Federal Government Sends Out More Medical Marijuana Dispensary Landlord Letters In California

US Attorney Melinda Haag has issued a spate of new landlord letters targeting medical cannabis dispensaries in Northern California.

Cal NORML has so far heard reports from dispensaries in San Jose, San Francisco and Ukiah. The letters warn landlords that the facilities are operating too close to a school or park. Under federal law, distribution of controlled substances within 1,000 feet of a school or youth recreation area is punishable by enhanced penalties. In addition, the letters warn landlords that they are liable for forfeiture under USC Title 21, Section 881(a) 7. Unlike some previous letters, they do not threaten immediate prosecution or set a deadline for compliance.

The targets include some dispensaries that have been operating in their present location without complaint for years. One San Jose club was scolded for being located 881 feet from a school on the other side of the freeway and an industrial park. Another in San Francisco was over 900 feet from a small public park.

Cal NORML denounced the DOJ letters as yet another indication of the bankruptcy of federal marijuana policy. “Federal bureaucrats have no business butting in on local land use decisions,” said Cal NORML director Dale Gieringer. “The DOJ’s claim to be protecting school children is risible, given the closer proximity of liquor stores, sex shops, and other adult businesses to schools. It’s time for the Obama administration to stop threatening law-abiding businesses, and to start revising federal marijuana policy.”


http://www.theweedblog.com/federal-government-sends-out-more-medical-marijuana-dispensary-landlord-letters-in-california/?fb_action_ids=10201117625889863%2C10201117595929114%2C10201111693061546&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map={%2210201117625889863%22%3A523382821053285%2C%2210201117595929114%22%3A158977507603482%2C%2210201111693061546%22%3A478240512248649}&action_type_map={%2210201117625889863%22%3A%22og.recommends%22%2C%2210201117595929114%22%3A%22og.recommends%22%2C%2210201111693061546%22%3A%22og.recommends%22}&action_ref_map=[]

Seven S.F. Marijuana Dispensaries Targeted by D.E.A.

We received word Wednesday that seven medical marijuana dispensaries permitted by the City of San Francisco are being investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration. In Sept. 2012, D.E.A. agent David White requested from San Francisco the public records of: Ketama Collective; Igzactly 420; 1944 Ocean Collective; The Hemp Center; Mr. Purple Skunk; The Apothecarium; and Bernal Heights Collective.

White requested each dispensary’s business license and application, health permit and application, ownership information, yearly statements/forms (i.e., not for profit, affirmation of not crossing state lines, etc.). White is a Special Agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration Financial Investigative Team in the San Francisco Field Division.

This week, news broke that the D.E.A. is trying to force the closure of at least one of the targeted dispensaries, The Hemp Center. The Hemp Center’s landlord is being threatened with 40 years prison, property forfeiture, and asset seizure for renting office space to The Hemp Center, sources say. At least four landlords in San Jose received similar letters Friday.

San Francisco has permitted about 15 dispensaries. There are perhaps one hundred dispensaries open in San Jose, where citizens passed marijuana sales tax Measure U in 2010. California legalized marijuana for qualified patients, caregivers, and collectives in 1996 and 2003. Marijuana has been federally illegal since 1937, when bureaucrats in Washington D.C. started a war on marijuana based on racism and misinformation.

In 2009, President Obama said prosecuting state-legal medical cannabis patients should not be a priority of the Department of Justice. In 2011, the Department of Justice clarified that marijuana businesses were still a priority – regardless if they comply with state law.

In October 2011, Haag and three other US Attorneys declared war on California’s estimated $1.3 billion medical marijuana industry, threatening hundreds of landlords with forfeiture. Hundreds of dispensaries across the state moved or closed, including several beloved S.F. clubs like The Vapor Room – which is delivery-only – and Medithrive.

Last year, California Gov. Jerry Brown denounced the crackdown, saying California didn’t need “federal gendarmes” interfering with lawful tax-paying businesses.

In January, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano told a San Francisco crowd that Haag had “gone rogue.” He called the landlord threats “drone strikes”, and added “I’m sorry a house fell on her sister,” alluding to the wicked witch in The Wizard of Oz.

Last week, Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom called for decriminalizing, regulating, and taxing California’s decades-old, multi-billion dollar marijuana industry.

The latest polls show almost two out of three Americans agree that federal authorities should leave state-legal marijuana alone. Almost three out of four Americans agree the estimated $7.6 billion federal war on pot each year costs more than it is worth.

