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Marijuana Crackdown Top Story Of The Year In Montana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 26, 2011 Legislation, Medical, News

The collapse of Montana’s once-booming medical marijuana industry after a conservative Republican-controlled Legislature all but shut the program down with tough restrictions — in addition to raids where federal agents hit dozens of providers — was Montana’s top news story of 2011, according to an annual member poll from The Associated Press.

It’s the second straight year medicinal cannabis has been chosen as the state’s top story, reports Matt Volz at the Great Falls Tribune. But a world of change has occurred in Montana’s medical marijuana scene since a year ago.

Crackdown: Cali Marijuana Dispensaries Turning To Delivery

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 26, 2011 Dispensaries, News

WeedMaps

Online dispensary locator WeedMaps shows a plethora of medical marijuana delivery services available in Los Angeles

A growing trend in California’s billion-dollar medical marijuana industry — which has recently come under attack from the federal government — is the presence of delivery-only dispensaries to deal with an legal environment that is increasingly precarious for storefronts.

Threats of property forfeiture against landlords, lawsuits and raids have made brick-and-mortor locations less attractive to the collectives, reports David Downs at the San Francisco Chronicle.

“When you have a storefront, you’re on the map,” said Oakland defense attorney William G. Panzer, who represents recently raided Northstone Organics, a delivery service based in Ukiah, Mendocino County in the heart of the Emerald Triangle. “You don’t have those issues with a delivery service. No one’s going to know about it.”

Medical Marijuana Crackdown Coming In Colorado

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 14, 2011 Dispensaries, News

CBS Denver

Med Stop, which was approved by the City of Denver, is 161 feet diagonally across the street from a school.

Colorado has been mercifully spared — so far — from the federal crackdown on medical marijuana. Some have speculated its highly regulated system of handling distribution through state-licensed dispensaries has protected the state. That theory may now need some adjustment. Federal authorities plan to crack down on the medicinal cannabis business in Colorado on a large scale for the first time.

The action — which also flies in the face of theories postulating that since Colorado’s medical marijuana law is a constitutional amendment, it has protected the state from the feds — will begin with warning letters which will go to dispensaries and grow facilities near schools, reports Rick Sallinger at CBS4.

So far, it’s not clear when the crackdown will begin in earnest.

Judge Won’t Stop Federal Crackdown On Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 30, 2011 Dispensaries, Medical, News

Village Voice Media

A federal judge has rejected the request of medical marijuana providers to stop U.S. Attorneys from filing charges against them or seizing their property.

U.S. District Judge Sandra Brown Armstrong ruled in her Oakland courtroom that the medical marijuana collectives hadn’t shown they would suffer “immediate, irreparable harm” without the court order, reports Henry K. Lee of the San Francisco Chronicle.

“The court is sensitive to the desires of individuals to use medical marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation, as permitted by California law,” Armstrong wrote in her 27-page ruling, filed this week. “Nevertheless, marijuana remains illegal under federal law, and in Congress’ view, it has no medicinal value.”

The judge also said she doubted that the collectives would win lawsuits trying to stop the Obama Administration’s crackdown on dispensaries.

Marijuana distributors, patients and dispensary landlords filed lawsuits in all four of California’s federal districts in October, accusing the Department of Justice of violating an agreement to not go after them if they complied with state law.

Coalition Sues Feds, Seeks Halt To Medical Cannabis Crackdown

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 6, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, News

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.

9 Congress Members Express Concern On Marijuana Crackdown

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 31, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, News

StoptheDrugWar.org

Nine members of Congress have taken their concerns about the federal crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries directly to President Obama.

In a bipartisan letter signed by nine members of the U.S. House of Representatives, the lawmakers criticized what they called the “unconscionable federal effort targeting dispensaries,” reports Jason Hoppin of the San Jose Mercury News. They also called for the federal reclassification of marijuana from its current Schedule I status as a drug with, supposedly, no legitimate medical uses and a high potential for abuse and addiction.

“It is critically important for patients to have safe access to this treatment that continues to be recommended by doctors,” said Rep. Sam Farr (D-Calif.) “California voters decided to adopt clear regulations to allow patients to do just that. It is unfortunate that the federal government has decided to target these legal vendors instead of focusing limited resources on those who sell illicit drugs.”

