Now for some positive news from Oakland:

[robdogbucky]

Oakland allows industrial-scale marijuana farms
Matthai Kuruvila, Chronicle Staff Writer

(07-20) 23:40 PDT OAKLAND -- Oakland's City Council late Tuesday adopted regulations permitting industrial-scale marijuana farms, a plan that some small farmers argued would squeeze them out of the industry they helped to build.

To address concerns from smaller farmers, the council pledged to create regulations on regulating small- and medium-size marijuana farms this year. Council members and proponents of marijuana cultivation regulation viewed the proposal as smart public policy: It would generate revenue, ensure that fire and building codes are enforced, keep neighborhoods safe from robberies, and further position Oakland as the center of the state's cannabis economy.

"It's really important for Oakland to be a vital part of that growth and development for licensed facilities," said Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan...

...Oakland has long been pushing the boundaries of marijuana legalization. In 2004, voters passed Measure Z, declaring marijuana a low concern for law enforcement. In 2009, voters passed Measure F to tax medical cannabis at 1.8 percent. The taxation, believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, was a step toward legalization.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/21/BAU81EH9D3.DTL#ixzz0uMaVEoCU



Now that is some progress to be happy about, although there are some concerns about the fate of the small growers. In the article about last night's vote and public comment, the owner of Harborsides Health Center raised concern about that issue, saying his dispensary uses 500 different growers, hence maintaining quality and choice for patients.

Things are happening fast and folks are positioning themselves for the aftermath of a victory on 19, Dog willing. I think this discussion about large corporate growers vs small, connisseur growers will expand and yeild a good result for the economy of California.


Just my dos centavos


robdogbucky

[asdjrocky]

1. Oakland leading the way!

K&R!

[robdogbucky]

5. Yo, Rocky, sorry I didn't get back to you

How did the effort go in Stockton?

Did you make it to Oaktown on 4/20?

rdb

[asdjrocky]

6. 420 was great, got to meet a lot of cool people

Hope you're doing good! :hi:

Welcome into the light, right?

[Sebastian Doyle]

2. Funny I should read this right now as I'm listening to the Green960 stream out of SF

They were just mentioning on their 5:00 news break the facts of how legalization could help the state, by freeing up law enforcement resources to actually catch criminals (as opposed to people consuming a dried flower)

It's too bad that it took an economic shitstorm to get some folks to realize what some of us figured out decades ago.

[slampoet]

3. "saying his disensary uses 500 different growers"

what is a disensary?

[robdogbucky]

4. Neener, Neener, fixed it

That's what I get for trying to post while doing several other things and not proofreading, actually one of my pet peeves about others.

Although the possibilities of what I could have meant with that spelling error.....

Did you see Inception yet?

Nevermind

Carry on, regardless

rdb

[slampoet]

7. Sorry to play spelling cop I was only hard on you because I thought it was the SFGate

that spelled it wrong.


lazy reporters are my peeve. Amatures like DU'ers should get a pass, sorry.