cannabisnews.com: Fed Crackdown on California Medical Marijuana
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Fed Crackdown on California Medical Marijuana
Posted by CN Staff on October 12, 2011 at 13:15:12 PT
By The Monitor's Editorial Board 
Source: Christian Science Monitor
Calif. -- A year ago, Californians voted against legalizing marijuana, and last week the Obama administration decided to help them mean it. The four US attorneys in California announced they would enforce federal drug laws by reining in a pot industry that the state had set up to be strictly nonprofit and medicinal but since has spread like a Mexican drug cartel.
The number of pot shops (“clinics”) in the Golden State has exploded into a $1.5 billion business that even ships “medical” marijuana to other states, the Feds charge, and that “has been hijacked by profiteers.” “That is not what the California voters intended or authorized, and it is illegal under federal law,” said US Attorney Andre Birotte Jr. The Obama administration – after appearing soft on marijuana two years ago – is doing what state law enforcement refuses to do. And the Justice Department is being smart about it by going after large-scale growers, landlords who rent to large pot dispensaries, or banks that finance growers. People using pot for medicinal therapy – which much of the medical community disputes – are not being targeted.The real message to California and 15 other states that have some type of legal medical marijuana is this: You can’t try to legalize pot through a back door, such as exploiting its medicinal use to anyone who claims to have a headache or anxiety attack.Keeping a lid on marijuana isn’t like Prohibition, as PBS documentary filmmaker Ken Burns points out. Alcohol has long been too widely consumed to ban completely. Pot smokers are a small minority. They are containable, especially given the well-documented adverse side effects of pot, notably on teens.California’s attorney general, Kamala Harris, needs to take this problem seriously by getting tough on doctors who make big money handing out authorization for pot use and by ensuring that the medical marijuana industry remains nonprofit. “We have yet to find a single instance in which a marijuana store was able to prove that it was a not-for-profit organization,” said US Attorney Birotte. He added that six people in a North Hollywood dispensary were indicted for selling hundreds of pounds of marijuana a month in New York and Pennsylvania. “California’s marijuana industry supplies the nation,” said US Attorney Benjamin Wagner.The big question now is whether President Obama will buckle to political pressure from pro-pot forces and ease up the federal pressure on California’s pot industry. A short-term clampdown won’t dampen the momentum of the pro-legalization crowd that uses almost any ruse on the public. Last year, Californians saw what an unofficial legalization was doing to their state and voted against the official kind. Mr. Obama finally got the message. And he should stay on message.Source: Christian Science Monitor (US)Published: October 12, 2011Copyright: 2011 The Christian Science Publishing SocietyContact: letters csmonitor.comWebsite: http://www.csmonitor.com/ URL: http://drugsense.org/url/flwn8sSKCannabisNews  Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #14 posted by FoM on October 16, 2011 at 21:00:12 PT
Related Article From The Huffington Post
Decision To Crack Down On Medical Marijuana Made In California, Not Washington, U.S. Attorney Says October 16, 2011WASHINGTON -- The decision to crack down on medical pot establishments in the Golden State was a collective decision by four U.S. attorneys in California and not the result of any directive from Washington, according to a spokesman for California-based U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr.Federal prosecutors launched an attack on medical marijuana shop owners last week, vowing to shutter state-licensed marijuana dispensaries regulated by local governments and threatening landlords with property seizures.The announcement came in spite of the Obama administration's campaign promise to maintain a hands-off approach toward pot clinics adhering to state law, with Attorney General Eric Holder publicly asserting that federal prosecutors would not initiate enforcement actions against any patients or providers in compliance with state law, deeming it an inefficient use of scarce government resources.Now California-based U.S. attorneys are taking on the battle themselves."There was no particular incident that prompted our enforcement actions," Thom Mrozek, spokesman for Birotte, told HuffPost in an email on Friday. "Across the state, we have seen a fairly significant increase in the problem over the past couple of years. And, at least in our district, our actions were prompted in part by widespread concern among local officials – the City of Lake Forest is a particularly good example of this."URL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/14/crackdown-medical-marijuana-california_n_1011780.html
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Comment #13 posted by afterburner on October 14, 2011 at 10:03:12 PT
"Why do we never get an answer When we're knocking
at the door With a thousand million questions About hate and death and war?"Moody Blues - Question - Royal Albert Hall 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmOZFAYeurY
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Comment #12 posted by mykeyb420 on October 13, 2011 at 15:05:44 PT
RAID IN PROGRESS
just got a call from friends in Ukiah CA,,,
FEDS are raiding a club at this time.
more info to follow
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Comment #11 posted by afterburner on October 13, 2011 at 11:37:48 PT
US WA: Editorial: US Attorneys Should Back Off
US WA: Editorial: US Attorneys Should Back Off.
