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Search Results: department of justice (396)

Native Americans Can Grow and Sell Marijuana Without Government Interference, Justice Department Says

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By on Medical, News, Say what?

Florida remains one of the last few states where growing and selling marijuana in any capacity is still illegal. But that might change, at least in one aspect, according to a report by the L.A. Times that says the U.S. government will not stop Native American tribes from growing or selling pot on sovereign land.
The report says the Justice Department will not try to enforce federal marijuana laws on Native American reservations, even if it’s otherwise illegal in a respective tribe’s state. Which essentially means tribes can grow and sell weed on their land without government interference. Broward-Palm Beach New Times has more.

Marijuana Dispensary Sues Justice Department, DEA

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By on Dispensaries, News

Drugfree.org

No Grey Sky, a medical marijuana dispensary in California, has sued the United States Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration, claiming that the federal crackdown is an illegal crusade that threatens to prevent thousands of patients from having safe access.

The collective and its members are seeking an injunction agains the DoJ, Attorney General Eric Holder, and the DEA, whose agents raided its downtown storefront this month,j reports Matt Reynolds at Courthouse News.
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Drug Cartels Rapidly Gaining Ground In U.S.: Justice Department

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By on Global, News

LEAP
Terry Nelson, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition: “It is really no surprise to me that our prohibition policy isn’t helping to achieve any reduction in drug trafficking”

​A newly released report from the U.S. Department of Justice shows that Mexican drug cartels are rapidly gaining ground inside the United States, despite extensive efforts by the government to crack down on trafficking.

In light of the findings, a group of Border Patrol agents, police officers and judges is saying it is time to legalize and regulate drugs in order to defund the cartels that make so much money from the illicit drug market.
“As someone who has fought on the front lines of the failed ‘war on drugs’ for decades it is really no surprise to me that our prohibition policy isn’t helping to achieve any reduction in drug trafficking,” said Terry Nelson, a board member for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) and a retired U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent.
“We should have learned this lesson decades ago with alcohol prohibition, but let’s hope that the data in this new government report helps more members of Congress and Obama administration officials to realize that their ‘drug war’ strategy is an abysmal failure and that it’s time for a new direction,” Nelson said.
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Jeff Sessions Says Justice Still Discussing Federal Pot Enforcement

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By on Cannabusiness, Follow that story, Legalize It, News

United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions continues to make remarks that alarm state-legalized pot industries and consumers across the country. During a press conference on Wednesday, November 29, announcing new grants and Drug Enforcement Administration projects to combat the national opioid crisis, Sessions told reporters that the Department of Justice is looking at ways to increase federal enforcement against cannabis use, something he called “detrimental” to the country.

Cops Ask Dept. of Justice to Respect State Marijuana Laws

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By on Legislation, News

NorCal Blogs

LEAP Cites Public Safety Concerns Created by Illegal Marketplace
A former narcotics cop on Tuesday morning delivered a letter signed by 73 current and former police officers, judges, prosecutors and federal agents to Attorney General Eric Holder urging him not to interfere with the wishes of the voters of Colorado and Washington State to legalize and regulate marijuana.
“We seem to be at a turning point in how our society deals with marijuana,” said Neill Franklin, executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), the group that authored the letter. “The war on marijuana has funded the expansion of drug cartels, it has destroyed community-police relations and it has fostered teenage use by creating an unregulated market where anyone has easy access.
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Law Enforcers To Justice Dept.: Respect State Marijuana Laws

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By on Legislation, News

LEAP
Neill Franklin, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition: “During his first time, President Obama really disappointed those of us who hoped he might follow through on his campaign pledges to respect state medical marijuana laws”

