Oaksterdam is a cultural district on the north end of Downtown Oakland, California, where medical cannabis is available for purchase in cafés, clubs, and patient dispensaries.
The name is a portmanteau of "Oakland" and "Amsterdam," due to the Dutch city's cannabis coffee shops and the drug policy of the Netherlands.
According to Proposition 215, a statewide voter initiative which amended the California Health and Safety Code, marijuana used for medical purposes is legal to possess and cultivate.
[2] Dispensaries require a doctor's note in order to obtain medical cannabis, which is legal under California law, but still illegal under the federal Controlled Substances Act.
[3][4] The history of Oaksterdam started in 1996 with Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative (OCBC) distributing to Proposition 215[5] patients, and with the resulting legal wrangling.
[citation needed] Richard Lee founded Bulldog Coffee Shop (a dispensary) in 1999 and Coffeeshop Blue Sky in 2003, naming them after cafes in Amsterdam, he envisioned a downtown Oakland revitalized by the support of his and other cannabis businesses.
[citation needed] Federal authorities, however, continued to try to apply the law, despite Attorney General Eric Holder's instructions to U.S. attorneys in October 2009 that they "should not focus federal resources in your states on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana.
Most of these dispensaries had the chance to obtain non-profit status; however, some chose to remain for-profit and were therefore no longer permitted to dispense cannabis.
[16] In 2008, Lee founded West Coast Cannabis (edited by author and activist Ngaio Bealum), which covers similar news stories in a magazine format.
[17] Oaksterdam News editor, Chris Conrad, went on to found the West Coast Leaf , with his wife Mikki Norris, which ran with a circulation of 175,000 until 2013.