Sun, 09 Oct 2011.
Seattle Times (WA)
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v11/n621/a03.html?102
{
The Seattle Times Editorial Board Urges Political Leaders Here to Tell the Obama Administration Not to Interfere With the Lawful Use of Medical Marijuana in Washington State.THE federal crackdown on medical-marijuana dispensaries in California is wrong - a wrong policy and a wrong use of federal power to block social change. ...Change is happening, and from the bottom up. It is good change. It is peaceful. It helps people and it respects their rights.The Obama administration should let it be. 
}
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Comment #10 posted by Hope on October 13, 2011 at 11:07:40 PT
Comment 8
Your two cents are right.So right.And yet the present day prohibitionists are as blind as bats... and all persecutors down through the ages.
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Comment #9 posted by Oleg the tumor on October 13, 2011 at 07:05:33 PT:
                      Hope
Your name says it all, thank you.
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on October 13, 2011 at 06:49:24 PT
My 2 Cents
When marijuana is legal and inexpensive to buy these terrible crimes will stop. It's all about the money.***LA Man Shot Dead by Alleged Pot Thief October 13, 2011URL: http://www.recorderonline.com/news/authorities-50474-shot-morning.html
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Comment #7 posted by runruff on October 13, 2011 at 03:05:18 PT
Hear the hypocrisy?
The feds are saying that "this is not what the voting public intended with prop 215."Since when did the will of the people matter to the fed except when we agree with them or they can make stupid statements like this one. They are trying save us from ourselves, meanwhile the nation is going down like the Titanic!Something tells me we are not being well served.
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Comment #6 posted by John Tyler on October 12, 2011 at 21:28:47 PT
war against cannabis is lost
I like this quote. It shows the war against cannabis is lost. 
“California’s marijuana industry supplies the nation,” said US Attorney Benjamin Wagner.
The industry, he said, not a bunch or amateur part timers, (well, maybe some of them too,) but an industry implies competent professionals working in production, distribution, administration, finance, and human resources supplying a sought after agricultural product to consumers.  
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Comment #5 posted by Hope on October 12, 2011 at 21:24:21 PT
Oleg the tumor 
I've really enjoyed and got a lot out of your comments. I was sorry to read that you, and another commenter, Tim, have such catastrophic health issues. Quite a few people that read here do have serious health issues. This situation is stressful in and of itself, people being killed and imprisoned, terrified, humiliated, robbed... the things that can happen to a person if they go ahead and get or use some cannabis of their own whether just because they want to or because it helps them, but having health, most especially truly grievous, problems, that can be helped by using the herb cannabis... and it not being available and of course, illegal, is even more stressful. I'm sorry about the extra, so uncalled for, hardship you are forced to suffer because of these prohibitions.
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Comment #4 posted by greenmed on October 12, 2011 at 21:07:24 PT
besides...
We cannabis consumers are in the majority. Perhaps even members of the CSM editorial board have partaken. If they had been arrested, as are close to a million people per year for choosing cannabis, would they be in the same position to condemn others today?
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Comment #3 posted by greenmed on October 12, 2011 at 20:32:30 PT
telling phrase from the article
"Pot smokers are a small minority. They are containable..."Sound familiar?
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Comment #2 posted by GentleGiant on October 12, 2011 at 18:54:34 PT:
For All Christians, Wanna Know The Truth?
You know, its not nice to lie. Ask any christian. If only, the christian community knew that they've been backing a 75 year old lie. I wonder how they'll feel when their finally faced with the truth. I've been wondering for a while, what will be the government's spin, when marijuana prohibition finally unravels. I've always imagined that it would begin with something like, "Due to late breaking scientific research, we've discovered . ." or something to that affect.
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Comment #1 posted by Oleg the tumor on October 12, 2011 at 17:23:33 PT:
The Will of the People…
Hizzhonor Mayor Daley of Chicago upon losing the election:
"The people have spoken – the bastards."
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