(Law.com) If police departments want to line their budgets with drug money, they’d better do it right, according to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In a ruling Tuesday, Judge Richard Clifton ordered the feds to return nearly $200,000 to a Los Angeles medical cannabis collective. Local police raided the place in 2005, and the seized funds became subject to asset forfeiture proceedings. Clifton found that under the Fourth Amendment, a faulty warrant means the police can’t keep the money.

What happened on Wilshire Boulevard in Tuesday’s case wasn’t by plan. A Los Angeles cop responded to complaints of pot smoking on the street and quickly traced it to the United Medical Caregivers Clinic, according to the opinion. Even though the dispensary operators brandished paperwork authorizing them to operate under state medical marijuana laws, the police secured a search warrant and busted the place.

The money was turned over to the feds for a forfeiture action, with the city in line to receive 80 percent of the loot, according to the opinion. However, the state judge who signed the search warrant hadn’t been told the club operated as a medical dispensary. Given that, Clifton applied a relatively straightforward analysis to conclude that declarations submitted by one club operator in the state proceeding could not then be used in the federal forefeiture action, thus dooming the seizure.

“We are particularly concerned by the possibility that the LAPD might stand to profit from unlawful activity,” Clifton wrote.

Some things in America should not be for-profit enterprises, like policing and prisons.  In so many of these dispensary raids there are no charges filed against the operators, but the property is all destroyed and the cops seize and keep the cash.  Learn more about the unfair and unjust nature of civil forfeiture by visiting Forfeiture Endangers American Rights at fear.org.

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All of this brings to question whether those DEA letters sent to landlords warning of potential forfeiture actions and other penalties are still valid. Asked about the issue several weeks ago, a spokesperson for Attorney General Eric H. Holder did not give a clear answer about the Justice Department’s intentions.

When asked whether landlords who rent to medical marijuana cooperatives are still at risk of asset forfeiture, a U.S. Department of Justice official said it’s not a priority to target those who follow state laws. Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney said in an email that “as part of the federal government’s efforts to best employ its resources, the Department focuses its investigative and enforcement activities involving marijuana on large-scale drug traffickers whose conduct is often inconsistent with both federal and state law.”

All of this, of course, comes as welcome news to medical marijuana advocates, who say that more than 300 letters were sent by the DEA to landlords in 2007 and 2008. “Since Obama has taken office, we have not seen any letters disseminated,” Americans for Safe Access spokesperson Kris Hermes said.

via Feds may lift forfeiture threat from medical marijuana clinics | Articles | Asset Forfeiture Watch – Asset Forfeiture, Civil Asset Forfeiture, Criminal Forfeiture, Asset Forfeiture Law, Asset Forfeiture Training, Government Seizure.

In case you don’t know about Civil Asset Forfeiture, it is one of the most insidious legacies of the War on (Certain American Citizens Using Non-Pharmaceutical, Non-Alcoholic, Tobacco-Free) Drugs.  The basic idea was that if a drug kingpin bought boats, houses, and cars with his ill-gotten drug money, the government can seize those assets, sell them at auction, and use the proceeds to fight more bad guys.  In reality it has meant low-level marijuana users losing their property over a seed or a joint.

In this instance, the feds have been trying to scare landlords in California by sending them letters threatening to seize any properties rented to medical marijuana providers, since in their view, those providers are just drug kingpins.  This also touches on what was Joe Biden’s RAVE Act, the law that allows feds to seize properties used for drug distribution, like “E” at a rave or joints at a concert, whether the owner allows it or even knows about it or not.  Worse, in a forfeiture action, you don’t even have to be charged with a crime – the property is charged with the crime, and it is guilty until proven innocent (e.g., you have to prove you didn’t buy that car with drug money).

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Daily Kos: License to Steal
You’re driving down the road in a borrowed jalopy, an envelope on the seat next to you lovingly stuffed with hard earned cash to bid on a sporty car you’ve wanted since you first saw one in a neighbor’s driveway at age 10. It’s a beautiful day, not a care in the world; until you see the police roadblock. After waiting in the line of lumbering cars, your turn finally comes. The officer politely nods to you as he asks for your DL and proof of insurance. He then adds nonchalantly, perhaps noticing a bumper sticker advertising a local rock radio station or the preponderance of melanin in your skin, “Mind if I have a look in your car?” Next thing you know, you’ve been patted down, your friend’s vehicle is being towed away, all that money confiscated. They found no contraband, you’re not wanted, you’re not even under arrest, but they take it all anyway. Surprise! Your property has been seized.