The new threats this week follow a federal threats against all dispensaries open in Santa Ana, CA. last week, as well as the raid of a San Diego dispensary who had an operating agreement with the City of San Diego. The DEA also threatened 11 medical marijuana clubs in Seattle.

The California chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) denounced the threats as yet another indication of the bankruptcy of federal marijuana policy.

“Despite the sequester, Newtown, and the Boston bombing, the Obama administration still insists in meddling in medical marijuana issues that properly belong to local authorities,” stated Cal NORML director Dale Gieringer.

More news as we get it.

http://blog.sfgate.com/smellthetruth/2013/05/02/seven-s-f-marijuana-dispensaries-targeted-by-d-e-a/

Dont you mean, targeted by Obama's drug czar?

U.S. drug czar slams medical marijuana during S.F. event
"there is no “war on drugs”

“We have the world’s most renowned process to decide what is medicine and what should go in peoples’ bodies. And marijuana has never been through that process.”

Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2013/01/...t#ixzz2SU9KtgBP

Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2013/01/...t#ixzz2SU8lQNgM

No matter how you spin this???
Its not a Party thing...
Its simply us against those who oppose us...

California Supreme Court deals massive blow to medical marijuana industry

The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that local municipalities can legally ban medical marijuana dispensaries, dealing a massive blow to the burgeoning industry that’s exploded across the state since 2009.

The ruling in City of Riverside v. Inland Empire Patient’s Health and Wellness Center (PDF) boils down to whether the California constitution trumps provisions in the state’s medical marijuana laws.

The California constitution gives cities the zoning power to dictate land use within their borders, enabling them to declare businesses a “public nuisance” and toss them out — which is precisely what happened to the Inland Empire dispensary in Riverside.

Lower courts consistently sided with the city, saying that nothing in the Compassionate Use Act (CUA) or the Medical Marijuana Program (MMP) laws actually prohibits cities from banning marijuana businesses.

The state’s Supreme Court agreed on Monday, saying that California’s medical marijuana laws “merely declare that the conduct they describe cannot lead to arrest or conviction, or be abated as a nuisance, as violations of enumerated provisions of the Health and Safety Code.”

“Nothing in the CUA or the MMP expressly or impliedly limits the inherent authority of a local jurisdiction, by its own ordinances, to regulate the use of its land, including the authority to provide that facilities for the distribution of medical marijuana will not be permitted to operate within its borders,” the justices added.

Drug reform advocacy group Americans for Safe Access estimates that more than 200 California municipalities have banned medical marijuana storefronts. Just 50 localities have adopted local regulations governing the medical marijuana business.

“It is time for the state legislature to enact state-wide medical marijuana oversight and regulation that both protects patient access and eases the burden on localities to deal with this issue on their own,” Drug Policy Alliance attorney Tamar Todd said in an advisory. “Localities will stop enacting bans once the state has stepped up and assumed its responsibility to regulate.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/06/ca...juana-industry/

Obama: fixing the problem will require “a comprehensive approach — not just law enforcement, but education and prevention and treatment.”



The Obama administration’s strategy, though, is somewhat controversial since it technically defines regular pot users as people with brain diseases — addiction, the administration says, is a brain disease. Scores of marijuana defenders, however, say that there is no proof that the drug is addictive.
http://www.talkradionews.com/white-house...ml#.UYift7_y9JE

RAIDs are already in progress:

San Bernardino raids marijuana dispensaries, aims to shut down all


Years of levying but not collecting fines on medical marijuana dispensaries and fielding impatient calls from neighbors upset the shops stay open are rapidly ending now that the California Supreme Court says cities may ban them, San Bernardino officials say.

The message was taken seriously by at least 18 of the 33 dispensaries in the city, who have stopped operating since they were ordered to close Tuesday - the day after the court's ruling - according to City Attorney James F. Penman.

The owners of an unnamed dispensary on the 3200 block of E Street that stayed open realized the seriousness Thursday. It was the first target of a series of planned raids by police, city attorney investigators, code enforcement and fire employees working together.

Officials seized 80 plants, 30 pounds of marijuana - with an estimated value of $3,000 per pound - and a loaded 12-gauge shotgun with a pistol grip, said City Attorney James F. Penman.

A second dispensary authorities went to Thursday, in the 3900 block of Sierra Way, Penman said was on its way out.

