San Jose to drop pot club rules

Mayor Chuck Reed called Friday for suspending San Jose's two-year odyssey to regulate medical marijuana clubs, citing a successful referendum drive to repeal rules the city approved last fall and pending decisions that may clarify state law.

"Unfortunately, the law is simply unclear and unsettled," Reed said Friday. The agenda-setting committee he is chairman of is expected Wednesday to schedule a Feb. 14 City Council discussion on the recommendation.

Marijuana activists who called the city regulations unworkable cheered the mayor's recommendation to drop them and await decisions that clarify state law. The city rules have been suspended since critics collected more than 31,000 valid signatures in October to qualify a referendum that would allow voters to repeal the city ordinance if the city refused to do so.

"It is a sensible solution for San Jose today -- and for other California cities too," said James Anthony, an Oakland attorney who along with John Vasconcellos, the former state senator from San Jose, led the city referendum drive by the Citizens Coalition for Patient Care. The clubs, Anthony said, also are seeking legal clarity from the state.

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