Best Dispensary in Oakland – Full Dispensaries List

Back when we started tracking active Oakland Cannabis Clubs, the city only permitted 8. They were all pretty quality and well-managed. It was an ample amount of retail front spread out evenly.

Now, a lot has changed. That number has doubled to 16 operating permitted dispensaries with 10 more approved and not opened yet. The city of Oakland let a whole bunch more clubs in under some “Equity” program which gives some dispensaries an unfair advantage over others. Such as lower-cost permits, grant money funded by your taxes, tax breaks for discriminating against whites, 3 years or more of free rent, etc. This has led to a lot of short-lived businesses that open and close and an ever-changing field of players. Why go longer than 3 years? How do existing legit no discrimination businesses compete against those with free rent and grants? Luckily, a few of the originals are still around like Harborside and Blum Oakland. I wish they would sue the City of Oakland for funding competition based on race to undercut them.

If you want to read more about the “Equity” program and the unfair advantages it gives some people, you can do so at the City of Oakland site.

Medical & Recreational Cannabis is Legal in Oakland

First, any of these clubs can legally sell recreational marijuana to anyone who is over the age of 21 with a Government issued ID. Anyone with a medical card must be age 18 or over. Medical card holders do not pay the extra recreational taxes.

Anyways, a lot has changed with dispensaries in Oakland and most websites offer outdated lists with permanently closed locations so here is a new updated list with all the important information you need.

Oakland’s List Of Best Legal Marijuana Clubs

Additional Oakland Marijuana Information

We’re not just going to give you the most complete list of cannabis dispensaries in Oakland, we will also give you additional facts about weed in Oakland that you might not know.

Oakland Recreational Marijuana Taxe Rate

California Statewide Cannabis Excise Tax 15%
Oakland City Taxes 5%
State Sales and Use Tax 10.25%

Medical Marijuana buyers are not subject to Sales Tax.

City of Oakland Promotes Discrimination Against Whites

Ever wonder why no one is white when you go into these clubs? Equity free ride or not, the city is giving these business tax breaks to discriminate against white people. That’s right, if you make sure not to hire whites in any role, or even use white based supply chains, you can get a tax break.

Closed Down Dispensaries

Mary Jane Rose

Self-proclaimed black women-owned cannabis club just couldn’t afford the cost of doing business in a black crime dominant community.

Purple Heart Patient Center

Another idiot who won’t shut up about being black and how “overwhelmingly white” the seemingly mostly black industry is. Closed down for good because Black Lives Matter protesters looted his store. The irony.

Magnolia Wellness

Another one looted by Black Lives in the name of George Floyd. Twice even. Could not recover the damage done by Oaklanders.

Oakland Organics

Another one hit for George Floyd but they had the audacity to blame the Bureau of Cannabis Control for “publishing names and locations of all the states legal licensees on its website”.
Like what, those armed thugs can’t use Google or Yelp? Your establishment is so secret? I guarantee it was your customers that robbed you. I mean am I to blame for you getting robbed for having you on this list? Just another case of deflecting blame and being scared to say who the real criminals are.

Who is Robbing Oakland Cannabis Clubs?

Criminals, that’s who. As with all George Floyd BLM peaceful protest, the crowd just gets hyphy and starts breaking into stuff, robbing, and looting. This happened nationwide. Oakland saw roving caravans of thieves during these times and they hit shoe stores, electronic stores, and of course cannabis clubs. If you want to operate a safe business in Oakland, open a bookstore. It is what it is. But these businesses are too scared to point any blame so they all say it was not the protestors/supporters of the GF riots.

But get this, City of Oakland is providing Emergency Grants for Equity Businesses robbed during the George Floyd fiasco but not to normal businesses that were robbed by the supporters of Equity Riots of 2020. How does any of this make sense?

