San Francisco cab drivers with medical-marijuana cards would avoid any penalties if they test positive for the drug during annual checks. Photo: Seth Perlman, Associated Press Photo: Seth Perlman, Associated Press San Francisco cab drivers with medical-marijuana cards would avoid any penalties if they test positive for the drug during annual checks.
How’s this for a twist? San Francisco’s Municipal Transportation Agency has voted to begin testing taxi drivers for marijuana — but drivers can get a pass if they have a medical marijuana card.
“I would say it’s a work in progress,” agency board President Tom Nolan said after the panel voted recently to approve rules for testing cabbies for marijuana. “We certainly don’t want anyone driving under the influence, but that’s where it stands.”
MORE BY MATIER & ROSS
Mayor Ed Lee walks down 10th Street alongside 1400 Mission on his way to an opening celebration welcoming new residents to 1400 Mission Street on Wednesday, November 4, 2015 in San Francisco, Calif. 1400 Mission is a 190 unit, 15-floor affordable family housing project. Teflon no more: The nasty stuff is sticking to Ed Lee A sign at the San Francisco Housing Authority Senior Housing directs voters to the polling location on election day in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, November 3, 2015. Peskin’s apparent victory tarnishes Lee’s election night A visitor walks through the lobby of the newly renovated War Memorial Veterans Building in San Francisco, Calif. on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2015. S.F. big shots forcing vets out of Veterans Building, suit says
Under the rules that are being drawn up to comply with federal law, drivers would be tested once a year as part of having their permits renewed. The tests would be scheduled well in advance so recreational pot users would have time to stop smoking and clean out their systems.
But going several weeks without weed would be hard on medical users, so the board decided to give them a pass if they fail the test.
Any driver involved in a crash would be tested, the board decided, and would be suspended if marijuana is found in their system.
But not holders of medical marijuana cards. They’d be tested but escape punishment even if they test positive for pot.
Flywheel cab company President Hansu Kim said he would never allow a cabbie behind the wheel who was high — but supports the cardholder exemption.
“It has not been a problem in the industry,” Kim said. “I believe in drug testing ... but there are 20,000 Uber and Lyft drivers out there and only 1,800 cabbies, and we don’t want to make it any harder on them to get a permit.”
Game on: Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf is scheduled to jet off to New York this week to pump up National Football League owners on why the Raiders should stay in Oakland.
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf
Schaaf won’t be presenting that highly anticipated financial plan for building a new stadium — but she will bring the pom-poms and cheer about how Oakland continues to be a “tremendous market” for the team.
It’s all intended to buy the city time to get a stadium deal together, and league officials have told the mayor not to rush it.
The first piece of any plan will be a blueprint for Oakland buying out Alameda County’s share of the Coliseum site. Right after that will be an explanation of how the city and county will pay off the $80 million outstanding hangover from the last Raiders stadium deal in 1995.
NFL owners had been expected to decide in January which of three teams — the St. Louis Rams, the San Diego Chargers or the Raiders — should relocate to Los Angeles.
But Assistant City Manager Claudia Cappio tells us the decision could get pushed back until after the Super Bowl on Feb. 7.
Aaron Peskin Photo: Brandon Chew, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Brandon Chew, Special To The Chronicle Aaron Peskin
Napoleon and Josephine: Supervisor-elect Aaron Peskin headed off to Asia right after election day, planning to spend a couple of weeks trekking through the Himalayas and hoping for a stopover in China to thank Rose Pak, his onetime nemesis who turned out to be the unlikely key to his political comeback.
“I’m not sure we’ll be able to hook up, but I’m going to try,” Peskin said of Pak, who is in China undergoing prep for a possible kidney transplant.
The pairing of Peskin and Pak is one of the most unlikely political alliances to come down the pike in some time. For years, Chinatown powerhouse Pak referred to Peskin as the Napoleon of North Beach and fought him at every turn.
All that changed, however, when her longtime friend Mayor Ed Lee — whom she worked tirelessly to elect in 2011 — chose to appoint Julie Christensen to the Board of Supervisors over Planning Commissioner Cindy Wu.
Pak and other Chinatown activists saw the selection as a slap in the face. The mayor’s advisers felt confident about the move, saying it showed Lee — still reeling from the Pak-backed appointment of Supervisor Christina Olague, who had later turned on the mayor — was independent and thinking of the city as a whole rather than catering to one group.
Privately, they said Pak and her allies would have no choice but to accept the Christensen appointment.
Never did they think that Pak would play Josephine to Peskin’s Napoleon. When she backed his candidacy, she brought with her a significant fundraising and get-out-the-vote operation that suddenly made his return a legitimate possibility.
