Wall Street Journal, 11 Oct 2012 – OAKLAND, Calif.-This Northern California city is fighting to protect its biggest medical-marijuana dispensary-which generates more than a $1 million in local tax revenue annually-from a federal crackdown on pot shops. Oakland sued U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and San Francisco U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag on Wednesday in response to a Justice Department civil-forfeiture complaint aiming to seize the building where the Harborside Health Center, a medical-marijuana dispensary, rents space. The pot shop’s owner says it sells more than $20 million of marijuana annually.

Wall Street Journal, 14 Sep 2012 – LIVINGSTON, Calif. – When state drug agents first suspected a butcher-shop owner here of selling methamphetamine for a large drug network, they had no idea how big an organization their five-month probe would uncover. The resulting bust in August was one of the largest in state history, netting 11 arrests in four counties and more than 300 pounds of the illegal stimulant. More troubling was the discovery of the gang’s approach to logistics: It imported raw powdered meth from Mexico and refined it at Southern California "conversion labs" into crystal form with a higher street value.