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Welcome to Oaksterdam! PDF Print E-mail
Written by Chris Conrad   
Oaksterdam News wants to introduce shoppers, tourists, working people, visitors, and cannabis consumers across the state to this emerging arts and entertainment district of Oakland.
    Between Downtown and scenic Lake Merrit lies a cannabis friendly district where a variety of businesses are revitalizing the area. It is home to the cluster of city-licensed cannabis dispensaries, the OCBC patient ID card center, and a fresh breath of tolerance marked by last year’s passage of Measure Z.
    Since the adoption of the Oakland Cannabis Regulation and Revenue Ordinance, a new era has begun and fresh opportunities are again opening up in Oaksterdam (O’dam).
Quiet growth and good neighbors
    The Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative, OCBC, opened in 1996 when it became apparent that the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club was not adequate to meet the demand. Even before Prop 215 legalized medical marijuana in California, the City Council authorized Jeff Jones to open a dispensary in Oakland. After the state initiative passed, the City deputized Jones and other service providers to shield them from federal prosecution. A federal Appeals Court ordered Jones to close shop, and the US Supreme Court made the injunction permanent in 2001.
    State law giving qualified patients a right to obtain medical marijuana was not affected, however, and the net effect of the federal ruling was to generate a vacuum that was soon filled by a variety of new outlets. Among the first was the Bulldog Coffeeshop, joined over time by the Lemondrop Coffeeshop, Compassionate Caregivers, Green Door, 420 Cafe and other dispensaries that sprang up. As this cottage industry developed, each shop had its own approach, appearance and niche but most clustered along Broadway and Telegraph Avenue.
    Since a physician’s approval and a membership card were required, access to medical marijuana dispensaries was controlled and generally outside of the illicit market. Most of the so called “buyers’ clubs” allowed on-site consumption, and a sense of community prevailed. That aspect of the area, combined with the decorative architectural facades and its proximity to Lake Merrit, though not a canal, earned the area its moniker, Oaksterdam, in honor of the famous cannabis coffee shops of Amsterdam.
    Dispensaries brought security to the area and were good neighbors. By early 2004, O’dam was home to about a dozen medical marijuana dispensaries that had sprouted up within easy walking distance of convenient BART stations. As more dispensaries took root, the area became safer and cleaner. The personality of the neighborhood began to flourish. Its reputation drew a new vigor and pride to the community.
City does about face on access
    The dispensaries were largely self-regulated under the principles of being good neighbors, but questionable practices at a few clubs drew undue attention to isolated problems.
    Unseen forces were at work, unbeknownst to the cannabis community. The director of a center for gay, lesbian, transgender and questioning youth had an eye on a new location and a simmering feud with one of the dispensaries over the smells it was venting through a shared air duct. At the same time Councilman Ignacio De la Fuente was looking for an excuse to shut down the dispensaries now that the area had been improved.
    The youth center got frustrated by City foot dragging, so to force the Council’s hand it went public about its quarrel with the dispensary. This led to a media frenzy and front page Oakland Tribune stories on O’dam. Then a Channel 5 TV producer found his car broken into while parked downtown. The result was a televised report alleging illicit marijuana sales among the dispensaries. This was exactly the pretext De la Fuente needed to use an iron fist on a non-problem. He initially sought to close all the dispensaries except for the one under federal injunction that cannot dispense medicine.
    Council member Nancy Nadel fought to defend the patients and all dispensaries, but in the end negotiated to license only four locations and scatter them around a wider area. More than 50 people spoke at the hearing to protest the plan.
    Even the youth center director stepped up to say he did not want Oaksterdam shut down, he wanted the center relocated. He got just the opposite — dispensaries were shut down while his center remained neglected.
    In the end, only Council member Desley Brooks voted against the ordinance for being punitive and ignoring the will of the community. Within months, “for lease” signs began to appear on once-bustling storefronts.
    Yet the spirit of Oaksterdam thrives in its historic relics, in its current cannabis dispensaries, and in its potential to show the world how it should be done: adults enjoying cannabis with like-minded others in private environments. We hope that the Measure Z oversight committee will feel the same.
 
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