Feds Shut Down Marijuana Dispensaries in California

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Feds Crack Down on Marijuana dispensaries

In the case of marijuana, federal law trumps state law—only more so.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Federal prosecutors launched a crackdown on California medical marijuana dispensaries today. The DEA warned store owners must shut down in 45 days or face criminal charges and confiscation of property, even if they are operating legally under the state’s 15-year-old medical marijuana law.

States in which marijuana is legal

Michele M. Leonhart, administrator of the DEA, stated marijuana is as dangerous as heroin. In an ongoing escalation of conflict between the U.S. government and the nation’s burgeoning medical marijuana industry, California’s four U.S. attorneys notified owners and landlords of at least 16 medical marijuana dispensaries on Wednesday and Thursday that they are violating federal drug laws.

Greg Anton, Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana lawyer, said a 14-year-old dispensary’s landlord received an “extremely threatening” on 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.

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

Scott Morgan for Stopthedrugwar.org, wrote in a 31 January 2008 article:

Although medical marijuana is legal in California, attorneys plan to announce their coordinated crackdown at a news conference today. Their offices refused to confirm the closure orders. The AP obtained copies of the letters a prosecutor sent to 12 San Diego dispensaries, which state federal law [T]akes 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. Prior to today, federal officials indicated they would not move aggressively against dispensaries in compliance with laws of 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 is, perhaps, one of the most far-reaching efforts put such prosecution into action.

Kevin Sabet, former adviser to the president’s drug czar and University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Substance Abuse Solutions, said 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. 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.

The federal crackdown on marijuana by the Obama Administration is, in fact, a surprise.

For the first time since his presidential bid began, the Obama Campaign has clarified the Senator’s position on marijuana: stop arresting people for it. In a 2004 clip discovered by the The Washington Times President Obama stated: I think we need to rethink and decriminalize our marijuana laws, Mr. Obama told an audience during a debate at Northwestern University in 2004. Obama’s campaign is now standing by this earlier statement, claiming that the Senator has “always” supported marijuana decriminalization.

Ironically, it was George W. Bush who enacted the sweeping Executive Clemency which freed all 70,000 of America’s marijuana-only prisoners.

As was noted in Ken Burns’ documentary, Prohibition, one of the reasons America sank into a depression was the enactment of the 18th Amendment, the overturn of which created hundreds of thousands of jobs. Individuals previously unemployed began to make barrels, work in factories that produced alcohol, and many other jobs, which brought America out of the Great Depression.

These federal raids are no more than a return to the 18th Amendment

Marijuana in the 1930s

Mad Mike’s America thanks the AP, MSNBC, and Yahoo!


The hard right has a states’ rights platform: why is marijuana exempt from their rhetoric?

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Dorothy Anderson

I want to know what you think and why, especially if we disagree. Civil discourse is free speech: practice daily. Always question your perspective.
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lazersedge
12 years ago

Here we go again. Spending $100 billion a year on the war on drugs which has never achieved any positive result and now they will cut out the legal income from marijuana. I am not sure how much that amounts to but when combine with the people it will cause to lose their jobs who legally produce marijuana it could be substantial. Where does this leave us?
In 1968 Professor Herbert Packer proposed, as part of his crime tariff theory, that the drug laws are nothing more than a tariff imposed on the illegal drugs sold in America. The more the laws are imposed the higher the tariff, thus the higher the profits for dealers of illegal drugs. Packer compared the demand for certain illegal drugs as a constant similar to milk and bread, that is, it will always be there. Therefore, there will always be suppliers to fulfill that demand. I suspect that our primary supplier, the Mexican cartels, will simply step up their activities even more since, logically, the price will probably rise. The violence that goes with the illicit drug trade will also likely rise.
NICE TRADE OFF OBAMA

Reply to  lazersedge
12 years ago

Lazersedge… As I do 99.9% of the time, I agree with everything you say. This “drug war” nonsense has been a flash point with me for more years than I care to count.

I’m sure making marijuana and all “illegal” drugs legal, we then have the same issue as what happened during prohibition: we put the cartels out of work., we lower crime, law enforcement can focus on crimes against innocent people. DEA agents could be retrained to become law enforcement officers, prison guards, educators, and numerous other fields based on their unique experience.

If the U.S. became the supplier, we’d reap billions in tax revenues. The government would have enough money to retrain DEA agents into numerous other fields and create enough jobs to end the economic plunge America faces.

All of you are more than aware that deforestation would no longer exist because paper, cloth, nutritional supplements, and a whole range of other products could be made cheaply from hemp and almost completely halt deforestation.

And, yes, the demand will always be there. But this isn’t even an issue of recreational use of any durg, which I feel is up to the individual. This issue concerns gravely ill people who can find no relief from the pain they suffer which marijuana offers. Legalization of drugs mean we’d have the funding to treat addiction.

I found a quote on a Starbuds site today: “Under Gov. Jerry Brown, California has continued to de-emphasize marijuana prosecution. This year, Brown de-funded the marijuana eradication program known as CAMP. Marijuana possession in small amounts is now punishable by the equivalent of a parking ticket. A bill before the state legislature would give district attorneys the option of charging marijuana growers with a misdemeanor.

Oakland was preparing to license four large-scale pot farms last fall before Haag issued a warning to the city that it could face prosecution. Oakland is set to expand its total number of dispensaries from four to eight this year.

I’ll be interested to see what Brown does about this latest development.

“Prohibition” by Ken Burns clearly proves we’ve learned nothing from history.

I’ve got notes on the history of how marijuana became illegal in the U.S. It’s an ugly story about how 1930s Yellow Journalism (think Fox) made hemp illegal, upon which the United States became prosperous.

It is hemp upon which much of the fortune of America was built.

Rant over… for now…

jess
12 years ago

If I remember correctly, Leonhart is a Shrub holdover so that may explain some of this. WTF happened with all the baggers screaming about states rights, where will they fall on this one I wonder. No I don’t really. Not like people won’t be able to find it elsewhere here in Cali, I know I never have issues with that.

Reply to  jess
12 years ago

Here’s the kicker, Jess: Ironically, it was George W. Bush who enacted the sweeping Executive Clemency which freed all 70,000 of America’s marijuana-only prisoners.

You know where the states’ rights complainers are going to do: marijuana will be still be a “controlled substance,” so they can justify their hypocrisy.

Admin
12 years ago

Michele Leonhart is the one who is dangerous. She is on a personal crusade. Where is Obama while all of this is going on? I don’t expect him to get involved in everything but this Leonhart does work for him.

Reply to  Professor Mike
12 years ago

If the federal deficit is important, and it is, the only way we’re going to climb out of this is to legalize marijuana and create jobs surrounding that industry. Leonhart needs to be fired.

Obama did initially support the use of medical marijuana, so I suspect this is something to do with politics. What other choice does he have?

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