Feds Ordering California Medical Marijuana To Close Down

[Laodicean]

Make the most you can of the Indian Hemp seed and sow it everywhere.

- George Washington

Amazing really, to think that the U.S. may have never come into existence without the help of the cannabis plant. Washington ordered farmers to grow it. It was a staple of everyday life for just about every american up until 1937 - as I posted above, the medicinal variety of the plant could be openly purchased at apothecary shops (manufactured by pharma companies of the time, including Eli Lilly).

And since 1937 when the plant was stamped out, and petroleum interests and their products took over our entire way of life...look what has happened in such a short time! We are on the verge of a complete environmental collapse. It blows my mind. They made us afraid of a plant! The insanity of waging a war against a plant...only a human could think of such a thing. And in doing so, may have damned us all to eventual extinction.

Hemp for Victory!

[alwyn]

Lynnette Shaw, who opened the first dispensary in Fairfax, CA (and in the state) has been disallowed reasonable business expenses by the IRS, as well as received a cease and desist letter from the feds. She says this comes directly from the oval office, and is a total about face for the Obama admin. She is appearing on Fox News, Business, tomorrow AM, to urge her supporters to switch to Republican, and back Ron Paul in the primaries...

Should be interesting...

[alwyn]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - from Cal NORML

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Federal agents are raiding the garden of Northstone Organics in Mendocino
County.
Northstone Organics, directed by Matt Cohen, has been a pioneering
participant in Mendocino County's innovative "zip-tie"
program to license medical marijuana gardens.
California NORML Coordinator Dale Gieringer denounced the raid as a
"shameful and despicable" attack on California's most successful legally
regulated marijuana cultivation program. "The DEA is doing nothing but
encouraging lawlessness and disobedience to the law," said Gieringer, "This
is a victoroy for the Mexican cartels."
Protests may be directed to the White House Hotline: 202-456-1111
Or via the internet at:
http://capwiz.com/norml2/issues/alert/?alertid=54512501

[eyeno]

The only way to stop this would be for the governer of the state to take control. Obviously our governers are not working for the states they are governor of. Federal dollars have contaminated the well.

[wordspeak2]

Fucking fascist pieces of shit, may they rot in hell. FTR, anyone who votes for Obama is complicit in this.... This medical marijuana movement is going to be a hell of an ongoing movement.

What we really need is to pass a federal bill- there was one that didn't get out of committee last year- that would simply allow people from medical mj states to use a medical defense in federal criminal court. As it is now they're not allowed to. One would think that maybe such a bill could find some traction in congress, between liberals and state's rights so-called conservatives. But one would be naive, I guess.

[wordspeak2]

In further developments... one good news, one bad news from Cali. First, the bad.
The feds are now saying they're going to go after media outlets that run ads for medical marijuana dispensaries. There's an old law that bans "placement of an ad" of an illegal drug. The U.S. Attorney in SoCal says she's going to interpret "placement" to include the media outlet that runs the ad, and if the courts opt for a more "narrow" interpretation, then so be it. It's clear to me that these people don't care so much about the courts; they're about intimidation.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/201 ... _marijuana

Then, on the dove side of things, the California Medical Association just came out supporting all-out legalization of cannabis. The L.A. Times of course found a way to run a hit piece on it: http://www.latimes.com/la-me-doctors-ma ... 9189.story

[elfismiles]

The only way to stop this would be for the governer of the state to take control. Obviously our governers are not working for the states they are governor of. Federal dollars have contaminated the well.

#OccupyTheDEA

#OccupyTheFBI

#OccupyTheNSA

#OccupyTheCIA

[crikkett]

The only way to stop this would be for the governer of the state to take control. Obviously our governers are not working for the states they are governor of. Federal dollars have contaminated the well.

Well our governor is sufficiently cowed.
Last week Jerry Brown vetoed a bill that would have decriminalized hemp.

http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlat ... bills.html

[Saurian Tail]

From Gallup poll posted today:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/150149/Recor ... 20Politics

October 17, 2011

Record-High 50% of Americans Favor Legalizing Marijuana Use
Liberals and those 18 to 29 most in favor; Americans 65 and older most opposed

by Frank Newport

PRINCETON, NJ -- A record-high 50% of Americans now say the use of marijuana should be made legal, up from 46% last year. Forty-six percent say marijuana use should remain illegal.



When Gallup first asked about legalizing marijuana, in 1969, 12% of Americans favored it, while 84% were opposed. Support remained in the mid-20s in Gallup measures from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s, but has crept up since, passing 30% in 2000 and 40% in 2009 before reaching the 50% level in this year's Oct. 6-9 annual Crime survey.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, "Marijuana is the most commonly abused illicit drug in the United States." The National Survey on Drug Use and Health in 2009 found that "16.7 million Americans aged 12 or older used marijuana at least once in the month prior to being surveyed, an increase over the rates reported in all years between 2002 and 2008."

