Uh oh, his lips are moving...

(LA Times) A medical marijuana advocacy group has sued the U.S. attorney general and the top federal prosecutor in Northern California, asking a federal court to halt recent raids and threats of prosecution that have significantly stepped up the Obama administration’s assault on the state’s 15-year-old program.

Americans for Safe Access, an advocacy group based in Oakland, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in San Francisco that accuses the Obama administration of violating the Constitution’s 10th Amendment by using coercive tactics to interfere with powers that are delegated to the states.

The 17-page lawsuit takes aim at resolving one of the most critical legal issues that remains unsettled even though voters approved medical marijuana in a ground-breaking initiative in 1996. Because marijuana remains illegal for all uses under federal law, municipalities and states have struggled with how to regulate it for medical use. The federal prosecutors in California have now insisted that cities and counties cannot do anything that actively allows marijuana use, such as permitting dispensaries.  A recent California appellate court ruling reached the same conclusion, but other appellate courts in the state have instead ruled that federal law does not trump state medical marijuana laws.

I’m glad they’re suing.

I don’t think they can win.

See: blackmailing states with threats of withholding federal highway funds unless they raise their drinking age to 21, circa 1984-1987.

Still, the suit brings the issue to the public, so go for it, ASA!

US Attorney Dwight Holton threatens Oregon cannabis clubs AND the First Amendment

Dwight Holton, the US Attorney for Oregon, tried to silence a lawful protest by marijuana legalization activists on City Hall steps in Portland this morning, according to attorney Paul Loney.

Holton recently authored a letter circulated to cannabis patients’ clubs threatening federal law enforcement action.  The letter was endorsed by 33 of the 34 Oregon county district attorneys.  Multnomah County D.A. Michael Shrunk declined to sign on, saying, “I don’t like to threaten things that we realistically are not geared up to do,” and “combating this cannot be termed a critical priority when balanced against others.”  From the Holton letter:

“Oregon and Federal law make it illegal to sell marijuana – period, end of story,” said Holton. “The breathtaking surge in manufacture and distribution of marijuana in Oregon is putting marijuana in the hands of more and more healthy kids — and dispensaries are fueling this crisis. We are confident that responsible landlords and property owners will remove the operators of illegal dispensaries and ‘cannabis clubs’.”

In response to the crackdown, Madeline Martinez, proprietor of one of the threatened clubs, the World Famous Cannabis Cafe, called a press conference Friday afternoon at the Portland City Hall steps.  The permit had been turned in on Monday, according to Oregon NORML Legal Counsel Paul Loney.

Speaking to NORML SHOW LIVE, Loney explained, “We got word that [US Attorney] Holton contacted [Portland City Councilman] Nick Fish and told him, ‘you shouldn’t let those guys [the marijuana advocates] have their press conference at City Hall.’”  According to Loney, “Fish told him that we turned in our permit on Monday and what they’re doing is perfectly legal.”

Loney continued, “I think this is more of a story than the letter – a US Attorney, sworn to uphold the Constitution, trying to squash the First Amendment rights of Oregonians!  We are going to be investigating this and bringing it up with his boss, [Attorney General] Eric Holder.”

Martinez, who also serves as director of NORML’s state affiliate, Oregon NORML, and on the board of directors of the national organization, stated, “Between the recent report from the United Nations recommending full legalization of cannabis, Eric Holder’s vague comments about working with medical cannabis states and the recent decree from the Oregon Department of Justice, many Oregon Medical Marijuana Program registrants are confused and worried for their safety.”

Loney told the assembled protestors, a crowd of roughly forty, that nobody has yet shown the cannabis clubs to be operating outside the law.  “Judges decide the law in this county,” said Loney, “not sheriffs, not district attorneys.”

Patients in Oregon are permitted to reimburse any cardholding grower for the supplies and expenses involved in producing medical marijuana, but reimbursement for labor is forbidden by law.  Cannabis clubs in Oregon claim to be operating on the principle of reimbursements and unsolicited donations.  Loney, speaking on local television news Thursday, said explicitly that these cannabis clubs are not selling.

Anna Diaz, a board member of Oregon NORML and NORML’s 2011 Pauline Sabin Award Winner, spoke to NORML SHOW LIVE and explained “Sensible Oregon”.  “It’s going to be an initiative like the ‘Sensible Washington’ one that will just remove marijuana from the criminal law, while still maintaining laws on DUI and not providing to children.”  Diaz said the initiative is still being conceived and written.  Once written, it will be circulated fo collect the one thousand signatures required in Oregon to begin official signature gathering.

