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When Barak Obama became president in 2008, there was
hope among marijuana activists that federal authorities would not
concern themselves with medical marijuana facilities and individuals in
states that legalized the plant for medical use.
After all, this
was a president who had admitted to smoking pot and inhaling (the last
three presidents have smoked marijuana, although Bill Clinton claimed he
didn
Federal
prosecutors are targeting more than 100 marijuana shops in Los Angeles
County this week, threatening prosecution if dispensary owners stay in
operation. Officials also moved to seize two properties in Long Beach
catering to marijuana users.
Letters from the federal government were sent to
dispensaries in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Lancaster, and Pearblossom,
U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Thom Mrozek said. The letters informed
dispensary owners they are operating in violation of federal laws.
In Los Angeles, 71 dispensaries in South L.A., downtown, and the Harbor area were sent notices, Mrozek said.
The government’s actions represent the latest effort
to enforce federal laws and the newest challenge to California’s
17-year-old, voter-approved law allowing the sale of marijuana as a
medicinal treatment. Federal authorities contend the 1996 legislation
approved by California voters was intended to allow small, nonprofit
collectives for sick patients, and not result in an explosion of pot
stores.
"Anyone who has spent any time in a marijuana store
can tell these are drug-trafficking businesses," Mrozek said. "All the
stores we have seen are generating significant amount of profits."
The letters sent Tuesday come weeks after Los Angeles voters approved Measure D, which allows 135 dispensaries — those facilities
that were already open and registered with the city before a 2007
moratorium — to stay open. All other dispensaries must shut down.
While the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office is
finalizing the list of 135 dispensaries, and expects to release the list
in about 10 days, Mrozek said he expects some overlap between
facilities ordered to shut down and those on the city’s list allowed to
stay open.
Deputy City Attorney William Carter said his office
will be informing any dispensary on the city’s list they must comply
with federal laws.
Such is the confusing state of marijuana laws in
California, where federal and state rules often conflict with one
another as local governments take a piecemeal approach to regulating
pot.
Kris Hermes, spokesperson for the Americans for Safe
Access, a medical marijuana advocacy group, criticized the federal
government’s actions Tuesday, saying that he believes stores targeted by
the U.S. Attorney’s Office should be allowed to operate because they
are in compliance with state laws.
"Thousands of people will be left without safe and legal access to medical marijuana," Hermes said.
In Long Beach, where dispensaries have been illegal
since last year, the city’s police chief praised the crackdown, saying
that shops have been a problem for the city.
"We always welcome the opportunity to partner with
federal authorities in an effort to address these illegal operations
that affect the quality of life in our community," Long Beach Police
Chief Jim McDonnell said in a statement.
The federal government has also filed two asset
forfeiture lawsuits in Long Beach where officials said marijuana stores
are currently operating.
The forfeiture lawsuits allege the owners of the
properties allowed commercial marijuana stores or growing operations.
The dispensaries named by the U.S. Attorney’s Office are the Healing
Tree Holistic Association on East Anaheim Street and the Naples Wellness
Center on East 2nd Street.
Messages left for owners at the two stores were not immediately returned.
Mike Cuthriell has navigated D.C. government regulations for
two-and-a-half years to open a medical marijuana dispensary and now only
needs a final inspection from the Department of Health before he can
officially open his Metropolitan Wellness Center. But the center won’t
be able to stay open unless the health department sanctions one more
thing: patients.
As of Thursday, 18 doctors had received
applications to allow them to recommend medical marijuana to qualified
patients, health department officials said. Forms that would allow
patients to apply for registration cards are supposed to be available by
mid-June, the agency said.
The status of the forms is a matter of dispute.
Mike
Liszewski, policy director of the D.C.-based nonprofit Americans for
Safe Access, which promotes safe and legal access to marijuana, said his
understanding was that the forms have not yet been created. But health
department spokeswoman Najma Roberts said the forms have been developed.
Even
if the health department does release patient forms later this month,
Mr. Cuthriell predicts that marijuana dispensaries may have to wait
additional weeks or months while patients complete a multi-step process
to request the form and apply for a registration card.
Mr.
Cuthriell said the financial effect of the delay is "a big question."
The Metropolitan Wellness Center at Eastern Market in Southeast and two
other dispensaries, the Takoma Wellness Center and Capital City Care,
both in Northwest, are paying for security systems, rent, staffing and
more so that if and when patients begin patronizing the dispensaries
they are ready to receive them.
A November 2010 fiscal impact
statement provided by the District’s chief financial officer estimated
that 800 patients would qualify and be registered to use medical
marijuana and that the number would increase 50 percent each year for
the first five years. Mr. Cuthriell and other dispensary owners used
this number to gauge the potential size of their market.
