Roach

SAN FRANCISCO — Federal prosecutors have launched a crackdown on pot dispensaries in California, warning the stores that they must shut down in 45 days or face criminal charges and confiscation of their property even if they are operating legally under the state's 15-year-old medical marijuana law.

In an escalation of the ongoing conflict between the U.S. government and the nation's burgeoning medical marijuana industry, California's s four U.S. attorneys sent letters Wednesday and Thursday notifying at least 16 pot shops or their landlords that they are violating federal drug laws, even though medical marijuana is legal in California. The attorneys are scheduled to announce their coordinated crackdown at a Friday news conference.

Their offices refused to confirm the closure orders. The Associated Press obtained copies of the letters that a prosecutor sent to 12 San Diego dispensaries. They state that federal law "takes precedence over state law and applies regardless of the particular uses for which a dispensary is selling and distributing marijuana."

"Under United States law, a dispensary's operations involving sales and distribution of marijuana are illegal and subject to criminal prosecution and civil enforcement actions," letters signed by U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy in San Diego read. "Real and personal property involved in such operations are subject to seizure by and forfeiture to the United States ... regardless of the purported purpose of the dispensary."

The move comes a little more than two months after the Obama administration toughened its stand on medical marijuana following a two-year period during which federal officials had indicated they would not move aggressively against dispensaries in compliance with laws in the 16 states where pot is legal for people with doctors' recommendations.

The Department of Justice issued a policy memo to federal prosecutors in late June stating that marijuana dispensaries and licensed growers in states with medical marijuana laws could face prosecution for violating federal drug and money-laundering laws. The effort to shutter California dispensaries appears to be the most far-reaching effort so far to put that guidance into action.

"This really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. The administration is simply making good on multiple threats issued since President Obama took office," Kevin Sabet, a former adviser to the president's drug czar who is a fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Substance Abuse Solutions. "The challenge is to balance the scarcity of law enforcement resources and the sanctity of this country's medication approval process. It seems like the administration is simply making good on multiple statements made previously to appropriately strike that balance."

IRS ruling strikes fear in medical marijuana industry Greg Anton, a lawyer who represents the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana, said the 14-year-old dispensary's landlord received an "extremely threatening" letter Wednesday invoking a federal law that imposes additional penalties for selling drugs within 1,000 feet of schools, parks and playgrounds.

The landlord was ordered to evict the pot club or risk imprisonment, plus forfeiture of the property and all the rent he has collected while the dispensary has been in business, Anton said.

The Marin Alliance's founder "has been paying state and federal taxes for 14 years, and they have cashed all the checks," he said. "All I hear from Obama is whining about his budget, but he has money to do this which will actually reduce revenues."

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Mercury

How fucking retarded is the law that something can be both legal and illegal at the same time?

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Mafoo

whats more retarded is that obama claimed he would halt federal raids on pot dispensaries

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PLUR
For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return

~1~

I think all we need is for a dispensary or two to go public and start selling shares in their crop and make some actual money and watch how fucking fast this shit gets legalized...

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Roach

no more dispensaries

so no federal raids

= promise kept.

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kamikazi89

boooooo

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katie west is the best

Captain Cannabis

you have a promising future in politics

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fuck the monkeys

Jester4yall

The govt always has to take something away. What a bunch of dicks!

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In matters of style, swim with the current; In matters of principle, stand like a rock. -Thomas Jefferson

You will encounter many distractions and many temptations to put your goal aside: The security of a job, a wife who wants kids, whatever. But if you hang in there, always following your vision, I have no doubt you will succeed. - Larry Flynt

~1~

Find out how your local representatives feel about medical marijuana dispensaries, if they don't see eye to eye them mobilize and make sure Mr. Politician has to work in the private sector until the next election cycle rolls around.


The government is the people, we have the power to take shit away as well.


Politicians are nothing more than pandering assholes who will suck whatever dick will get them elected...


We need to whip out our collective dicks!

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SmokeSomeDoja

pisses me off, thats for sure...

fuck obama and the feds.


how much money is the dea/etc/etc getting and spending to harass legitimate medical non-profit businesses that pay taxes to the federal and state government? that money couldn't be better spent, right? i mean, the economy is complete shit right now, seems like a good way to spend tax-payer money (the same tax-payers that voted for 215).


i anticipate alot of public backlash for this ish...

