Medical Marijuana Supporters Rally in Sacramento Today. SACRAMENTO, Calif. - November 9 - The Marijuana Policy Project and a coalition of advocacy and labor groups are staging a demonstration today to protest the federal government's escalated attack on California's medical marijuana laws. A rally of medical marijuana patients and supporters is taking place in front of the Sacramento Federal Building and features state legislators, advocates, labor unions, and dispensary operators impacted by the recent Department of Justice (DOJ) crackdown in California.
Since the beginning of October, U.S. attorneys in California have released statements giving some medical marijuana businesses 45 days to close or risk prosecution. They have also issued threats to landlords, indicating that they will be prosecuted and their property seized if they rent to medical marijuana businesses. Sponsored by Rep. Patient Advocates Sue Obama Justice Department Over Medical Marijuana Crackdown.
SAN FRANCISCO - October 27 - Americans for Safe Access (ASA), the country's largest medical marijuana advocacy organization, filed suit in federal court today challenging the Obama Administration's attempt to subvert local and state medical marijuana laws in California. ASA argues in its lawsuit that the Obama Justice Department (DOJ) has "instituted a policy to dismantle the medical marijuana laws of the State of California and to coerce its municipalities to pass bans on medical marijuana dispensaries. " The DOJ policy has involved aggressive SWAT-style raids, criminal prosecutions of medical marijuana patients and providers and threats to local officials for merely implementing state law.
"Although the Obama Administration is entitled to enforce federal marijuana laws, the Tenth Amendment forbids it from using coercive tactics to commandeer the law-making functions of the State," said ASA Chief Counsel Joe Elford, who filed the lawsuit today in San Francisco's federal District Court. Federal agents raid medical Oregon marijuana plot. GOLD HILL, Ore. — Keith Rogers said Thursday he made sure the 20 people he allowed to grow medical marijuana on property he owns in the southern Oregon town of Gold Hill checked out under Oregon's medical marijuana law. Rogers, an insurance agent, said that didn't stop about 30 federal agents from breaking down doors on his five rental houses, pointing guns at his wife, searching his house and the houses of five renters, bringing in a backhoe to rip out hundreds of plants, and seizing them along with shotguns, cell phones and a tractor.
"I can guarantee you that if Oregon medical marijuana would have came and did a search of us and our papers, they would have happily drove off and did nothing," said Rogers. "It was strictly" the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. "They are throwing their weight around and saying the voters of Oregon don't have any rights. " Officials with DEA in Medford and Seattle and the U.S. The raid seems to conform to guidance offered in U.S. Allen St. California's U.S. Attorneys Think It's Impossible to Make Money While Helping Patients. Today California's four U.S. attorneys fleshed out their "coordinated crackdown" on medical marijuana suppliers, saying "dozens of letters have been sent over the past few days to the owners and lienholders of properties where commercial marijuana stores and grows are located. " According to the Associated Press, those letters threaten the property owners with forfeiture and prosecution if they do not close down within 45 days.
Contrary to explicit assurances from President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, the U.S. attorneys continue to insist that the forbearance promised by this administration applies only to patients, meaning that suppliers are fair game even if they comply with state law. But their press release provides some clues about how they are likely to select their targets. In describing the operations that offend them, they use the descriptor commercial eight times and refer to profit nine times (not counting two mentions of money and one of moneymaking). Department of Justice Takes Steps to Subsidize California Gangs; Threatens to Shut Down Medical Marijuana Dispensaries.
UPDATE: Write President Obama and make your voice heard! In a press conference today, all four U.S. Attorneys in California announced that the administration will no longer ignore dispensaries and will actively prosecute many commercial operations. The attorneys said they will concentrate on criminal prosecution and asset forfeiture against the landlords of medical marijuana dispensaries or cultivation centers, and threaten action against certain commercial organizations. Multiple businesses throughout the state have been given 45 days to close down.
To support the increased efforts to eliminate the medical marijuana industry, they claim that it has been overtaken by criminal organizations and harms communities, yet do not offer justification of these claims at the present time. “How can the Obama administration say that it’s fine for sick people to use this proven medicine, and yet tell them they can’t have any legal place to get it?” Federal authorities target 'marijuana industry' in California. While medical marijuana is legal in California, prosecuters claim that operations are making profit off of healthy buyers. NEW: A U.S. attorney says some take "advantage of (a) laxed enforcement environment"NEW: Another U.S. attorney claims "profiteers" "hijacked" the state's medical marijuana lawAn advocate says there's a "terrific disconnect" between the feds and public on marijuanaSteps taken in recent weeks include civil forfeiture lawsuits, warning letters and arrests (CNN) -- Federal prosecutors in California announced a series of actions Friday targeting what they characterized as the "large, for-profit marijuana industry" that has developed since the state legalized medical marijuana for select patients 15 years ago.
They include letters of warning to landlords and lien holders of places in which marijuana is being sold illegally, "civil forfeiture lawsuits against properties involved in drug trafficking activity" and numerous criminal cases. Wagner, the U.S. But Allen St. St. Calif. braces for medical marijuana crackdown. Thousands of medical marijuana outlets in California are bracing for a federal crackdown. Prosecutors say the shops are doing more than just helping their patients. CBS News correspondent John Blackstone reports that, for Justice Department officials, the photographs of marijuana being sold in lollipops and candy show the problem with California's medical marijuana law. "Where there's marijuana there's money.
And lots of it," said Melinda Haag, U.S. 4 Americans get medical pot from the fedsStudy: LA pot clinics shut down, crime went upComplete coverage: Marijuana nation Medical marijuana has been legal in California since voters approved it in 1996. Now federal officials have sent warning letters to dozens of California dispensaries telling them to shut down or risk arrest and property seizure. Lynnette Shaw has been given 45 days to close the dispensary she has run for 14 years.
"It's so mean, it's so inhumane that I'm broken hearted and I'm appalled and I'm shocked.