The
Metropolitan Wellness Center spends its time doing preparatory work,
"little things, but we’re not just sitting around," Vanessa West,
general manager, said.
"Because we haven’t had our final
inspection by DOH, we’re not exactly complaining yet," she said. "I’m
more disappointed because there are patients who have a qualifying
disease, but it’s taking forever for physicians to get recommendation
forms."
Asked
about the frustrations expressed as a result of the delays, Ms. Roberts
said three cultivation centers have been issued registrations and are
growing medical marijuana.
"It takes 90 days to grow the plant.
While the dispensaries are ready there is nothing to dispense until the
product is ready," Ms. Roberts said.
Patients eligible to use
medical marijuana include those with cancer, glaucoma, HIV, AIDS and
conditions characterized by severe and persistent muscle spasms, such as
multiple sclerosis. Patients undergoing chemotherapy or radiotherapy or
patients using azidothymidine or protease inhibitors also qualify.
While
lobbying a section of the federal tax code that bars businesses selling
certain drugs
California medical marijuana regulations failed in the
state legislature last week, but advocacy groups helped advance a bill
to better protect collectives, and helped defeat a bill that would have
criminalized driving while sober.
All bills in the legislature had until Friday, May 31 to pass through
their houses of origin, and the day brought a stinging defeat for San
Francisco Assemblyman Tom Ammiano’s AB 473, which would have begun the
process of regulating the state’s estimated $1.3 billion medical
cannabis industry. Assembly Bill 473 would have placed the entire
medical cannabis supply chain under the California Department of
Alcoholic Beverage Control. The bill failed 35-37, with a handful of
Democratic lawmakers from Southern and Central California voting no and
effectively stalling the bill.
That’s very frustrating considering these are the same regions crying
out for one statewide solution to regulating medical cannabis, said Don
Duncan, a leading medical marijuana advocate and lobbyist based in Los
Angeles.
Even as California’s cops and councilmembers call out in the press
for tighter regulations on medical marijuana, lobbyists for California’s
police chiefs, district attorneys, and narcotic officers
The power to
prosecute is an awesome power that confers the ability to ruin people’s
lives, which is why an attorney general should use that power
judiciously.
There should be, to borrow from language in currency
at the Obama Department of Justice these days, "balance." When
authorities uphold federal drug laws, they should target the worst
offenders first, not prosecute and jail their biggest critics.
When Barack Obama ran for president in 2008, a
campaign spokesman told me Obama "believes that states and local
government are best positioned to strike the balance between making sure
that these policies are not abused for recreational drug use and making
sure that doctors and their patients can safely access pain relief."
When Oregon’s Willamette Week asked Obama if he would
stop federal raids on medical marijuana facilities, he answered, "I
would, because I think our federal agents have better things to do, like
catching criminals and preventing terrorism."
Those remarks suggested that, as president, Obama
would leave marijuana enforcement to local officials in the 18 states
that have legalized medical marijuana.
Yet under Attorney General Eric Holder, the Obama Department of Justice has declared war on medical marijuana dispensaries.
Last week in Sacramento, U.S. Attorney Benjamin
B. Wagner announced that his office had cut a plea agreement with
Matthew Davies, 35, a bistro owner and small-business man with an MBA,
who "set out to build a lucrative marijuana empire in the Central
Valley, even though he knew that this conduct was illegal under federal
law." Davies will serve five years in prison and pay a big fine.
Already, he has forfeited $100,000.
The smart and humane course would be to place Davies,
who already has been wiped out financially, on probation or home
detention.
By putting him behind bars for five years, the feds
end his ability to hire workers for his bistro and other concerns, erase
the taxes he would have paid, and take a father from his wife and two
daughters.
And for what? Will illicit marijuana use go down? I don’t think so.
After a high-profile press campaign waged by attorney
Steven Ragland and public relations ace Chris Lehane to win a pardon or
lenient sentence, Davies caved because federal mandatory minimum
sentences lack all proportion.
Wagner asserts that Davies faced a 40-year sentence if
found guilty of three of the 10 counts filed against him. That’s an
insane sentence for a first-time, nonviolent drug offender.
"It’s not just incarceration" that bleeds taxpayers, noted Kris Hermes of Americans for Safe Access.
"It’s also the investigation. It’s also the prosecution."
After Colorado and Washington voters chose to legalize
recreational use of marijuana, the president told ABC’s Barbara Walters
he had "bigger fish to fry" than going after recreational users.
But for all the president’s talk about a need for
"balance" when dealing with intelligence leaks and First Amendment
rights, he will not demand balance in his own Department of Justice.
Hermes sees the "dying gasp" of drug warriors refusing
to accept the verdict of voters — so they’re kicking folks like Matt
Davies and using your tax dollars to feed their nasty habit.
