The OCBC initially functioned as a bicycle delivery service, providing cannabis to patients with medical needs in Oakland, California.

Richard Lee, a cultivator from Houston, Texas, regularly provided the OCBC with high-quality cannabis, contributing to the reduction of prices.

Attorney Robert Reich provided educational opportunities to the Oakland Police Department, advocating for cannabis to be considered their lowest law enforcement priority.

In United States v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative, OCBC argued for the right to manufacture and distribute marijuana for medical patients, but the U.S. Supreme Court did not rule in their favor.

I've seen in California that there are not enough good people who want to work in the cannabis industry in a professional way, who want to pay taxes and obey regulations and help improve their community.

[1] They were taught horticulture, cooking, extracts, legal issues and managing successful law enforcement encounters, plus politics and history, from leaders in the cannabis movement, including Jeff Jones, Chris Conrad, attorney Lawrence Lichter, Dennis Peron, and Lee himself.

Dale Sky Jones joined Oaksterdam's staff as a science instructor in February 2008 and was determined to add satellite schools nationwide, starting with the first in Los Angeles, a second in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and a third in Sebastopol, California.

The new 30,000-square-foot school included multiple classrooms, an auditorium, a hands-on grow lab, a theater, and a 10,000-square-foot basement nursery full of cannabis plants.

[7] In addition to educating students, Oaksterdam University leaders acted as activists in the legalization movement, beginning with supporting California Proposition 19 in 2010.

[12] A city council member told press that Oakland officials had not been briefed in advance about the raid, nor about what crime had allegedly been committed.

Founder Richard Lee said he would be giving up ownership of the organization, citing mounting debt and concern for incurring federal charges.

Retired DEA Administrative Law Judge Francis L. Young, in a 1988 ruling, asserted, "The evidence in this record clearly shows that marijuana has been accepted as capable of relieving the distress of great numbers of very ill people and doing so with safety under medical supervision.

[20] Oaksterdam University offers assistance to agencies aiming to establish a regulated, taxable, and safe cannabis industry within their jurisdictions.

The university also offers technical assistance known as Cannabis Social Equity programs in the California cities of Oakland, Los Angeles, Palm Springs, San Francisco, and Monterey.