If “Sensible Oregon” makes it to signature gathering, it will join the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act (OCTA) as initiatve petitions to legalize marijuana in Oregon.  OCTA has already completed the certification of ballot title and is currently gathering signatures.

We will no longer raid medical marijuana states... oh, who am I kidding?

Just another example of why we need full legalization.  A memorandum to ease up on medical marijuana is not a binding or long lasting assurance of anything.  We need to change the laws!

(Americans for Safe Access) It would appear that raids by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in medical marijuana states have declined since President Obama’s Justice Department issued its infamous memorandum in October 2009. But, in fact, raids have continued at an alarming pace. For example, in the 16 months since the Obama Administration’s policy change, the DEA has conducted at least 43 raids in California, Colorado, Michigan and Nevada. That’s nearly 3 raids per month on average. Although arrests were not made at all of the raids, President Obama’s Justice Department has seen fit to indict and prosecute at least 24 patients and providers in connection with those federal actions. Can this really be the result of a new federal enforcement policy?

Did the American people envision their tax dollars going to such harmful and unnecessary federal actions, especially after a policy was issued claiming that such actions would cease? With popular American support for medical marijuana at more than 80 percent, we think not.

It’s time for the Obama Administration to deliver on its promise to leave patients alone. The DEA must take a hands-off approach to enforcement of medical marijuana production and distribution. Any allegations of local or state law violations should be prosecuted in state court, and not in federal court (i.e. no more federal indictments). In addition, DEA agents should be refusing to assist local law enforcement in raids on patients and providers, period.

Only after the federal government stands down on this issue will states and their localities be able to effectively implement medical marijuana laws passed by the people.

Our buddy, Barack, and his hit-man Eric Holder threw us a bone when they said, as long as you guys don’t break your state laws, we’ll leave your medical marijuana alone. Well, they better talk to the U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag who has said that her office will vigorously enforce federal anti-drug laws against illegal manufacturing and distribution of marijuana, “even if such activities are permitted under state law.”  Methinks Melinda better have a lunch meeting with Barack and Eric.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – The warning in a letter from U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag offered the first clear signal that the Justice Department would not tolerate even city-sanctioned growing operations, despite the Obama administration’s hands-off approach to states that have legalized medical marijuana.

“The department is concerned about the Oakland ordinance’s creation of a licensing scheme that permits large-scale industrial marijuana cultivation and manufacturing as it authorizes conduct contrary to federal law,” Haag wrote in the letter to Oakland City Attorney John Russo dated Tuesday.

Haag’s letter acknowledges an October 2009 Justice Department memo instructing federal prosecutors to avoid going after patients complying with state laws regarding the medical use of marijuana.

But Haag wrote that her office will vigorously enforce federal anti-drug laws against illegal manufacturing and distribution of marijuana, “even if such activities are permitted under state law.“

Somebody's pants are on fire, Mr. Attorney General...

(The Daily Caller) Despite campaign promises to the contrary, the Department of Justice under President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder hasn’t stopped raiding marijuana dispensaries operating in states where sale of the drug is legal for medical purposes. But the DOJ has demonstrated one marked change now that it’s under Democratic control: The department has stopped publicizing medical marijuana raids, both by requesting that more cases be sealed under court order and by refusing to distribute press releases.

Late last week, DEA and FBI agents raided five medical marijuana dispensaries in Nevada. In July, DEA agents raided the home of 65-year-old Mendocino County, California, grower Joy Greenfield and confiscated plants, money, and her computer. Also in July, DEA agents raided the home of a couple in Michigan who were licensed by the state to use marijuana, as well as three medical marijuana dispensaries in San Diego. In January and February of this year, the DEA raided two medical marijuana research labs in Colorado.

In all of the above cases, the DEA and the U.S. Attorneys’ offices issued no press releases and held no press conferences. The websites for DEA and the U.S. Attorneys’ offices in Detroit, Denver, Northern California, and Los Angeles (which also handles cases in Nevada) make no mention of the above dispensary raids, but do feature news releases for raids, arrests, and investigations involving harder drugs, as well marijuana trafficking, which is illegal in all states.