Oaksterdam

Oakland (also known as Oaksterdam) is taking a step forward while others are taking a step back. The Federal Government has raided and shut down over 200 pot clubs during the last few months but that hasn’t stopped Oaksterdam from growing. While others are shutting down Oakland has doubled the number of permitted clubs.
In fact, recently the Federal Government has encroached on Harborside and the City of Oakland is suing the U.S. Government.

Oakland has always been cutting edge in the Medical Marijuana Industry
In 2006 Oakland became home to Harborside Health Center, which is now the nation’s biggest weed dispensary with over 108,000 patients. The co-founder, Stephen DeAngelo claims to have personally taken hundreds of millions of dollars from street gangs and drug cartels via his legal tax-paying, job supplying marijuana operation. On the other hand Oakland Police claim to have lowered drug sales themselves. Either way, since drug sales and illegal incomes have been taken from the streets of Oakland, violent crime rates have gone up.
In 2007 Oaksterdamn became home to Americas first Cannabis University or “weed college”. However the feds have raided and shut the weed school down which is a sad point in the forward movement of legalizing marijuana.
In 2009 Oakland was the first US City to tax Medical Marijuana.

Oakland charges a $60,000 fee for each dispensary permit, alongside with collecting a 5 percent annual business tax. This brings in about $1 million dollars a year for Oakland and could potentially be doubled to $2 million now that there are 8 legal clubs.
Meanwhile, the state of California is bringing in about $100 million a year in taxes from the billion-dollar medical marijuana industry.

The Growing Industry market is currently flooded and oversaturated with high-grade marijuana. Meaning the clubs are turning away growers and not buying their crops. So you can still get a pound of weed a LOT cheaper than you used t be able to. This is good for the middle man black market drug dealer but bad for the growers because they are forced to produce even larger quantities of high-grade marijuana.

Illegal Grow Operations Ruining California Environment

While all of this is great and generate a lot of income for many people such as the medical clubs, random growers, middle man drug dealers and even the Mexican Drug Cartel, there is a huge unspoken problem of how the weed is being cultivated and what toll it’s taking on the rural hillsides of Northern California.

Nestled deep in the forest and hillsides of Northern California are thousands of illegal grow operations known as trespass grows that are hosting millions of marijuana plants. These grows are very prosperous for the weed farmers and medical marijuana clubs but are extremely hazardous to the natural local environment. A lot of these outdoor illegal grow ops are actually supplying the clubs and of course black market dealers.

The illegal marijuana farmers are taking over private property, cutting up all the trees, building dams on local creeks and streams to steal the water for their grow and then dumping all of the chemicals and waste byproducts back into the streams. This kills off all of the fish and other local wildlife while adding to the California Drought. It undoes millions of dollars in endangered species rehabilitation projects and is very counterproductive to the State of California restoration projects.

The farm guards are usually armed and dangerous and even set up booby traps to keep out would-be thieves and random hikers. In many cases, the marijuana growers in North California are actually the Mexican Drug Cartels running these pot farms. The people left behind guarding the operations generally don’t speak English and are usually confused as to where they really are. Most of them are technically being held hostage with death threats to their families if they do not comply and guard the farm.

After a marijuana harvest is done they abandon the land and leave behind tons of waste, garbage, toxic pesticides, and a devastated forest. So as you can see this new California Gold Rush is causing major problems.

For more details on the illegal grow ops, farm eradication and exact numbers collected by the State of California check out this story.

Taken during Occupy Oakland.
The above Oaksterdam Mural has been painted over by the new landlord of the building after Oaksterdam University was shut down. It’s a shame to see it go because it was a beautiful work of art.

Oakland Medical Marijuana Clubs
Current Permitted Dispensaries: 8 (Cards Must Verify)
Current Measure Z Clubs: secret (No Card Needed)
Oakland Revenue: About $1 million a year in fees and taxes.
San Francisco Medical Marijuana Dispensaries: 24 (SF does NOT tax them like Oakland)
Statewide: 1,000
State Sales: $1 billion
States taxes: $100 Million