"The second one we hit was open yesterday, but closed today," Penman said, adding that workers were removing the ATM and turning away potential customers when authorities arrived. "That's what we hope to see, is empty businesses."

Authorities raided two locations before being called off because of an officer-involved shooting on Hospitality Lane.

More will follow, including checks of previously closed locations, Penman said.

That's great news for nearby businesses, said Judy Grafton, owner of a tax and notary store called Judy's Business Services across E Street.

"It's just been awful for us," Grafton said. "Since they came in, we've lost 50 percent of our business."

Grafton's business has
been open 10 years and the dispensary opened two years ago, she said. Unsavory customers, litter and a persistent smell of marijuana have plagued her since, she said.

It will be good to have visitors over again without them asking about the smell, said Joe Mora, 44, who lives nearby.

"The kids play outside, and they can smell that, and they see the foot traffic - these people don't have cars and they're a bad element," said Mora, who said he's complained repeatedly to Penman and his councilwoman, Wendy McCammack, and is glad the city is now able to fix the problem.

The legal status of the city's ban on medical marijuana dispensaries was unclear until the court ruled, but officials had been issuing administrative civil penalties of $1,000 a day beginning as soon as they became aware of a dispensary.

But several people arriving at the dispensary as officials worked inside said the shut-downs would hurt residents.

"Now where am I supposed to go?" asked one woman who didn't want to give her name but said she needed marijuana for medical purposes. "It's like they want it to be on the streets."

There already are too many illegal drugs on the street, and police should focus on those rather than closing well-run dispensaries that help solve the problem, said Barbara Tinch, who described herself as "the mom" who helps run Arrow Alternative Remedies on Waterman Avenue.

"We came here to help the city, and we're not giving up," Tinch said, pointing to the California law allowing medical marijuana use. "I haven't done anything illegal. I'll take that to a jury of my peers."

Tinch said she had gotten the city's warning that it would obtain warrants, seize evidence of illegal activity and close dispensaries to enforce its ban on operating a medical marijuana dispensary or being an employee or volunteer of one. But she said Arrow Alternative Remedies has a license and has a thin profit margin because of the taxes it pays.

"Every day this week, I've asked for a meeting with the mayor, and I have a petition," she said. "Right now it has more than 400 signatures. The city needs to listen to its citizens."

http://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_23208867...urce=rss_viewed

I'm sure there are plenty of empty businesses but wouldn't one that brings in revenue be a good thing?



I'm sorry but I have to call bull shit on this whole part I quoted.

A: I've been to numerous dispensaries, some way worse than others. but the common thing was you didn't smell shit till you were inside where the medicine was.

B: I always shop around at the local stores when I go somewhere for my meds. albeit I never need a notary but c'mon, lost 50% of her business? I call BS.

I thought it was called the 'compassionate use act.' Don't think there much compassion by sending sick people to the streets. I even further doubt street dealers have much compassion at all.

War on Marijuana Returns with Federal Crackdown on Seattle Dispensaries

SEATTLE, WA – After a several month long cease-fire, the War on Marijuana has reignited in Washington, with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) ordering 11 Seattle-area medical marijuana dispensaries to shut down within 30 days.

Despite November’s voter-approved Initiative 502, which legalized marijuana for all adults 21 or over in the state of Washington, and 1998′s voter-approved Measure 692, which legalized medical marijuana in the state, the 11 dispensaries received letters from the DEA advising them that distribution of marijuana was illegal under federal law, and they were to cease operations within 30 days or risk having their properties seized under federal drug trafficking laws.

“The people of Washington have spoken,” says Kari Boiter of the Washington Chapter of Americans for Safe Access. “An overwhelming number of voters say cannabis is not a crime, particularly if you are seriously ill. Yet the Feds continue to threaten patients and caregivers with civil and criminal penalties. Is this how they will treat the I-502 industry?”

The Washington State Liquor Control Board is currently moving forward with a plan to tax and regulate marijuana for recreational purposes, with sales authorized for adults 21 or older, including plans to issue state licenses to marijuana producers, processors and distribution centers.

It was unclear why the 11 dispensaries were singled out, but owners of several of the targeted dispensaries owners say they are in full compliance with all local and state laws.

“These collectives have worked extensively with the city and state to ensure compliance,” said Rachel Kurtz, an attorney representing several targeted dispensaries. ”The letters from the DEA make no distinction between legitimate licensed businesses and those who have made no effort to obey state and local laws.”