The advocacy group National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws claims that marijuana is the third-most-popular recreational drug in America, behind only alcohol and tobacco. Some states have decriminalized marijuana's use, some have made it legal for medicinal use, and some officials, including former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, have called for legalizing its use.

A Gallup survey last year found that 70% favored making it legal for doctors to prescribe marijuana in order to reduce pain and suffering. Americans have consistently been more likely to favor the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes than to favor its legalization generally.

Younger Americans Most in Favor of Legalizing Marijuana

Support for legalizing marijuana is directly and inversely proportional to age, ranging from 62% approval among those 18 to 29 down to 31% among those 65 and older. Liberals are twice as likely as conservatives to favor legalizing marijuana. And Democrats and independents are more likely to be in favor than are Republicans.

More men than women support legalizing the drug. Those in the West and Midwest are more likely to favor it than those in the South.



Bottom Line

Support for legalizing marijuana has been increasing over the past several years, rising to 50% today -- the highest on record. If this current trend on legalizing marijuana continues, pressure may build to bring the nation's laws into compliance with the people's wishes.

[wordspeak2]

Thanks, ST, I saw that. Maybe when it gets to 60 percent it'll make a difference. Funny how the numbers for pot legalization and gay marriage are running almost exactly identical. Support for gay marriage passed 50 percent in the past year, too. Big shot drug policy activist Ethan Nadelmann likes to say, "Pot is the new gay." Something like that.,,

Anyway, here's the resistance in California, from Americans For Safe Access, the main medical cannabis advocacy group. Please help if you can.


Dear ASA Members and Friends,

The federal government has launched a major new attack on medical cannabis patients and providers, and Americans for Safe Access (ASA) is calling on you to fight back. The Drug Enforcement Administration is raiding cultivators and providers. The Department of Justice (DOJ) is threatening to prosecute property owners who rent to medical cannabis tenants – and to confiscate their property! The Internal Revenue Service is auditing patients' associations, and under federal pressure, banks are denying services. Even the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives is trying to deny patients their Second Amendment rights.

Things look bad, but we know that grassroots power can make a difference. *ASA is responding to the federal escalation with a campaign to put political pressure on the DOJ, reframe the public dialogue about medical cannabis, and fight back in court. *We are also gearing up to support local organizers who are fighting state and local efforts to roll back safe access in their communities. You can be a part of this campaign right now. Here are five things every patient and advocate can do to fight back:

1. Call or email your Representative in the US House of Representatives to support and cosponsor Barney Frank's (D-MA) HR 1983. This bill will reschedule cannabis under federal law and protect patients and providers in states where medical cannabis is already legal. [ http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/18 ... n_KEY=8453 ]
2. Email President Obama and ask him to stop the federal attacks on medical cannabis. The President must live up to the promises he made of a more enlightened federal policy. [ http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/18 ... n_KEY=8397 ]
3. Sign the petition to the White House to help show overwhelming public support for medical cannabis and opposition to the federal crackdown. [ http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/18 ... n_KEY=6600 ]
4. Speak up in the media. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper, call into a radio or internet talk show, or post comments to stories online. Use ASA's Advocates Training Center to get ready. [ http://www.americansforsafeaccess.org/s ... php?id=385 ]
5. Organize or attend a peaceful protest against the federal crackdown in your community. If the President is visiting your hometown as part of his re-election campaign, consider timing your event to coincide with his visit. Use ASA's Advocates Training Center to learn more about organizing and promoting public events. [ http://www.americansforsafeaccess.org/s ... php?id=385 ]

Keep an eye on your inbox for more messages about how you can help stop the federal attack on safe access. *We have stopped federal escalations before, and with your participation, we can do it again! *

There is one more thing you can do to help today. Please make a contribution [ http://www.americansforsafeaccess.org/donate ]to help support ASA's work to end the federal crackdown. Your one-time or recurring donation will help us put political pressure on the DOJ, mount a proactive media campaign, and fight back in court.

Thank you for taking action,

Steph Sherer
Executive Director

P.S. – Read ASA's press release [ http://www.americansforsafeaccess.org/a ... hp?id=6846 ] and blog [ http://safeaccessnow.org/blog/?p=1952 ]for more information about the federal escalation.

[eyeno]

DEA Hits More CA Medical Marijuana Dispensaries

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/201 ... al_marijua

Phillip Smith
Stop The Drug War

DEA agents conducted raids on two more California medical marijuana dispensaries Monday, according to local press reports. Monday's targets were the Medizen dispensary on Northgate Boulevard in Sacramento and the Central Valley Caregiver's Co-operative in nearby Stockton.

