For Immediate Release: July 20th, 2012

Medical Marijuana Patients to Rally Monday at Obama Fundraiser in Oakland, Demand End to Federal Attacks

President Obama's visit to Oakland follows aggressive DOJ actions aimed at shutting down city-permitted dispensaries


Oakland, CA -- Hundreds of medical marijuana patients and advocates will stage a rally Monday in downtown Oakland at a fundraiser for President Obama's re-election campaign. The president's visit to Oakland follows a recent forfeiture action aimed at shutting down Harborside Health Center, a city-permitted dispensary that has operated since 2006 without incident. Earlier this year, the Obama Justice Department raided and shut down another of Oakland's permitted dispensaries, Blue Sky, leaving the city with a dwindling number of facilities to serve Oakland's patient population. On Monday, protesters will demand an end to federal interference and call for the firing of Melinda Haag, the U.S. Attorney for northern California.


What: Rally and press conference to protest federal attacks on the medical marijuana community and on Oakland's dispensaries in particular

When: Monday, July 23rd Press Conference at 1:45pm (Rally Noon-5pm)

Where: Press conference at Oaksterdam University, 1600 Broadway, Oakland (Rally at City Hall Plaza)


"The Obama Administration's attacks on the medical marijuana community are unprecedented and out-of-control," said Steph Sherer, Executive Director of Americans for Safe Access, the country's leading medical marijuana advocacy organization and one of the groups organizing Monday's rally. "We're here to let the president know that there's a political, and not just a financial, cost to shutting down law-abiding dispensaries," continued Sherer. "Patients are demanding that the president take account for his administration's harmful actions and address medical marijuana like the public health issue that it is."

President Obama has been dogged for the actions of U.S. Attorneys over the past two years, as his administration engaged in an all-out attack in medical marijuana states. From thinly-veiled threats against public officials in several medical marijuana states to hundreds of SWAT-style raids and threats against property owners, resulting in the closure of hundreds of dispensaries in California and other states, Obama's Justice Department has expended millions of dollars to target state law-compliant businesses.

These attacks represent an about-face to President Obama's stated policy that he was "not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue." Most recently, Attorney General Eric Holder testified before the House Judiciary Committee last month that his Justice Department was only targeting medical marijuana businesses "out of conformity with state law." Four days later, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents raided El Camino Wellness, a legally permitted dispensary in Sacramento widely supported by City Council members and others in the community.

Just last week, U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag filed a forfeiture lawsuit against the landlord of Harborside Health Center, lauded as the most popular dispensary in the country, in an attempt to shut down its two facilities in Oakland and San Jose. The legal action by Haag elicited outrage from not just the medical marijuana community, but also from a number of supportive public officials, including Oakland City Attorney Barbara Parker, State Assembly member Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), and Betty Yee of the State Board of Equalization, which collects more than $100 million in annual sales tax revenue from California's dispensaries.

In May, the Alameda County Democratic Party Central Committee unanimously adopted a resolution, decrying the federal raids as "a breach of promise and ill-directed use of taxpayer dollars," and calling on the federal government "to adhere to Administration promises about respecting state laws on medical marijuana by directing federal agencies to cease and desist from any further such action in California."


ASA

Wish I could be there! Maybe get everyone there to tweet their congressman and DNC how pissed they are.

For Immediate Release: July 20th, 2012

Medical Marijuana Patients Rally at Obama Fundraiser in Oakland, Demand End to Federal Attacks

President Obama's visit to Oakland follows aggressive DOJ actions aimed at shutting down city-permitted dispensaries



NEW: Watch video of last night's action -- Images projected onto Obama's Oakland Campaign HQ: http://youtu.be/Ci0XlKAgbWU




Oakland, CA -- Hundreds of medical marijuana patients and advocates will stage a rally Monday in downtown Oakland at a fundraiser for President Obama's re-election campaign. The president's visit to Oakland follows a recent forfeiture action aimed at shutting down Harborside Health Center, a city-permitted dispensary that has operated since 2006 without incident. Earlier this year, the Obama Justice Department raided and shut down another of Oakland's permitted dispensaries, Blue Sky, leaving the city with a dwindling number of facilities to serve Oakland's patient population. On Monday, protesters will demand an end to federal interference and call for the firing of Melinda Haag, the U.S. Attorney for northern California.