“We strictly followed Washington’s medical marijuana law,” says Arasp Khoshkhoo, a dispensary owner. “We had business licenses from the City of Seattle and the State of Washington. We paid our taxes. We did everything any other legitimate business would do.”

“I would love for the DEA to come out here and take a look,” said Douglas Gerdes, owner of The Only Natural, who received a letter on Tuesday. “I’m not doing anything wrong.”

“These letters suggest that if my clients remain in business, they could lose their companies, their homes, their cars, basically every piece of property that the Feds consider an asset,” says Seattle attorney Kurt Boehl, who represents three of the affected dispensaries, including Wallingford’s Truly Helpful Collective.

Seattle DEA spokesperson Jodie Underwood says the letters, which were sent Monday, are identical to ones mailed last summer to more than two dozen dispensaries in the area, which reference federal drug sentencing laws that increase penalties for drug offenses located within 1,000 feet of a school, park or “other sensitive location.”

Underwood added that the letters “have nothing to do with Washington state law.”

State Representative Roger Goodman (D – Kirkland), a supporter of medical marijuana, called the move another “shot across the bow” of Washington’s pot laws by the DEA and the federal government.

Goodman also pointed out there is no state or federal law governing how close a medical marijuana dispensary can be from a school, even though the DEA letters reference the businesses are being targeted for being “within 1,000 feet of an educational facility.”

Neither Washington or Seattle prohibits dispensaries from operating within 1,000 feet of a school or park. Due to the city’s dense population, almost every business in the city — marijuana or otherwise — is located within 1,000 feet of a school or park.

Nonetheless, some dispensary owners were proactive in ensuring that their businesses were located more than 1,000 from a school nonetheless, in an attempt to be over-compliant, respectable business owners. But that didn’t matter to the DEA.

“When I opened my shop in Shoreline, the city measured the distance between my front door and the school down the street,” says Laura Healy of now-closed Green Hope Patient Network, targeted last summer by the DEA. “The city said I was 1,058 feet from the nearest school, but the letter from the Feds said I was within a thousand-foot school zone.”

Healy, who closed her dispensary and did not re-open in another location, now works for the Washington chapter of Americans for Safe Access, a medical marijuana patient advocacy organization.

At least one targeted dispensary owner has another ideas of their next move — full compliance with the DEA and federal medical marijuana law.

“I’ll probably go underground, break the law and do what it looks like the Feds want me to do,” said one targeted dispensary owner. “Be a black-market dealer, sell to anyone, and not pay my taxes.”

http://www.thedailychronic.net/2013/1764...e-dispensaries/

Feds Won’t Study Pot’s Benefits, Only ‘Negative Consequences’

One federal agency controls all the marijuana research done in the United States. And that agency has admitted that it won’t fund research into the benefits of marijuana — only the supposed “negative consequences.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) told the New York Times in 2010 that the agency “does not fund research focused on the potential medical benefits of marijuana.”

“As the National Institute on Drug Abuse, our focus is primarily on the negative consequences of marijuana use,” NIDA spokeswoman Shirley Simson told the Times.

Under federal law, the agency must approve all clinical research involving cannabis. NIDA tightly controls which investigators are allowed access to the federal government’s one supply of marijuana for research, which is grown and stored at the University of Mississippi.

NIDA exercises a near-stranglehold on the research of illegal drugs, overseeing an estimated 85 percent of the world’s research on controlled substances.

“NIDA has finally admitted to the world the ‘Catch-22′ that has been plaguing medical marijuana advocates and patients,” said NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano.

​”Lawmakers demand clinical research regarding the safety and efficacy of medical cannabis, but the agency in charge of such research denies that these studies are even taking place,” Armentano said.

“It’s tragic that these public officials have let political ideology, not science, determine America’s health decisions,” he said.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrative Law Judge Mary Ellen Bittner ruled in 2007 that NIDA’s monopolization of marijuana research is not “in the public interest” and ordered the federal government to allow private manufacturers to produce cannabis for research purposes.

In January 2009, DEA Deputy Administrator Michele Leonhart set aside Judge Bittner’s ruling.

If Leonhart’s name sounds familiar, there’s a good reason — but it’s bad news.

George W. Bush appointee Leonhart was reappointed by President Barack Obama to head up the DEA (different administration; same old tired, morally bankrupt marijuana policies).

http://tokesignals.com/feds-wont-study-pots-benefits-only-negative-consequences/