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fotoz fo yo azz



"I've run over black cats that were luckier than me."

fenderbender

what an absurd decision.


Right when very large protests are popping up throughout your country and people are very unhappy, You decide to go against things favored by the majority like medical marijuana...


This probably means that there will be another 20 thousand people joining in on protests that otherwise would have been too stoned to fight back.



just a horrible decision from every angle i dont get it....

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<3

The Rev

When you're on the wrong side of a culture war, this is usually the case. And all that shit is heating up now.



The Rev

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SmokeSomeDoja

and in similar news:

Medical-pot users fuming over ATF's gun-sale ban - Washington Times

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fotoz fo yo azz



"I've run over black cats that were luckier than me."

Roach

^ good link.

Particularly in light of the recent weapons sting gone wrong by the ATF, where thousands of illegal automatic weapons were allowed to trickle down into the hands of mexican drug cartels. Resulting in agents being killed with some of those same weapons.

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The Rev

More on the culture war: only one side can be legally armed. LOL



The Rev

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~1~

I don't think they were allowed to trickle down so much as we shipped them to our co-conspirators in the failed war on drugs in order to stimulate interest n the waning Mexican drug 'problem' and make it seem like they are fighting and killing more so they can ask for another billion dollars to stuff their bloated and corrupt pockets.


I always thought we were a capitalist, market driven economy that would let the market decide how it wants things run...


I guess that only works if you have enough money to stuff a politician full to the eyeballs.





So tell me again why it is we are sending our military off to Afghanistan to fight a boogie man and his crew of 100 when they would be much better served kicking ass in Cuidad Juarez.


Well then the DEA wouldn't get their money to fund para-military bullshit on the border just enough to make it look like we're 'gaining' ever so slowly on the 'enemy'.

I know a lot of Mexicans, they know the guy with the biggest fucking stick is in charge and we have a huge fucking stick. Let's load it up and start whacking assholes with it.

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Roach

update.....

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Marijuana dispensaries that have large operations or are close to areas with children will be the focus of a federal crackdown in California, U.S. prosecutors said Friday in explaining a campaign that some activists said goes far beyond the Bush administration's policies.

Not all of the thousands of storefront marijuana dispensaries operating in the state are being targeted, U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner said at a press conference.

Instead officials initially are going after shops close to schools and other places with lots of children, as well as what Wagner called "significant commercial operations." He said that includes farmland where marijuana is grown.

The prosecutors said California's medical marijuana law has given cover for large-scale commercial operations to engage in drug trafficking across state lines, with thousands of pounds of marijuana worth tens of millions of dollars flowing across the country from California.

"That is not what the California voters intended or authorized, and it is illegal under California law," said Andre Birotte, U.S. attorney for the Central District of California.

Letters sent to those dispensaries, as well as to landlords, ordered them to shut down or face criminal charges and confiscation of property — even if they are operating legally under California's 15-year-old medical marijuana law.
Group: Obama 'betraying promises'
Advocates of the law legalizing pot for medical use were livid.

President "Barack Obama is betraying promises made when he ran for president and turning his back on the sensible policies announced during his first year in office," Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, said in a statement Friday.

The group called it a "full scale assault on medical marijuana patients' rights," citing other recent actions as well:

In Colorado, which also allowed medical marijuana, the Treasury Department is requiring that banks close accounts of legal medical marijuana businesses.

The IRS says dispensaries may not deduct standard business expenses such as payroll, security or rent. "The result will be closure of the most well regulated dispensaries and loss of millions of dollars in tax revenue for local governments," the group stated.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives last month ruled that medical marijuana patients sanctioned by states cannot legally possess firearms. Another group backing the law said users would still find ways to get medical pot.

"The only question is if we're going to force patients to buy their medicine from the violent black market or if we would rather them obtain labeled and tested product from a safe, state-regulated facility that pays taxes," said Neill Franklin, head of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

A former adviser to Obama's drug czar office challenged those views, saying many people misread a 2009 Justice Department memo that, while stating users would not be prosecuted, did not take large dispensaries off the hook.

"The memo wasn't read carefully," Kevin Sabet said, calling Friday's move "the actions that those words were based upon."

