News
Oakland Coliseum Will Continue Pot Busts
Fri, Sep 24, 2004 1:09 pm
source: Tri-Valley Herald
Oakland's Measure Z will not affect enforcement at venue
By Paul T. Rosynsky, STAFF WRITER
OAKLAND -- Busting pot-smoking fans at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum complex should remain a top priority for law enforcement agents regardless of how city voters feel, Coliseum officials said Thursday.
Members of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority said it would be too confusing -- and dangerous -- to treat marijuana use at the complex as a low priority for law enforcement.
Measure Z, a initiative on the Nov. 2 ballot, calls for making private use of marijuana -- in one's own residence -- a low priority for local police. Initiative backers say the Coliseum Authority's focus on the issue is irrelevant, since the complex is a public place.
"There needs to be no ambiguousness," said City Councilmember Danny Wan (Grand Lake - Chinatown), an authority member. "I want to make sure we still prohibit marijuana use in and around the Coliseum."
Wan, along with Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty, also a authority member, criticized the initiative during a Thursday meeting as security for Oakland Raiders' games was being discussed.
Both said allowing the initiative to cover the Coliseum complex would confuse security since it is handled by two different agencies: the Oakland Police Department and the Alameda County Sheriff's Department.
Since the sheriff's department would not be forced to follow the initiative, both said officers and deputies at the complex could be confused as they would be forced to follow to different standards.
Further, both argued, making pot smoking a low priority would only invite more crime to the complex, turning the parking lot into an open drug market.
Measure Z would make the "private use" of marijuana Oakland's lowest law enforcement priority. It also would set up a platform for the city to tax and regulate the sale of marijuana for adult use should the state make the drug legal.
Joe DeVries, campaign manager for Yes on Measure Z, said Wan and Haggerty were wasting their time trying to draft an exemption to the law for the Coliseum complex.
If passed, the law would only apply to the private use of marijuana, not public uses such as smoking pot at the Coliseum complex.
"It's absolutely ridiculous that they would consider this," he said. "It is only private adult use that we are talking about. I just think they are being silly.
By Paul T. Rosynsky, STAFF WRITER
OAKLAND -- Busting pot-smoking fans at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum complex should remain a top priority for law enforcement agents regardless of how city voters feel, Coliseum officials said Thursday.
Members of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority said it would be too confusing -- and dangerous -- to treat marijuana use at the complex as a low priority for law enforcement.
Measure Z, a initiative on the Nov. 2 ballot, calls for making private use of marijuana -- in one's own residence -- a low priority for local police. Initiative backers say the Coliseum Authority's focus on the issue is irrelevant, since the complex is a public place.
"There needs to be no ambiguousness," said City Councilmember Danny Wan (Grand Lake - Chinatown), an authority member. "I want to make sure we still prohibit marijuana use in and around the Coliseum."
Wan, along with Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty, also a authority member, criticized the initiative during a Thursday meeting as security for Oakland Raiders' games was being discussed.
Both said allowing the initiative to cover the Coliseum complex would confuse security since it is handled by two different agencies: the Oakland Police Department and the Alameda County Sheriff's Department.
Since the sheriff's department would not be forced to follow the initiative, both said officers and deputies at the complex could be confused as they would be forced to follow to different standards.
Further, both argued, making pot smoking a low priority would only invite more crime to the complex, turning the parking lot into an open drug market.
Measure Z would make the "private use" of marijuana Oakland's lowest law enforcement priority. It also would set up a platform for the city to tax and regulate the sale of marijuana for adult use should the state make the drug legal.
Joe DeVries, campaign manager for Yes on Measure Z, said Wan and Haggerty were wasting their time trying to draft an exemption to the law for the Coliseum complex.
If passed, the law would only apply to the private use of marijuana, not public uses such as smoking pot at the Coliseum complex.
"It's absolutely ridiculous that they would consider this," he said. "It is only private adult use that we are talking about. I just think they are being silly.
» be the first to comment