What: Rally and press conference to protest federal attacks on the medical marijuana community and on Oakland's dispensaries in particular

When: Monday, July 23rd Press Conference at 1:45pm (Rally Noon-5pm)

Where: Press conference at Oaksterdam University, 1600 Broadway, Oakland (Rally at City Hall Plaza)

"The Obama Administration's attacks on the medical marijuana community are unprecedented and out-of-control," said Steph Sherer, Executive Director of Americans for Safe Access, the country's leading medical marijuana advocacy organization and one of the groups organizing Monday's rally. "We're here to let the president know that there's a political, and not just a financial, cost to shutting down law-abiding dispensaries," continued Sherer. "Patients are demanding that the president take account for his administration's harmful actions and address medical marijuana like the public health issue that it is."

President Obama has been dogged for the actions of U.S. Attorneys over the past two years, as his administration engaged in an all-out attack in medical marijuana states. From thinly-veiled threats against public officials in several medical marijuana states to hundreds of SWAT-style raids and threats against property owners, resulting in the closure of hundreds of dispensaries in California and other states, Obama's Justice Department has expended millions of dollars to target state law-compliant businesses.

These attacks represent an about-face to President Obama's stated policy that he was "not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue." Most recently, Attorney General Eric Holder testified before the House Judiciary Committee last month that his Justice Department was only targeting medical marijuana businesses "out of conformity with state law." Four days later, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents raided El Camino Wellness, a legally permitted dispensary in Sacramento widely supported by City Council members and others in the community.

Just last week, U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag filed a forfeiture lawsuit against the landlord of Harborside Health Center, lauded as the most popular dispensary in the country, in an attempt to shut down its two facilities in Oakland and San Jose. The legal action by Haag elicited outrage from not just the medical marijuana community, but also from a number of supportive public officials, including Oakland City Attorney Barbara Parker, State Assembly member Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), and Betty Yee of the State Board of Equalization, which collects more than $100 million in annual sales tax revenue from California's dispensaries.

In May, the Alameda County Democratic Party Central Committee unanimously adopted a resolution, decrying the federal raids as "a breach of promise and ill-directed use of taxpayer dollars," and calling on the federal government "to adhere to Administration promises about respecting state laws on medical marijuana by directing federal agencies to cease and desist from any further such action in California."

ASA

So Eddie how'd it go? Any word from the Obama camp?

Hundreds of Medical Marijuana Supporters Protest Obama in Oakland as Feds Escalate Their War on Pot

Demanding answers for unjustified federal raids and threats, patients challenged the DEA's claim that marijuana has no medical use.

By J.A. Myerson
July 24, 2012


Hundreds of supporters of President Obama turned out to see him at Oakland’s Fox Theater on Monday afternoon. They lined up for blocks along Telegraph Avenue for the opportunity to see President Obama as he traveled from one fundraising event to another. Before the First Motorcade passed them though, a march of several hundred people instructed them variously to “Smoke weed every day,” “Stop the madness, spark a spliff,” and demand that their candidate keep his promise.

The activists gathered first at Oakland City Hall to protest U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag’s crusade against area dispensaries. This April, in apparent contravention of the publicly-stated will of President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, federal agents raided Oaksterdam University. Recently, Ms. Haag has also threatened to seize Harborside Health Center, where 100,000 patients have procured medicine over the last six years. Representatives of the two dispensaries joined Judge Jim Gray, the Vice Presidential candidate on the Libertarian ticket, a handful of Occupy Oakland regulars, and a community of cannabis patents in front of around one hundred supporters.

Specifically, the group’s plea was for the President and the Attorney General to intervene in Ms. Haag’s anti-dispensary fight. Behind this, they have Obama’s previous statements and what they have been led to believe was official Justice Department policy, as articulated by Holder. Candidate Obama said in 2007, “I would not have the Justice Department prosecuting and raiding medical marijuana users; it is not a good use of our resources. AG Holder has promised to keep the Justice Department’s nose out of medical marijuana establishments unless they “are acting out of conformity with state law.”

The letter Haag issued to explain her posture did not adhere to that standard, effectively calling the dispensaries too successful to tolerate rather than citing specific violations of state law. “The larger the operation,” read the letter, “the greater the likelihood that there will be abuse of the state’s medical marijuana laws.” (Why no U.S. Attorney has applied this standard to, say, financial institutions, remains to be explained.)

One by one, cannabis patients told their stories to counteract the DEA’s assertion that marijuana has “no currently accepted medical use.” Jason David, who was featured in Discovery Channel’s “Weed Wars,” told the story of his son, who had a seizure every day of his life until he was treated with CBP, since which his life has changed. “I’m getting my son back,” David said. “He can look me in my eyes. He can comprehend now, which he never could before. Now, when we go swimming, he’s happy. He gets to swim. Before, when we would go to a swimming pool, he couldn’t swim. He’d look at it and have a seizure.”

