Oakland Defies State Limit on Amount of Pot Patients Can Have

The City Council says that medical pot users may keep 1 1/2 pounds of marijuana on hand, defying a limit set by state Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren.

The policy, approved unanimously Tuesday, is believed to be the state’s most liberal and permissive since implementation of Proposition 215, the medical marijuana initiative approved in 1996.

Lungren has set a limit of two plants, or 1 ounce of marijuana, for a 30-day supply.

Under the Oakland measure, pot users will be allowed to collect a three-month supply, which amounts to 30 outdoor flowering plants, four dozen indoor flowering plants or 1 1/2 pounds of bulk marijuana.

That policy is based on U.S. Food and Drug Administration tests of medicinal marijuana, which allot half a pound of pot a month or about 10 cigarettes a day, according to a committee of police, city employees, physicians and patients that developed the Oakland proposal.

Police will be asked to honor the policy, but users will be ordered to forfeit their pot supply if they can’t provide a doctor’s note within two days.

The city has one of the state’s largest pot emporiums, the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Club, with about 1,700 members. Despite the state initiative, the federal government says that possession of marijuana, whatever the purpose, is against the law.