And for that, Peskin wants to thank her in person — and maybe plot some new moves as well.
http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/...se-weed-6617877.php?google_editors_picks=true
How’s this for a twist? San Francisco’s Municipal Transportation Agency has voted to begin testing taxi drivers for marijuana — but drivers can get a pass if they have a medical marijuana card.
“I would say it’s a work in progress,” agency board President Tom Nolan said after the panel voted recently to approve rules for testing cabbies for marijuana. “We certainly don’t want anyone driving under the influence, but that’s where it stands.”
MORE BY MATIER & ROSS
Mayor Ed Lee walks down 10th Street alongside 1400 Mission on his way to an opening celebration welcoming new residents to 1400 Mission Street on Wednesday, November 4, 2015 in San Francisco, Calif. 1400 Mission is a 190 unit, 15-floor affordable family housing project. Teflon no more: The nasty stuff is sticking to Ed Lee A sign at the San Francisco Housing Authority Senior Housing directs voters to the polling location on election day in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, November 3, 2015. Peskin’s apparent victory tarnishes Lee’s election night A visitor walks through the lobby of the newly renovated War Memorial Veterans Building in San Francisco, Calif. on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2015. S.F. big shots forcing vets out of Veterans Building, suit says
Under the rules that are being drawn up to comply with federal law, drivers would be tested once a year as part of having their permits renewed. The tests would be scheduled well in advance so recreational pot users would have time to stop smoking and clean out their systems.
But going several weeks without weed would be hard on medical users, so the board decided to give them a pass if they fail the test.
Any driver involved in a crash would be tested, the board decided, and would be suspended if marijuana is found in their system.
But not holders of medical marijuana cards. They’d be tested but escape punishment even if they test positive for pot.
Flywheel cab company President Hansu Kim said he would never allow a cabbie behind the wheel who was high — but supports the cardholder exemption.
“It has not been a problem in the industry,” Kim said. “I believe in drug testing ... but there are 20,000 Uber and Lyft drivers out there and only 1,800 cabbies, and we don’t want to make it any harder on them to get a permit.”
Game on: Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf is scheduled to jet off to New York this week to pump up National Football League owners on why the Raiders should stay in Oakland.
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf
Schaaf won’t be presenting that highly anticipated financial plan for building a new stadium — but she will bring the pom-poms and cheer about how Oakland continues to be a “tremendous market” for the team.
It’s all intended to buy the city time to get a stadium deal together, and league officials have told the mayor not to rush it.
The first piece of any plan will be a blueprint for Oakland buying out Alameda County’s share of the Coliseum site. Right after that will be an explanation of how the city and county will pay off the $80 million outstanding hangover from the last Raiders stadium deal in 1995.
NFL owners had been expected to decide in January which of three teams — the St. Louis Rams, the San Diego Chargers or the Raiders — should relocate to Los Angeles.
But Assistant City Manager Claudia Cappio tells us the decision could get pushed back until after the Super Bowl on Feb. 7.
Aaron Peskin Photo: Brandon Chew, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Brandon Chew, Special To The Chronicle Aaron Peskin
Napoleon and Josephine: Supervisor-elect Aaron Peskin headed off to Asia right after election day, planning to spend a couple of weeks trekking through the Himalayas and hoping for a stopover in China to thank Rose Pak, his onetime nemesis who turned out to be the unlikely key to his political comeback.
“I’m not sure we’ll be able to hook up, but I’m going to try,” Peskin said of Pak, who is in China undergoing prep for a possible kidney transplant.
The pairing of Peskin and Pak is one of the most unlikely political alliances to come down the pike in some time. For years, Chinatown powerhouse Pak referred to Peskin as the Napoleon of North Beach and fought him at every turn.
All that changed, however, when her longtime friend Mayor Ed Lee — whom she worked tirelessly to elect in 2011 — chose to appoint Julie Christensen to the Board of Supervisors over Planning Commissioner Cindy Wu.
Pak and other Chinatown activists saw the selection as a slap in the face. The mayor’s advisers felt confident about the move, saying it showed Lee — still reeling from the Pak-backed appointment of Supervisor Christina Olague, who had later turned on the mayor — was independent and thinking of the city as a whole rather than catering to one group.
Privately, they said Pak and her allies would have no choice but to accept the Christensen appointment.
Never did they think that Pak would play Josephine to Peskin’s Napoleon. When she backed his candidacy, she brought with her a significant fundraising and get-out-the-vote operation that suddenly made his return a legitimate possibility.
And for that, Peskin wants to thank her in person — and maybe plot some new moves as well.
http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/...se-weed-6617877.php?google_editors_picks=true