One woman in a wheelchair announced, “My name is Mira Ingram. I have a paralyzed digestive tract, and medical cannabis is what allows me to eat. If I lose access to my medical cannabis, I will end up on a feeding tube needlessly thanks to the federal government.”

Steve Rauscher, a “61-year-old suburbanite” with a degenerative disc problem that has necessitated four back surgeries laid into the President. “President Obama, hands off my medicine,” he called out. “If you want a penny from me, if you want a second of my time volunteering for your campaign, or if you want my vote, end the madness now.”

The state law in question is 1996’s Compassionate Use Act, passed by the general voting public as Proposition 215. Many of the activists I spoke to expressed special protectiveness over the sanctity of that law owing to its passage in a directly democratic manner. If resistance to federal tampering with state law is a more traditionally conservative position than many are used to adopting, it is not the only “conservative” sentiment expressed at the rally. “Tough on crime,” one poster said. “Not on patients.”

That crime rises when a previously legal substance is suddenly criminalized is a lesson we well know in the United States of America. As Judge Gray pointed out speaking before the crowd, if Oaksterdam and Harborside are closed, “people will still be getting marijuana, but it will be in illegal manners.”

“The U.S. Attorney is definitely abusing her discretion,” said Steve DeAngelo, founder of Harborside and longtime cannabis reform advocate. “Why does she feel it’s so appropriate to spend limited federal law enforcement resources persecuting people who are in compliance with state law?”

“Bag the Haag,” chanted marchers in one of the rally’s less tactful moments, imploring the President to fire the U.S. Attorney. Even Judge Gray expressed his support for that use of executive authority. “Every U.S. Attorney works for the Department of Justice and is therefore ostensibly obeying Holder’s directions,” he said. “It’s well within the chain of command for the President to intervene.”

In the wake of the 2006 U.S. Attorney firing scandal, the famously risk-averse Obama Administration is unlikely to pursue so high-profile and drastic a measure, especially given that Attorney Haag is a Democrat and the election is just a few excruciating months away.

Many protesters mentioned the more than $100 million in tax revenue the medical marijuana industry generates for the state of California, in a time of budget cutbacks – not to mention the cost of the investigations, prosecutions and raids. “It’s very nice of President Obama to come out with his words of grief over the Colorado shooting,” said Rauscher. “But why are you not using the limited resources of the Department of Justice to go after the illegal assault weapons that have infected our cities and our country?”

AlterNet


J.A. Myerson is a reporter for Truthout and Citizen Radio.

Marijuana Activists Protest Obama's Visit To Oakland

By Steve Elliott
Tuesday, July 24, 2012



All photos by Jack Rikess


By Jack Rikess
Toke of the Town
Northern California Correspondent








Steve DeAngelo, executive director of Harborside Health Center


Oakland, California: Starting at noon a few hundred cannabis supporters and activists gathered on the steps of Oakland's City Hall to show support for Harborside Health Center and to protest President Obama's early evening fundraiser at the picturesque Fox Theater.




On July 11, Harborside Health Center in Oakland and San Jose was served an official Complaint for Forfeiture of Property. The complaint is signed by U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag, Assistant U.S. Attorney Arvan Perteet, and DEA Agent David White, filed on July 6 in the District Court, San Francisco Division and received by the court on Sunday, July 9. The complaint seeks forfeiture of real estate and improvements on the grounds that cannabis is being distributed on the premises, in violation of federal law.

Steve DeAngelo, executive director of Harborside, Libertarian vice-presidential candidate Judge Jim Gray, and others spoke under the hot East Bay sun to the cheers and applause of the cannabis crowd that assembled in the commons of City Hall.

"This is a watershed moment for the movement. If the Feds can come after Harborside, then no other dispensary in the country is safe," DeAngelo said.

After the speakers were done, fans and supporters came up for autographs and to have their picture taken with DeAngelo. A few said that they relied on his dispensary for their medicine and weren't sure what they were going to do now.

The police and Secret Service had most of the local businesses close shop by 1:00 p.m. The alleys and some of the side streets were barricaded for security reasons shutting down access to Broadway where Oaksterdam University is located. Luckily, Francesca, a local business woman, showed me the way.

