By Ayako Mie/BERKELEY

Berkeley voters will decide on Tuesday whether to eliminate certain zoning restrictions on pot clubs and eliminate the current 2.5-pound limit on the amount of medical marijuana patients can possess.

California legalized the use of medical marijuana 12 years ago with the passage of a voter initiative called the Compassionate Use Act. Measure JJ, if approved by the majority of Berkeley voters, will enable the city’s three dispensaries to relocate without applying for a use permit or public hearing. Pot clubs are more strictly regulated than other retail businesses, but this measure would basically treat them the same in terms of zoning regulations. The pot clubs would be able to exist as a “matter of right” and be able to move locations at will.

It will also lift the restriction on the amount of cannabis a patient or a caregiver can have, which is currently 2.5 pounds in Berkeley. To some Berkeley residents, Measure JJ seems similar to Measure R, which failed in 2004. But this time, they said the situation is more urgent.

“If [dispensaries] cannot move, they are going to close. This will leave thousands of patience with no medicine. They are going to go back to the streets, ” said James Anthony, the campaign manager for Measure JJ. Currently, the city of Berkeley has three dispensaries. However, two dispensaries on San Pablo Avenue and Telegraph Avenue are facing shutdown as their landlords have decided to redevelop the sites.

Lack of zoning rules on the dispensaries makes it harder for the planning commission to give dispensaries a permit for relocation. “ Under the current situation, it is possible for the dispensaries to move into a residential area,” Anthony said. Measure JJ will not allow dispensaries to open shops in residential areas, but they could relocate to commercial or industrial areas without public hearings.

Anthony argues that there had been no trouble between the dispensaries and the neighbors. According to Anthony, dispensaries have already been operating in accordance with the self-imposed rules, such as an anti-diversion rule, which prohibits patients and caregivers from selling or giving marijuana to non-qualified people. Measure JJ would mandate that dispensaries establish a Peer Review Committee, which would write those rules into law. Thus, the measure would self-regulate medical cannabis more strictly. The Peer Review Committee is a commission that would consist of the members of collectives and the dispensaries appointed by the city. “The Peer Review Committee will meet publicly and invite input from the public. It is a public hearing. The public can talk to the commission,” Anthony said.

There is no organized opposition against Measure JJ, but some people are worried that the measure will create numerous pot clubs in Berkeley. However, the measure does not change the city’s current limit of three collective dispensaries, and does not affect a city rule that bans dispensaries from opening within 1,000 feet of schools or each other.

Still, Measure JJ does not alleviate the worries of those opposed to medical marijuana, because it would eliminate the specific limit on pot possession, as long as patients have a “reasonably and medically necessary amount.” The question remains: how to determine the “reasonably and medically necessary” amount of marijuana? Concilmember Kriss Worthington, who endorses the measure, says that it is doctors – not Measure JJ – that should decide the amount of marijuana a patient can have.

Federal law still prohibits anyone from possessing marijuana. However, the city of Berkeley has maintained a lenient policy towards medical marijuana, and has approved a resolution opposing the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s raid on city dispensaries in January.

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