Long before “9-11 changed everything,” and George Bush declared war on the Bill of Rights, everything had already been changed and the Constitution already a victim. An ancient practice once used to enrich Kings and Warlords was sadly resurrected in the United States: Asset Forfeiture, a government issued license to steal, backed up by a crew armed to the teeth, and divisions of consiglieres and judges all in on the take that would make any old style Mafia Capo look like an amateur.

A great read in the Sunday edition of Daily Kos, the highest-trafficked blog in cyberspace.  Many mainstream pundits, from the left and the right, are calling on this mandate of change to manifest in a serious discussion of our criminal justice policies toward drugs.  Economic realities demand that we trim wasteful ineffective government spending, and you’ll find no better example than the Drug War.

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Cops rake in millions from drug busts – Today’s Paper > Local News | Bakersfield.com – Kern County news, events, shopping & search
It’s the largest seizure of drug money in Kern County Sheriff’s Department narcotics team history — and the department might get to keep most of nearly $900,000, officials say.

Late last month, the department seized the cash when three men with business ties in Bakersfield attempted to buy 40 kilos of cocaine from an undercover agent.

If it’s proven that the cash is indeed drug money, it could be used by law enforcement to buy such things as shotguns, surveillance equipment and police dogs, as in past years. Drug money has also been used to fund drug and gang prevention programs.

It’s called asset forfeiture, and officials say it’s necessary to disrupt criminal organizations that hurt the community, and at the same time give back to that community and help law agencies fight more crime.

Asset forfeiture essentially takes the profit out of crime, officials say, depriving criminals of the proceeds from illegal activity.

“We want to get the money and drugs off of the street,” added Sgt. Otis Whinery, who worked on the $900,000 bust.

…and into our pockets.  Asset forfeiture is doing nothing to take the profit out of crime.  Prohibition creates the profit in the drug trade, and for every dealer’s assets you seize, another springs up to seize the massive profits.  Asset forfeiture re-distributes the profits of prohibition to the law enforcement side so the battles can escalate.  Everyone who wants drugs continues to get drugs, we lose more liberties, the violence increases, and we create a profit motive for policing — what’s going to buy the sheriff a new set of tasers, solving rape cases or busting drug dealers?

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Volcano pot farmer given 20-year term | HonoluluAdvertiser.com | The Honolulu Advertiser
HILO, Hawai’i — A Big Island man was sentenced to up to 20 years in prison yesterday for commercial promotion of marijuana, the only case in recent memory where a first conviction in a marijuana case prompted such a long sentence.

Volcano resident David Finley Jr., 65, was arrested Jan. 29, 2007, in a raid on his Volcano ranch that turned up three indoor growing operations on the property, including a greenhouse attached to Finley’s home, equipment for manufacturing hashish and more than 75 pounds of dried marijuana and other drugs.

The dried marijuana found on the property included 127 sealed 1-ounce packets labeled with prices of $280 to $300 each, according to court records.

Finley pleaded guilty on Feb. 14 to two counts of commercial promotion of marijuana, and yesterday told Hilo Circuit Judge Glenn Hara that “I’m terribly sorry for what I’ve done.”

“I know I’ve done wrong, and I have to be responsible for that,” he said.

More than 90 letters of support were submitted to Hara asking for leniency, including letters from members of Finley’s church, his childhood friends, college friends and others.

Finley’s lawyer Brian De Lima asked that Finley be sentenced to probation, but Hara told Finley that “any sentence other than prison would undermine the community’s respect for the law.” He then imposed two 20-year terms that will run concurrently.

Prosecutors also filed to seize the Volcano ranch in a forfeiture, and De Lima said the Finley family will pay $85,000 to settle that case.

Two twenty year terms for gardening?  240 months!  Judge Hara, do you know that the average incarceration for murder and non-negligent manslaughter is only 232 months?  I hope we all feel safer, knowing that this 65-year-old churchgoing grandfather will probably die in prison.  That oughta send a message to the community, huh, Judge Hara?

The judge asked why a person with Finley’s background would be a commercial marijuana grower.  Uh, did you catch that part about an ounce of a dried weed costing about as much as pure palladium mined from the earth?  It’s the prohibition that creates the profits that leads to three indoor grow operations.

The war on marijuana is just a money-making venture for everyone involved.  Finley made money selling the marijuana, now law enforcement and the government get to make some money from asset forfeiture and the $85,000 fine

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