If a battering ram breaks down the doors of a dispensary in a forest and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound?  The only major difference between the Obama and Bush Administrations when it comes to the DEA raiding the legal providers of medicine to the sick and disabled is that Bush liked to brag about it to his base while Obama knows his base doesn’t like this activity at all.  Obama has even kept on Bush’s head at the DEA, Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart, who said that the escalating drug war violence in Mexico is a sign of success in pressuring the Mexican drug-trafficking organizations.

President Obama faces a formidable challenge in gaining re-election in a political climate turned off by Wall Street bailouts, continued war, staggering unemployment, Democratic malaise, and a burgeoning “Tea Party” movement on the right.  Now he alienates the over half million medical marijuana patients in 14 states and the 16.7 million monthly cannabis users by not only breaking the promise not to raid dispensaries, but also by covering up the raids in a veil of official silence.

Meanwhile, a potential GOP candidate in former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson is appealing to cannabis consumers by appearing at hempfests and the NORML National Conference, calling for legalization of cannabis.  The natural civil rights and organized labor base of the Democratic Party is endorsing California’s Prop 19 even as the president remains silent on the biggest ballot issue of the November election.  Democrats and self-described liberals and voters below age 50 overwhelmingly support Prop 19 specifically and legalization generally.  Has Obama positioned himself far outside the mainstream of his own party by applying Clinton-era (Rahm Emanuel) political analysis of the marijuana issue?

Could fed-up cannabis consumers be the wedge vote that makes Barack Obama a one-term president?

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Hemp Headlines

1. Chilling details from raid on unauthorized Tacoma, Washington, dispensary
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(LAist Blog) From lawsuits to raids, around 20 local marijuana dispensaries today were subject of various law enforcement activities. As the DEA served a search warrant to Organica Collective in Culver City this morning, the Los Angeles City Attorney’s office announced the filing of lawsuits against three medical marijuana dispensaries, including Organica, which has been subject of raids in the past.

Somebody's pants are on fire, Mr. Attorney General...

“It’s a separate thing,” explained Sarah Pullen with the DEA. “We were aware of each other’s operation today.” Pullen could not elaborate further than that search warrants being served. Witnesses tell the LA Times that three men were seen detained in handcuffs.

Los Angeles City Attorneys said nuisance and narcotics abatement lawsuits were filed against Organica and two Holistic Caregivers locations for violating the Narcotics Abatement Law, Public Nuisance Law and the Sherman Food, Drug and Cosmetics Law. Organica’s owner, Jeffrey Joseph, is the subject of an arrest warrant for sales of marijuana.

The recent medical marijuana ordinance passed by the Los Angeles City Council has nothing to do with today’s activities as that law has not been finalized. However, the City Attorney’s office contends the sale of marijuana is illegal under state law. Collectives, where the costs of cultivation are shared, are legal, they say.

City Attorneys also “sent eviction letters to owners of 18 different dispensaries and owners of the properties engaged in the sale of marijuana by dispensary employees,” according to a press release.

What was that Attorney General Eric Holder said?

Click here to view the embedded video.

What was that President Obama said?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.  We don’t want to hear word parsing excuses – oh, but they aren’t legal under state law; oh, they’re not a collective, etc.  The results are the same: medical marijuana patients being terrorized by federal authorities as they try to get their medicine.

Will you send the armed agents when California votes for outright legalization this November?  Will you cling so desperately to another failed prohibition that you’re willing to pit the federal government against its largest state?

“What I’m not going to be doing is using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue, simply because I want folks to be investigating violent crimes and potential terrorism; we’ve got a lot of things for our law enforcement officers to deal with,” said presidential candidate Barack Obama in a March 2008 interview.

Click here to view the embedded video.

“Given the limited resources that we have, our focus will be on people, organizations that are growing, cultivating substantial amounts of marijuana and doing so in a way that’s inconsistent with federal and state law,” said Attorney General Eric Holder in a March 2009 statement.

Click here to view the embedded video.

(Mercury News) LOS ANGELES—Federal and local agents are raiding at least two marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles but authorities won’t say what they’re seeking. Officials say more than 20 people from various agencies served a state search warrant at around 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Organica Collective in Marina del Rey.

Los Angeles police, the FBI and DEA were still searching the distribution center three hours later.