As for using marijuana as medicine, Sabet said the proper path should be one where components of marijuana are studied and possibly approved by the Food & Drug Administration for use in pharmaceuticals.

"You synthesize and deliver it in the way we deliver medicines in this country," he said, "through pharmacies — not dispensaries with 300-pound bouncers, bars on the windows and neon lights."

IRS ruling strikes fear in medical marijuana industry
The federal campaign marks an escalation of the conflict between the U.S. government and the nation's burgeoning medical marijuana industry — pot is legal in 16 states for people with doctors' recommendations.
Moreover, said Sabet, "it does send a strong warning signal to states considering" similar legalization laws.

The letters sent out emphasize that federal law "takes precedence over state law and applies regardless of the particular uses for which a dispensary is selling and distributing marijuana."

"Under United States law, a dispensary's operations involving sales and distribution of marijuana are illegal and subject to criminal prosecution and civil enforcement actions," according to the letters. "Real and personal property involved in such operations are subject to seizure by and forfeiture to the United States ... regardless of the purported purpose of the dispensary."

"The real power is with the federal government," said San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith. "They have the asset forfeiture, and that means either the federal government will own a lot of property or these landlords will evict a lot of dispensaries."

The letters also invoke a federal law that imposes additional penalties for selling drugs within 1,000 feet of schools, parks and playgrounds.

'Tons of money ... drug trafficking' targeted
Melinda Haag, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California, said Friday that the 2009 memo was "never intended to shield commercial operations or industrial-size growth," said

"People are using medical marijuana to make tons of money, and sometimes engage in drug trafficking," Haag said.

"The intention regarding medical marijuana under California state law was to allow marijuana to be supplied to seriously ill people on a nonprofit basis," she added. "What we are finding, however, is that California's laws have been hijacked by people who are in this to get rich and don't care at all about sick people."

The letters that went out this week follow a Department of Justice policy memo issued last June to federal prosecutors stating that marijuana dispensaries and licensed growers in states with medical marijuana laws could face prosecution for violating federal drug and money-laundering laws.

Greg Anton, a lawyer who represents the dispensary Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana, said its landlord received an "extremely threatening" letter Wednesday ordering it to evict the 14-year-old pot club or risk imprisonment, plus forfeiture of the property and all the rent he has collected.

Marin Alliance "has been paying state and federal taxes for 14 years, and they have cashed all the checks," he said. "All I hear from Obama is whining about his budget, but he has money to do this which will actually reduce revenues."

Going after property owners is not a new tactic though, said Kris Hermes, a spokesman for the medical marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access. Five years ago, the Department of Justice under President George W. Bush made similar threats to about 300 Los Angeles-area landlords who were renting space to medical marijuana outlets, some of whom were eventually evicted or closed their doors voluntarily, he said.

"It did have an impact. However, the federal government never acted on its threats, never prosecuted anybody, never even went to court to begin prosecutions," Hermes said. "By and large, they were empty threats, but they relied on them and the cost of postage to shut down as many facilities as they could without having to engage in criminal enforcement activity."

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fenderbender

So does this mean that medical marijuana is now totally illegal throughout the country and soon to be enforced as illegal?


WTF IS GOING ON

how come people aren't going apeshit over this, what am i missing?

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<3

Roach

no .

medical marijuana is still legal in those states who have legalized it...however...selli ng marijuana to medical card holders in those states is still federally illegal.

So you can have it, if you can get it ...???

but if you buy it, it's a federal offense.

and remember also, posession and consumption of cannabis is still federally illegal. That has never changed.

This is what I've always tried to get across to activists...

federal law "takes precedence over state law and applies regardless of the particular uses for which a dispensary is selling and distributing marijuana."

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mothernature

This crap really pisses me off. We're going fucking backwards....AGAIN. I'm sick of it!!! /end rant.

Federal law always trumps state law. I don't have a problem with that really.

But reading between the lines, it says these growers are making far too much money and Big Pharm wants it.

Thanks to the big push in the 50's for a school in every neighborhood, it's almost impossible to live in a city, and NOT be within 1000 feet of a school.

Divide and conquer, that's what going on here.

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Sometimes sleep is the best revenge- Luke