvest it and cook with it, and hear from several lecturers on the legality of such a practice.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is pushing to close San Francisco's cannabis clubs by turning its guns on their landlords - warning them that renting to pot dispensaries could cost them their buildings. The agency intends to send letters by week's end to 80 owners of buildings housing medical marijuana clubs, similar to notices it fired off recently to landlords in Los Angeles and Sacramento, according law enforcement sources. "By this notice, you have been made aware of the purposes for which the property is being used," said a copy of the letter sent to Sacramento landlords, signed by the...

With the number of known medical marijuana clubs in San Francisco now up to 43, Mayor Gavin Newsom proposed on Thursday a number of regulations he hopes will "address legitimate neighborhood concerns regarding the location, proliferation and security of these dispensaries.'' The recommendations -- many already outlined in state law pertaining to medical marijuana -- range from forbidding the clubs to operate within 1,000 feet of places where young people congregate, such as playgrounds and schools, to requiring that operators adhere to good-neighbor policies. The mayor wants to make sure no one drinks alcohol on the premises, that minimum security,...

Even if you aren't one of the state's estimated 100,000 medicinal marijuana users, a dope dispensary could be coming to a corner near you. Just ask the very surprised resident of San Francisco's tony Pacific Heights neighborhood who phoned us the other day after stumbling across a recently sprouted pot club on Vallejo Street, with its blinds drawn and a freshly painted phone number on the awning. "I have two kids,'' said Angela Weber. "When we walked by the place, it just reeked of dope. "Neighbors are furious because it is essentially a residential area, and their property values are...