DEA spokesman Jose Martinez says agents also served the warrant at the Overland Gardens Collective in West Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office says a residence also was named in the warrant.

Well, at least President Obama is fulfilling his other campaign promises, like getting us out of a protracted Middle Eastern war.  Oh, right, Afghanistan.

But at least he’s bringing us health care reform.  No, wait, better not use that one.

At least he’s holding the past administration accountable for… no, can’t go there.

Reducing the influence of lobbyists in Washington and refusing to have any lobbyists in his administration… uh, no.

Protecting the Constitution from the serious abuses of the previous administration, like warrantless wiretapping… no again.

Bringing Wall Street excesses to an end… ‘fraid not.

Ending the discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy for the military… uh-uh.

Wait, I know!  Cash for Clunkers!  There we go!

At NORML, we are a non-partisan organization, and with these new DEA raids, it makes it so much easier for me to move from my personal support of the Democratic Party to political independence.  I’ve had it.  Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.  At least with a President McCain, I would have known straight up that he hates medical marijuana and would allow DEA raids to continue instead of being sold a bill of goods about not “circumventing state laws” and then circumventing them anyway.

Assemblymember Tom Ammiano today reacted to a Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) raid on a San Francisco marijuana dispensary—only a week after the Obama administration signaled it would cease the federal government’s practice of harassing cannabis clubs in states that have legalized the plant for medical use. Ammiano, who in February announced plans to present legislation to legalize and tax marijuana in California, said that the move may have been a warning to him and the Obama administration by what he called the “paramilitary” and “institutionalized” mentality of the DEA.

DEA agents raided Emmalyn’s California Cannabis Clinic on Wednesday, emptying the dispensary of marijuana, cannabis plants, grow lights, and other equipment along with patients. The agency would not cite a specific reason for the raid, saying the warrant is under court seal, but suggested that the dispensary violated state and federal law. Emmalyn’s, which had been operating with a temporary permit issued by the Department of Public Health, had been providing free marijuana to the poor on Wednesdays.

When Examiner.com asked if he thought the raid was a warning because of his legalization bill, Ammiano said he thought it was—but not just to him. He thinks the DEA was also challenging the Obama administration because of Attorney General Eric Holder’s pledge last week to leave cannabis clubs alone.

“They’re going to be very obstinate and very stubborn and do a lot of power tripping around this issue, so even though Eric Holder, the AG, said no more raids of marijuana dispensaries, they’re just going to take that on and see how serious everybody is,” Ammiano said. “It’s infuriating, and it’s also very dehumanizing for the patients who were there, and they just like to rub our nose in it because it’s San Francisco. I find it childish, but I also find it very dangerous.”

via Sacramento Statehouse Examiner: Assemblymember Tom Ammiano reacts to DEA raid of SF cannabis medical dispensary.

Initial reports stated that the feds may have considered sales tax problems as the state law being violated that led to the DEA raids.  According to my sources, the California Board of Equalization and the San Francisco City and County have no pending investigation on Emmalyn’s nor any report of taxation issues.

Tune in to tonight’s Southern California Report with Tere Joyce as we speak with Degé Coutee from the Patients Advocacy Network, who has more details on the San Francisco Raid.

We all welcomed the statements by Eric Holder halting raids on Medical Marijuana Dispensaries. But when a policy shift isn’t codified in a law you get different people interpreting the directive in different ways. It’s unclear that anything has actually changed at all.

A spokesman for the drug enforcement agency, Garrison Courtney, pointed out that the attorney general’s statement indicated that the federal authorities would continue to go after marijuana dispensaries that broke state and federal laws by selling to minors, selling excessive amounts or selling marijuana from unsanctioned growers.

So we can most likely expect more raids in the future; this is no moratorium. We can expect local and state law enforcement attempt to entrap dispensary owners with falsified recommendations, fake ID’s, and putting pressure to disclose their supply chain. But at least this is a start, and it appears that the Feds have bigger fish to fry.

Mark Agrast, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a liberal-leaning research group in Washington, said Mr. Holder’s statement indicated a more pragmatic and less ideological approach to drug enforcement.

“This is an example of recognizing the limited resources they have, so they have to make decisions about the soundest use of available resources,” Mr. Agrast said.

The attorney general’s comments also indicated that the Justice Department would allocate greater resources for investigations of white-collar crime, including financial crime, and other enforcement areas that received less attention during the Bush administration.