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| Melissa Barnes/ABA Journal |
| San Francisco attorney Matt Kumin: “This is a multi pronged, organized effort to get into court and to send a message to the federal government that we need to stop the aggression and sit down and talk reasonably about these issues” |
Lawyers for a growing coalition of Californians including patients, property owners and medical cannabis cooperatives — who suddenly find themselves under attack by the state’s four U.S. Attorneys — will file suit against the federal government, seeking an immediate halt to a statewide crackdown.
The lawsuit will be brought simultaneously in each of the four federal districts in California – San Francisco (Northern), Sacramento (Eastern), Los Angeles (Central) and San Diego (Southern) – where U.S. Attorneys have threatened criminal prosecution of both tenants and landlords where medical cannabis dispensaries exist.
The four U.S. Attorneys have also threatened the landlords with forfeiture of their properties.
A press conference will be held in San Francisco Monday morning to announce the lawsuit.
The lawsuit will seek an immediate order from a federal judge to stop the crackdown on cooperatives, property owners and businesses that support them. (Americans for Safe Access
also filed suit last month against the federal government, but did not seek an immediate restraining order.)
“This is multipronged, organized effort to get into court and to send a message to the federal government that we need to stop the aggression and sit down and talk reasonably about these issues,” said San Francisco attorney Matt Kumin, one of the lawyers bringing the federal suit forward.
