Search Results: wolfe/ (5)

Eric Wolfe
Steve DeAngelo, executive director of Harborside Health Center, reputedly the world’s largest medical marijuana dispensary, looks over a marijuana display case 

The biggest medical marijuana dispensary on earth has been targeted for closure by federal prosecutors in Northern California.

Harborside Health Center, which is reputedly the biggest cannabis collective on the planet, has been threatened with property seizure by U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag’s office, according to spokeswoman Gaynell Rogers, reports The Associated Press.
Employees on Monday found the federal complaints taped to doors at Harborside’s two locations, according to Rogers.

Armando Trull/WAMU
Dhar Mann, 27, has been charged with defrauding the city of Oakland

Dhar Mann, a controversial young businessman who sought fame and fortune as an entrepreneur in the medical marijuana industry, was charged Thursday with 13 felonies for allegedly defrauding an Oakland, California grant program that helps property owners pay for renovations.

Alameda County prosecutors charged Mann, 27, with stealing thousands of dollars from Oakland in 2008 and 2009, report Demian Bulwa and Matthai Kuruvila at SFGate. Mann was not arrested; his arraignment is scheduled for Wednesday.
Mann’s attorney, John Runfola, admitted that his client “took shortcuts” in the grant program, but claimed the charges were trumped up.

Chris Buck/Mother Jones
Derek Peterson and Dhar Mann were business partners, then enemies, and now a truce has been struck

​Multiple lawsuits between estranged medical marijuana business partners, Dhar Mann and Derek Peterson, have reportedly ended as the two entrepreneurs broke out the peace pipe and agreed on an undisclosed settlement this week.

Mann founded weGrow, the nation’s first medical marijuana superstore and partnered up with Peterson shortly after starting the company in 2010. Within a year, the partnership ended on a bitter note and a variety of increasingly hostile claims and counterclaims were filed by both parties against each other.
After nearly a year of unpleasantness, both Mann and Peterson have come to an agreement to settle all claims and put aside their differences.
“Medical cannabis is under fire around the country, and it’s more important than ever to have a consolidated front,” Mann said. “There are bigger issues facing medical cannabis that personal and business differences should not exacerbate.”

The Inquisitr

By Jack Rikess
Toke of the Town
Northern California Correspondent


I’ll give you my joint when you take it from my brown, resin-soaked fingers.
What comes first… A revolution or a war? Right now more Americans are taking to the streets in numbers not seen since they tried to do away with the original Coca-Cola. And with the same reasons, the Cola-Baggers in the Day wanted to turn back the clocks to a simpler time. The message was simple: Don’t mess with our Coke.
In 1937 marijuana was politically shoved into a niche alongside heroin and other bad stuff, because of money. Behind the scenes, the same names were at work. Great American families like the Hearsts, the Mellons and the DuPonts needed cannabis to go away, so they could make money the old fashion way — by manipulating the markets.

Photo: Eric Wolfe
Steve DeAngelo, executive director of Harborside Health Center, Oakland’s largest medical marijuana dispensary, looks over a marijuana display case

​The U.S. Internal Revenue Service is auditing medical marijuana dispensaries in California, with advocates calling for a change in federal tax laws.

The sale of medical marijuana from nonprofit dispensaries is legal under California law, but possession, cultivation or sale of cannabis for any purpose is illegal under federal law. Patient collectives in California say there is a problem because of the way they are being treated by the IRS, reports CNN.
The problem is federal tax code 280-E, which does not allow “drug trafficking organizations” to deduct business expenses.
“If 280-E were applied strictly, we would not be allowed to deduct our rent, our payroll or any of the other normal and usual expenses that other businesses deduct,” said Steve DeAngelo of Harborside Health Center, one of the biggest Bay Area dispensaries.