[420 Girl]

If nothing else, Los Angeles' protracted struggle with cannabis clinic regulation should serve as a warning to other cities in which medicinal marijuana dispensaries wish to operate -- Better to lay down some strict rules and regulations, even if they can be a bit onerous (like in San Francisco), even if it means limiting the amount of clinics allowed within city limits to, say, five (like in Oakland).

The alternative is at best messy: politicians will take years figuring out what to do, and meanwhile something like 1,000 "clinics" will spring up, spooking neighbors, irking law enforcement , and hurting the movement (like in Los Angeles).

Hell hath no fury like a cautionary tale ignored, as officials in San Jose are discovering. Pot clubs were nonexistent in northern California's largest city a year ago, forcing patients to trek north to Oakland or SF or south to Santa Cruz. Those bad old days are over, and a Los Angeles-style cannabis gold rush has set in: anywhere from 30 to 45 clinics and delivery services are operating in San Jose, nobody seems to know exactly how many, and few folks -- save the patients who no longer have to drive an hour or more for their medicine, and maybe some unsavory characters happy to unload a few pounds -- are thrilled with the situation.

Steve DeAngelo is a marijuana activist and somewhat of a legalization celebrity. He is also general manager of Oakland's Harborside Collective. Harborside opened up a San Jose location in December, and found it easy to do so: there's ample light industrial space formerly occupied by failed tech firms to rent, and an eager market ready to buy. But the Wild West atmosphere could do more harm than good, he warns.

"In LA, really inappropriate people operated dispensaries, and it brought disrepute on the movement. That same thing is happening now (in San Jose)," he said last week.

How'd it happen? In October, San Jose City Councilman Pierluigi Oliverio suggested San Jose allow dispensaries within city limits and tax them. All of a sudden, collectives -- who as coops do not need business licenses -- started opening up, "sprouting like weeds," in the words of the adroit San Jose Mercury News.

Even as Mayor Chuck Reed suggested last month that pot clubs aren't necessary (cause you can grow pot in your South Bay backyard, according to him) San Jose politicians have played pass the buck with the marijuana question, pushing off any public discussion or decision to March 30th. In the meantime, the city has issued cease & desist letters to every collective it could find.

The more reputable clubs, like Harborside and the San Jose Cannabis Buyers Collective, have organized and hired an "army of litigators" to ensure continued operation, DeAngelo said -- and to be good citizens. "We don't want to fight the city," he said, noting that taxed pot clubs would help with the city's $100 million budget deficit. "We want to help the city do the fiscally-responsible thing."

Since it's too late to do the politically-responsible thing. Hopefully the next city, be it in California or elsewhere, will take notice.

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