If
you were looking for an easy place to organize workers, it probably
wouldn
A series of letters from the DEA that have effectively closed a
handful of medical marijuana storefronts in Seattle might be an
indication of how the feds will fight back against Washington state
The crackdown against medical
pot shops across Southern California began as soon as the state’s
highest court ruled last month that cities could enforce their
dispensary bans,
Police have raided a legion of medical marijuana dispensaries across
the Southland, while legal threats have been issued to hundreds more.
From Santa Ana to San Bernardino, cities that had put the kibosh on the
pot shops now had potent legal ammunition in which to shut them down.
By late last week, San Bernardino had shuttered all but 10 of its 33
banned dispensaries
The New Hampshire Senate last Thursday approved medical marijuana
legislation, but removed language allowing patients to grow their own
and protecting them from arrest before state ID cards are issued. The
House in March had approved the bill with those provisions, so now it
goes before a conference committee to try to reconcile differences.
The
Senate version also came with several other amendments, including
reducing the number of state-licensed dispensaries, requiring that
patients get written permission from a property owner before
being able to use medical marijuana on privately owned land, and
eliminating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from the list of
eligible conditions for marijuana use.
Sponsored by Rep. Donna Schlachman (D-Exeter), House Bill 573,
would allow state residents with serious illnesses, such as cancer,
multiple sclerosis, and HIV/AIDS, to obtain and use medical marijuana if
their doctors recommend it. Patients would be able to obtain their
medicine through one of four non-profit, state-licensed dispensaries.
The
Senate changes to the bill were made to assuage the concerns of Gov.
Maggie Hassan (D), who has said she supports medical marijuana
legislation, but who heeded the fears of law enforcement officials that
allowing patients to grow their own could result in diversion and make
law enforcement’s job more difficult.
According to advocates, the
Senate version of the bill not only regresses from the House version,
but it also contains errant language that would render the program
unworkable. The conference committee will seek to address those
problems.
"We applaud the senators for adopting this compassionate
and much-needed legislation despite its imperfections," said Matt
Simon, a New Hampshire-based legislative analyst for the Marijuana Policy Project.
"In time, if a few simple problems are fixed, this bill will give
patients much-needed relief. The amendments made at the behest of our
governor will leave patients out in the cold for at least two years,
having to choose between needlessly suffering or turning to the
underground market to find their medicine. Patients will continue to
make the case to Gov. Hassan for why this bill needs to be substantially
improved, and she has said she will continue to listen."
"After
waiting years for legal protections and access to medical marijuana, New
Hampshire patients are grateful for the legislature’s action and
hopeful that this time the governor will make it a reality," said Mike
Liszewski, policy director with Americans for Safe Access
(ASA), the country’s leading medical marijuana advocacy group.
"Patients, however, still intend to urge members of the conference
committee to consider the importance of patient cultivation, especially
as the program gets up and running over the next 18 months."
Now, it’s up to the conference committee and the governor.
Berkeley Patients Group, widely regarded as a model
community citizen, has become the latest target of the federal
government’s war on medical marijuana dispensaries.
During the 2008 presidential campaign, then-candidate Barack Obama vowed to deal with the issue of medical marijuana, which is legal in 18 states and the District of Columbia, with a ‘hands-off’ approach. Obama promised that he would not "be using Justice Department resources to circumvent state laws" governing medical marijuana.
But as with so many of his other promises,
President Obama has broken his word, with California medical marijuana
dispensaries being targeted in an aggressive federal crackdown that has
seen many medicine providers shut down despite their state-legal status.
Medical Marijuana Review reports that Berkeley Patients Group
(BPG) is currently ground zero in the federal war on medical marijuana.
Earlier this month, US Attorney Melinda Haag slapped BPG with a forfeiture lawsuit,
the opening salvo in an attempt to seize its property and force it to
shut its doors. BPG has already shuttered one location and moved in
order to comply with a state law requiring dispensaries to be located
more than 1,000 feet (305 m) from schools or playgrounds. Apparently
that wasn’t good enough for Haag.
The federal government’s actions have sparked widespread community
outrage throughout California, and not just among marijuana users.
Earlier this month, numerous local leaders turned out at a Berkeley
press conference to express their anger and disappointment at Haag and
the Obama administration, which they say is wasting valuable law
enforcement resources targeting businesses that are operating legally
under Proposition 215, the state’s voter-approved Compassionate Use Act.
Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates told the press conference he believed that
Attorney General Eric Holder "really messed up" by going after BPG, a
business he said has "virtually no problems with law enforcement."
"He (Holder) needs to say, ‘stop this,’" Bates said.
"Berkeley Patients Group is a model business in our community," Berkeley
city councilman Jesse Arregu