SF Board of Supes President Condemns Cannabis Crackdown

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 28, 2011 Dispensaries, News

Lance Iverson/San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco Board of Supervisors President David Chiu: “With its recently announced ‘crack down’ on these dispensaries, the federal government has proposed a solution in search of a problem”

San Francisco Board of Supervisors President David Chiu responded this week to the Obama Administration’s crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries in California, calling the action “a solution in search of a problem.”

“Medical marijuana dispensaries are providing safe access to treatment options that many Californians depend on to live a comfortable, pain-free life,” Chiu wrote in a Wednesday email to Shona Gochenaur of the Axis of Love, a San Francisco dispensary.

“With its recently announced ‘crack down’ on these dispensaries, the federal government has proposed a solution in search of a problem, while California law supports allowing these distribution centers to give patients the medicine they need,” Chiu said.

“I am very disappointed in Attorney General Holder’s decision and hope that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco focuses on more important issues than restricting access to a legal medical treatment,” Chiu said.

Medical Marijuana Advocates Sue Obama DOJ Over Crackdown

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 27, 2011 Dispensaries, News

Marylanders 4 Safe Access

Americans for Safe Access (ASA), a medical marijuana advocacy organization, filed suit in federal court on Thursday challenging the Obama Administration’s attempt to undercut local and state medical marijuana laws in California.

ASA argues in its lawsuit that Obama’s Department of Justice (DOJ) has “instituted a policy to dismantle the medical marijuana laws of the State of California and to coerce its municipalities to pass bans on medical marijuana dispensaries.”

The DOJ policy has involved aggressive SWAT-style raids, criminal prosecutions of medical marijuana patients and providers and threats to local officials for merely implementing state law.

“Although the Obama Administration is entitled to enforce federal marijuana laws, the 10th Amendment forbids it from using coercive tactics to commandeer the lawmaking functions of the state,” said ASA Chief Counsel Joe Elford, who filed the lawsuit Thursday in San Francisco’s federal District Court.

U.S. Atty. Claims Obama Didn’t Order Med Marijuana Crackdown

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 27, 2011 Dispensaries, Medical, News

U.S. Department of Justice

Rogue U.S. Attorneys? We are being told California’s four federal prosecutors: from left, U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner (Eastern District), U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy (Southern District), U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag (Northern District) and U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte (Central District), went off on their own, unauthorized by the Obama Administration, and announced a federal crackdown on medical marijuana. If that’s really true, the next we hear from these morons should be their resignations — or their mugshots.

After California’s four U.S. Attorneys announced a medical marijuana crackdown in that state, a howl of protest went up from patients and advocates. After all, the Obama Administration had said that going after patients and providers who were following state law would “not be a priority.” Now, a spokeswoman for one of the four federal prosecutors involved claims that Obama didn’t order the crackdown, and in fact wasn’t involved at all.

Is it just me, or does that “revelation” lead to mental images of a headless beast thrashing about, dangerously and inexcusably out of the control of any leader who can be held to account? Is anybody in charge here?

Are we really to believe that four rogue U.S. Attorneys have actually staged a medical marijuana coup of sorts in California, forging off on their own and writing a new federal policy 180 degrees opposed to the President’s previous position?

If that’s so, then the next we hear from these four ass-clowns should be their resignations — or their mugshots.

In any event, the outpouring of rage and dismay from the medical marijuana community must be making an impact for this sort of ridiculous announcement to be seen as necessary.

Marijuana Crackdown By Obama: Yes, It’s Big Pharma

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 11, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Federal prosecutors in the Obama Administration are going after medical marijuana dispensaries. How are pharmaceutical companies involved? Some leaders in this movement will actually tell you they aren’t; be very careful in whom you believe.

As pointed out on The Young Turks, this crackdown is nothing more than a process of eliminating the competition for Big Pharma. GW Pharmaceutical and other manufacturers want to take over the marijuana market with products like Sativex, a liquid extract of cannabis that contains both THC and CBD.

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