"I'm glad that President Obama is coming to Oakland today," Francesca said. "I wish he'd visit some of our more troubled areas, but I'll take what I can get. I'm from Boston... I lived there under Romney. He was good for Massachusetts, but he's not that guy anymore. I voted for Obama and will again."

Do you have any feelings about the cannabis issue?

"I think it's silly what they're doing. Alcohol is worse and they tax that. I don't do it but I know people who use it. It helps them. I've worked in the area for about three years and it's sad what happen to Oaksterdam University. Richard Lee did a lot to revitalize this area," Francesca said as she dropped me off at Oaksterdam.

Green flags were posted by local businesses along the streets of Oakland showing solidarity for the cannabis cause. Harborside Health Center is Oakland's second largest tax provider. A few of the shop keepers I spoke with cautiously wondered if Oakland was going to be able to find the revenue that both Oaksterdam and Harborside provided to the city.




At 2 p.m., Richard Lee joined Steve DeAngelo and others on the Oaksterdam stage for a press conference. As usual, Richard let the others do the talking.

"In light of the recent violence in Colorado, as a new mother... this is so tragic. I'm a community organizer like the head of our current administration once was. We both want the same thing...Safe communities. It is tragic for the families of the victims that... in light of the recent shutdowns... that Law Enforcement doesn't have their full attention."
~ Dale Sky Jones, Executive Chancellor Oaksterdam University

"The harder you get with drug crimes; the softer you get with everything else.

"I was an assistant United States Attorney in Los Angeles. I really care about my office. This is simply not the right thing to do. It just makes no sense at all.

"Closing down Harborside, closing down Oaksterdam, nothing good will come out of it. The rational for doing this eludes me. You are now going to have patients who cannot get their medicine tested. The patients will now have to go underground. This will not result in less marijuana being sold in Oakland or elsewhere. It will just push money to the cartels and gangs.

"I sense a change today. I suggest the slogan hereafter is, 'The Hempire Strikes Back!'

"If Obama is reelected... If Governor Romney gets elected: There won't be any dispensaries left in the next year or two."


~ Jim Gray, Libertarian Vice-President Candidate, former U.S. Attorney, former Judge Advocate General's Corp of U.S. Navy, former Presiding Judge Superior Court of Orange County

"Obama's Department of Justice is carrying out an unauthorized war on medical marijuana but also not only violates the president's stated policies but also conflicts with his campaign promises and Eric Holder's testimony before Congress last month. Holder reassured the House Judiciary Committee that DOJ was following the Ogden memo (the Justice Department memo that states to go after medical marijuana businesses that DO NOT comply with state law). But we know, especially here in Oakland... that couldn't be farther from the truth."

~ Aaron Smith, National Cannabis Industry Association Director

"I would like to thank the thousand of messages of support... sent to us from all over the world... even to our secret supporters in the Department of Justice. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

"We have gathered today to ask President Obama to ensure that all federal enforcement actions against medical cannabis targets are consistent with Attorney General Eric Holder's recent sworn testimony to Congress, in which he said, 'We limit our enforcement actions to individuals, organizations that are acting out of conformity with state law.'

"The best way to accomplish that goal is with an immediate freeze on all such enforcement actions, and a DOJ review at the highest levels, to make sure they are consistent with administration policy. We respectfully remind the President of the promise he made to medical cannabis patients, and ask him to take action immediately.


~ Steve DeAngelo, Executive Director of Harborside Health Center




The police had photographers along the protest route taking pictures

After the press conference, by then the number of protesters on the street easily hit a thousand. They marched through the streets of Oakland, stopping traffic. Some people were irate while others honked and smiled in unity. The police had photographers along the protest route taking pictures, raising a few eyebrows and smiles from the passing dissenters.

By 4:30 p.m. the planned protest at City Hall was over. Exiting, the protesters walked by the lines of folks standing behind metal barricades waiting to see President Obama at the Fox Theater. The protesters questioned the Obama faithful about what the president's policies concerning medical marijuana in California?

"He's better than Romney." "I love Obama." "Smoke some more pot!"

Ironically and maybe optimistically, most of the people in attendance on either sides of the metal fence were essentially liberals at heart. A few of those in line waiting to see the President knew some of the protesters personally and visa-versa.

Soon there were people on both sides of the issues talking and laughing as old friends saw each other again.

It was a nice note to end on after a heated day on the streets.



tokeofthetown

Thanks Eddie! I still wonder how anyone can say O bama would be better for weed than Romney. Maybe on other things but not that actions speak louder than words and he's been shouting quite loud.