U.S. Attorneys Urged To Use Discretion To Allow Successful State Implementation
A group of veteran law enforcement professionals on Tuesday will deliver a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder at the Department of Justice urging the Obama Administration to respect state laws that legalize and regulate marijuana. Voters in the states of Colorado and Washington opted decisively for marijuana legalization on November 6, and national polls show majority support for replacing marijuana prohibition with legal regulation.
After personally delivering the letter signed by dozens of police, prosecutors, judges and federal agents to the Department of Justice at 9:00 a.m. ET, 34-year veteran narcotics cop Neill Franklin will join other law enforcers for a noon teleconference call to answer questions from journalists.
“During his first term, President Obama really disappointed those of us who hoped he might follow through on his campaign pledges to respect state medical marijuana laws,” said Neill Franklin, the former Baltimore narc who serves as executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). “Still, I’m hopeful that in his second term he’ll realize the political opportunity that exists to do the right thing.
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Attorney General Defends Medical Marijuana Crackdown

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By on Dispensaries, Medical, News

What On Earth?
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder claims the Obama Administration is only going after those who are “taking advantage” and “acting out of conformity … with state laws”

Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday defended the Department of Justice’s crackdown on medical marijuana, claiming growers and dispensaries “took advantage” of state medical marijuana laws.

Holder, appearing before the House Judiciary Committee, admitted that the Obama Justice Department had broken with the Bush Administration in pledging not to go after anyone acting within state medicinal cannabis laws, reports Dan Freedman of the Hearst Washington Bureau.
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Feds: Medical Marijuana Patients Not Targeted, But Growers Are

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By on Growing, Medical

Patrick Whittemore/Boston Herald
U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz: “While this office does not intend to focus its limited resources on seriously ill individuals who use marijuana as part of a medically recommended treatment program in compliance with state law, individuals and organizations who are in the business of cultivating, selling or distributing marijuana, and those who knowingly facilitate such activities, will be in violation of federal law and be subject to federal enforcement.”

Medical marijuana advocates in Massachusetts say they’ll take their cause to the ballot if the Legislature won’t pass it, but the usual objections are being raised by law enforcement officials, who say that legalizing medicine cannabis could put the state at odds with the federal government.

The Humanitarian Medical Use of Marijuana bill would protect registered patients, doctors, caregivers and dispensers from local and state marijuana laws, but not from the federal law enforcement like the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). If the Legislature rejects or fails to act on the measure by May 2, certified signatures of 11,485 Massachusetts voters are needed to place a binding question on November’s general election ballot.

Seriously ill patients don’t have to fear a knock on the door from gun-toting feds, according to White House and U.S. Department of Justice officials, but those same officials told the Boston Herald they won’t turn a blind eye to others who break federal laws, including doctors and state-licensed dispensaries, reports Laurel J. Sweet.
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Warehouse Full Of Growing Marijuana Found Next To Crime Lab

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By on Growing, News

KION 46
The three suspects are accused of operating a 480-plant marijuana grow operation next to a crime lab

​Three Pacific Grove, California residents were in jail on drug charges Thursday after the Santa Cruz Anti-Crime Team raided an Airport Boulevard warehouse, which was adjacent to a state Department of Justice crime lab in Watsonville, according to sheriff’s deputies.

Law enforcement also searched a home in Pacific Grove after finding an illegal marijuana operation growing 480 plants inside the warehouse, reports Cathy Kelly at the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

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R.I. House Speaker To Ask Feds For Marijuana Guidance

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Steven Senne/AP
Rhode Island Speaker of the House Gordon D. Fox: “I think it’s been too long and there have been too many people waiting”

​Rhode Island’s Legislature legalized medical marijuana back in 2006. Three years later, in 2009, the Legislature overrode a gubernatorial veto to allow medicinal cannabis dispensaries in the state with an overwhelming 68-0 vote in the House and 35-3 in the Senate.

That certainly seems clear enough, and it’s been a couple of years now. Haven’t they had time to get that program up and running for seriously ill patients? But, well, you know how silly the federal government can be, when it comes to that oh-so-dangerous boogie bear “marijuana.” It’s still against federal law, doncha know? So please don’t get any wacky ideas about the people trying to run things.
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