The raids are only the latest evidence of the Obama administration's ramped war on medical marijuana distribution in the Golden State. They come less than two weeks after the state's four US Attorneys announced they were aggressively going after not only dispensaries, but landlords and property owners. They also come less than a week after a DEA raid on Northstone Organic, a fully state- and county-law compliant medical marijuana grow and co-op in Mendocino County.

In Sacramento, a Medizen employee told local TV news that neither the dispensary nor its landlord had been the object of a threat letter from the feds, but that the business was forced to close without warning.

"I was supposed to open at 10 a.m. They got here at 7:30. I heard... they came in and basically took all our stuff, seized everything, took all our cash and product and stuff and that's basically it," said employee Mike Amarao."They just said they're shutting all the clubs down in Sacramento, that's all we heard."

An attorney representing several Sacramento dispensaries said that some were going out of business rather than weather the threat of federal harassment and prosecution. That's going to hurt the city, which instituted a dispensary tax in July. It was estimated that the tax would generate $2 million for city coffers, but without dispensaries that figure would become inoperative.

There are no details on the Stockton raid.

Meanwhile, in Southern California, Orange County NORML and Americans for Safe Access are gearing up for a Tuesday night protest in Lake Forest in Orange County, where eight dispensaries have been ordered to close by a landlord whose bank account has been seized by federal officials.

Activists there accuse local officials of calling in the feds to do their dirty work after their own anti-dispensary efforts were blocked in state court. The city had spent $600,000 in its failed legal efforts.

Federal agents Saturday handed out asset forfeiture notices to some of the dispensaries. As of Tuesday, five of the eight dispensaries had already closed, with the others reported to be closing by day's end.

Visit and support StopTheDrugWar.org today to help bring about an end to prohibition.

[Simulist]

The raids are only the latest evidence of the Obama administration's ramped war on medical marijuana distribution in the Golden State.

How can anyone who calls him/herself a "liberal" still believe (at all!) in this guy? Sheesh.

And yet, plenty of so-called "liberals" in California (and elsewhere) will still send him their money.

(But hey, it's their money to waste, I suppose.)

[Pele'sDaughter]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... 589d8b5230

Medical pot backers sue feds over Calif. crackdown

By LISA LEFF, Associated Press – 3 hours ago

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Medical marijuana advocates in California sued the federal government Thursday in an effort to quash a recent crackdown on the state's storefront pot dispensaries, claiming government officials have overstepped their constitutional authority by not respecting how local officials have chosen to regulate pot stores and growers.

The lawsuit filed in San Francisco by the advocacy group Americans for Safe Access states that recent raids of licensed dispensaries and letters warning city officials they could be prosecuted for trying to regulate medical marijuana cultivation and sales constitute an illegal power grab under the 10th Amendment. The amendment awards to states legislative authority not explicitly reserved for the federal government.

"ASA does not challenge the congressional authority to enact laws criminalizing the possession and/or control of marijuana, as this issue has been resolved in the government's favor," Americans for Safe Access Chief Counsel Joe Elford wrote in the complaint. "It is, rather, the government's tactics, and the unlawful assault on state sovereignty they represent, that form the gravamen of ASA's claim."

The suit names Attorney General Eric Holder and Melinda Haag, the U.S. attorney for Northern California, as defendants. Haag's spokesman, Jack Gillund, declined to comment on the case.

Earlier this month, the four federal prosecutors in California announced a broad effort to close pot clubs they claim are located too near places where children gather or are fronts for drug dealing. They have sent letters to landlords renting space to medical marijuana dispensaries they could have their property seized for aiding and abetting criminal enterprises.

Many of the 38 Southern California pot outlets that were targeted in the letters already have closed because landlords, threatened with criminal charges or seizure of their assets, were given just two weeks to evict their tenants. Property owners in the rest of the state were given six weeks to comply.

The lawsuit filed Thursday on behalf of Americans for Safe Access' 20,000 California members does not contradict the right of federal prosecutors to go after property owners. Instead, it challenges their authority to "coerce" local government officials into abandoning procedures for licensing and regulating dispensaries and growers, Elford said.

Since the U.S. attorneys announced their crackdown, officials in Sacramento and Eureka, for example, have suspended plans to issue operating permits to dispensaries that meet specific criteria.

"By directly interfering with the legislative function of the state, they force the state to criminalize activities they do not want to criminalize," Elford said.

Along with an injunction barring the Department of Justice from interfering with dispensaries that meet state and local regulations, the suit seeks the return of 99 marijuana plants that were seized during an Oct. 13 raid of a medical marijuana collective that operated with oversight from the Mendocino County sheriff's department.

