Q: What do you think of Oakland City Council taking the lead on cannabis cultivation regulations?

Donald Macleay

"I’ve been a big supporter of medical marijuana and I also support legalization, and I think the two should be kept separate. There’s a big problem with a black market abusing medical marijuana and I’m hoping that with a regulated legal process the price would come down. I don’t think that the black market should be setting the price. There are people who serioulsy need this stuff, and they don’t need to be paying black market, drug dealer prices. It could be a mistake to be getting involved with large corporations whose ethical track record is not better than the gangs. But Ii disagree with the idea that Oakland is getting in too early. The advocates have handled themselves very well. There’s a good  dialogue going on between the advocates of medical marijuana, the advocates of legalization, and the public.  We are the forefront, whether we like it or not, because we are also at the forefront of illegal drugs. I’d prefer we do this to we do nothing." 

Don Perata

"The market value of the industrial permit is much bigger than the price tag set by the City Council, but I'm not surprised they've missed another opportunity - this City Council doesn't have a great record of economic competence."

Larry Lionel Young, Jr

“A lot of the voters I speak to feel that its big business trying to weed out the young person and the little man. You hope that it brings in the big money. You hope that it gets rid of the deficit. Its one thing to shut a persons business down, it’s another not to create a new job. You hope that the big corporations will say, ‘We appreciate you. We want to keep you in the community. Here’s a job.’ Vote LL and Oakland will be well.”

Rebecca Kaplan

"It’s interesting, because we talk so often about Oakland harnessing new industries. As the medical cannabis industry is growing and evolving, just like I see specialty foods, green technology, the health care industry, and innovation in trade and logistics evolving, my commitment is to find ways that Oakland can harness these for new jobs and new economic investment. One of the largest crises facing Oakland is economic. I don’t think that pursuing innovation in the cannabis industry is more important than other industries. If that’s what we were doing, then that would be a valid critique. We don’t want to be only cannabis. But it is an industry that is growing and evolving. There’s a growing demand for non-smoking cannabis, so to be able to have a licensed facility that’s clean, safe and regulated. That’s clearly something that there’s growing patient demand for. This is going to be happening somewhere, and I’d prefer it would happen in a way that returns a benefit to Oakland, rather than sit on our hands and wait. Who knows, maybe it would be RJ Reynolds that would come in, and that would be really sad.

If we are serious, that means harnessing growing investment. It’s not only about cannabis, it’s about looking at where there is opportunity. There’s also the first-mover theory. The first regions that develop a new emerging industry tend to be the ones that continue to harvest it as it grows.  If we only do what we have always done, then we’ll only get what we’ve always got. The notion that Oakland shouldn’t do anything until and unless everyone else has done it is a recipe for failure because it means we never be able to harness new industry or a new idea. When we became the first city to give permits to medical cannabis dispensaries, people said the same thing and now it’s a great success story."

Joe Tuman

"The law allows for the medicinal use of marijuana, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. But here it seems like we are putting the cart before the horse, before we know what the effects of prop 19 will be. That will have a direct effect on the market price of marijuana, and therefore Oakland’s claims of being able to raise revenue - I wont say they are exaggerated - but we can’t know what those figures will be in terms of revenue. And until we do, this is nice posturing that avoids the more serious issues that Oakland is facing, like how are we going to close this deficit today. I appreciate that they are thinking forward, but this is distracting us from the work at hand." 

Jean Quan

A lot of the small growers want to stop an industrial permit because they want to keep it small growers. The reality is that industrial growing is going to happen, so I’d like it to be here. The other reason why I support the regulation is that currently the fire dangers, and the neighborhood invasions and robberies of these plants is endangering neighborhoods. What this does is make clear industrial zones, and that should make it safer and get some of the illegality out of the industry. Not regulating is what creates crime everywhere. 

We are trying to start a new industry here. This was our experience with licensing the dispensaries. People said it would lead to problems. But we had people offering medical cannabis cards to teenagers on the street downtown. I remember we had visitors from the Legislative Analysts Office when this was happening, we were walking toward Oaksterdam, and within a few minutes, two of [the visitors] were offered medical marijuana cards. I said, ‘This is why we need regulation.’”

Editors Note: Terence Candell, Orlando Johnson and Greg Harland did not return requests for comment.