[wordspeak2]

Yeah, it's a very broad tenth amendment case. I'm pretty pessimistic on it, but... who knows; it's all on the judge.

"ASA does not challenge the congressional authority to enact laws criminalizing the possession and/or control of marijuana, as this issue has been resolved in the government's favor," Americans for Safe Access Chief Counsel Joe Elford wrote in the complaint. "It is, rather, the government's tactics, and the unlawful assault on state sovereignty they represent, that form the gravamen of ASA's claim."

So ASA's basically saying- this has gone too far. It's very arbitrary. Who knows... ASA has won other unlikely suits before, such as getting patients back their medicine that the police have seized. This is the big one, though. Can the feds do *whatever the fuck they want* in the eyes of the court, or does state law mean *something,* given that we do have a tenth amendment? Quite a law school test case, for sure.

I'm very proud of what ASA does with my $50 a month donation. May the force be with you guys.

[eyeno]

interesting

The marijuana legalization petitions far exceeded all other petitions. Currently, the other leading contenders are banning puppy mills (30,234), abolishing the TSA (28,515), allowing for industrial hemp (20, 498), and ending the war on drugs (18,614).

White House Rebuffs Pot Legalization Petitions
Jesse Warren Image
Phillip Smith
Stop The Drug War


http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/201 ... t_legaliza

As promised, the White House has responded to the online petition to "Legalize and Regulate like Alcohol," and seven other similar pot petitions as well, but the response wasn't favorable. That's not particularly surprising, given that the person chosen to deliver the response, Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP—the drug czar's office) head Gil Kerlikowske, is mandated by law to oppose legalization.

"Isn't it time to legalize and regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol?" asked the petition submitted by "Erik A" of Washington, DC. "If not, please explain why you feel that the continued criminalization of cannabis will achieve the results in the future that it has never achieved in the past?

The official response from drug czar Kerlikowske is certain to disappoint and infuriate marijuana legalization supporters and drug reformers, but should come as little surprise. Under the 1998 ONDCP Reauthorization Act, the drug czar is required by law not only to not spend any money to study legalization but also to "take such actions as necessary to oppose any attempt to legalize" a Schedule I substance, a category that under federal law includes marijuana. The drug czar could no more come out for marijuana legalization than the 17th Century Holy Office could endorse a universe without the earth at its center.

That the administration chose the drug czar to respond sends a strong signal that legalization talk will go nowhere in this administration. That it chose to release its response during the late Friday afternoon "news dump," when it will hopefully vanish over the weekend suggests that it realizes it isn't going to win many political points with its position.

Advertisement
"Our concern about marijuana is based on what the science tells us about the drug's effects," Kerlikowske begins before warning that "marijuana use is associated with addiction, respiratory disease, and cognitive impairment." He then wheels out marijuana treatment admissions and emergency room visits, reminds that potency has increased, and concludes that "simply put, it is not a benign drug."

Kerlikowske asserts that the administration is "ardently support[ing] ongoing research" into marijuana as a medicine, but scoffs at smoked marijuana as a medicine. Then he actually addresses the petition.

"As a former police chief, I recognize we are not going to arrest our way out of the problem," the drug czar continued. "We also recognize that legalizing marijuana would not provide the answer to any of the health, social, youth education, criminal justice, and community quality of life challenges associated with drug use."

Instead, Kerlikowske recommends, not surprisingly, his own 2001 National Drug Control Strategy, "emphasizing prevention and treatment while at the same time supporting innovative law enforcement efforts that protect public safety and disrupt the supply of drugs entering our communities." What is needed is not marijuana legalization, but more drug treatment and more drug courts, Kerlikowske concludes.

The legalization petition was drafted in response to the White House's We the People campaign "because we want to hear from you," according to the web page. "If a petition gets enough support, White House staff will review it, ensure it is sent to the appropriate policy experts, and issue an official response."

The threshold for an official response was at least 25,000 signatures by 30 days from October 3. The marijuana legalization petition was by far the most popular, with more than 74,000 signatures as of Friday night. Another seven petitions similarly calling for one form of pot legalization or another, which Kerlikowske also included in his response, carried an additional 76,000 signatures.

The marijuana legalization petitions far exceeded all other petitions. Currently, the other leading contenders are banning puppy mills (30,234), abolishing the TSA (28,515), allowing for industrial hemp (20, 498), and ending the war on drugs (18,614).

The drug czar's recitation of the harms associated with marijuana use is certainly debatable and will doubtlessly be thoroughly criticized in days to come. But as the administration response makes clear, that marijuana is a dangerous drug that Americans cannot be trusted with to use responsibly is their official line, and they're sticking to it.

Please visit and support StopTheDrugWar.org today to end prohibition.