Obama Administration Memo Spells End Of Medical Marijuana Industry?

[Jacob Bell]

On the heels of issuing Oakland's legendary Harborside Health Center--the largest medical marijuana collective in the country with over 90,000 members--a $2.4 million tax bill, the federal government is now threatening landlords with the seizure of any property used for marijuana production and distribution. Acccording to a Bay Area television report yesterday, landlords in Northern California are receiving letters warning them that they could lose their property if they rent to folks involved in the weed industry.

It's just the latest evidence that despite early signs from the Obama administration that it wasn't going to interfere with the right of states to allow the medical use of marijuana, nothing could be further from the truth. And assuming the feds make good on this latest threat, it could mean the end of medical marijuana as we know it.

"With the blink of an eye and the flick of the wrist, they can shut down medical marijuana in California," said Christopher Glew, who represents several cannabis collectives in Orange County and elsewhere in California. "The funny thing is they have the absolute right to do it and there's nothing anyone can do to stop it. By going after landowners, they can grab a bunch of land, make a bunch of money, and save face politically by saying, 'Hey, we're not going after sick patients or arresting little old ladies--we're going after rich landlords.'"

The actual decision to go after landlords appears to have been made back in February, in the form of a letter to Oakland's city attorney from the U.S. Attorney's office warning that the feds would have no problem seizing land used for pot production whether or not Oakland was issuing permits for such activity. But nobody really noticed the memo until now, when the feds actually started warning specific landowners.

"They are starting up north and working their way down south," Glew said. "I think the feds are seeing how much land, especially in northern California, is being used for marijuana growing, and realize they can start seizing these properties and turn it into federal land. And the thing with federal forfeiture is that it can take two or three years before it goes to court, but meanwhile you lose all your property."

Because the warning letters have just now been sent, and no actual properties have been seized, it's unclear exactly what effect the Obama administration's latest assault on medical marijuana will have throughout the state. But Glew says no matter what happens, the halcyon days of the Golden State's medical marijuana industry are over. "It will become very clear in the near future what direction the medical marijuana industry will be headed," he predicted. "It's either going to the grave or it will have to be re-invented. The federal giant has finally woken up. It went to sleep for a few years on us, but now it's waking up."

News Hawk- Jacob Ebel 420 MAGAZINE
Source: blogs.ocweekly.com
Author: Nick Schou
Contact: Contact Us
Copyright: OC Weekly, LP.
Website: Obama Administration Memo Spells End of Medical Marijuana Industry?

 

[Bonehead]

Now is the time! We need to come together. We need political power and if we come together we will be a mighty force to deal with. Patients, growers, collectives, food processors, labor and the community need to stand unified. If you are a California grower of medical cannabis or a store front operator, reachout to the UFCW (United Food and Commercial Workers Union). The only union in the country organizing the medical cannabis industry. The political power that we need to aline with. This organization is legitimizing and dignifing our industry. They have our backs.

 

[GanjaAL2]

Bonehead... though I agree with your points I believe taking MMJ off of the Schedule I list is the single most important thing that needs to be done. I know that people can get behind this regardless of where they are on the fence. Once this is done and MMJ is schedule II the feds will be dead in the water.

 

[Gothmog]

How does that poster go?

It starts with pot...
then one day you end up President of the United States

And now apparently we need to add:

...Then you start busting up dispensaries and contravening the will of the people in those states.

It's hard to be a leader, I guess.

 

[RaysDad]

I really hate that lying basta#d. He is a no good one term won on the race and the ultra liberal show-biz vote. He's down on the MMJ patients and doesn't give a dam about the ghetto gangs running wild in the cities. This man really hates the white middle class and I'm sorry if that sounds racist because I;m not. HE IS. RD

 

[farmboy420]

Some good posts, I agree with Bonehead, it is power in numbers and we need all the help we can get....GangaAL2 is also correct, they make it schedulell and they are out of biz.....This is crazy, we are gonna spend all this money we don't have to enforce something that has been voted on by the people but our goverment doesn't care about our vote.....Kick all their asses out of office...

 

[AcesFull]

I really hate that lying basta#d. He is a no good one term won on the race and the ultra liberal show-biz vote. He's down on the MMJ patients and doesn't give a dam about the ghetto gangs running wild in the cities. This man really hates the white middle class and I'm sorry if that sounds racist because I;m not. HE IS. RD

Not sure I'd go as far as race, but yeah, he tricked me into the first vote. Do we have options? Did we have options then? One of two people will get the job of president and neither side seems to give a fat fuck about us or our freedoms in general.

We can curse the shit out of sitting presidents or we can figure out how to get our freedoms back. Seems to me the latter is the more effective way. Don't ask me how, but I'm convinced there needs to be more than a Hemp Fest now and then.

The lack of replies to these threads is somewhat telling of our initiative as Americans in general. The government will do what the government does and there ain't a goddam thing we can do about it so light a blunt, stay low, and disregard.

 

[RandyL]

The federal government is bunch of idiots if they really think what they are doing will stop pot production in CA. Well, they ARE kind of retarded in their dickheaded policies anyhow. Elections are coming up and they have to show people they they "care about the children", and bullshit like that.

I saw a video where one gray haired CA federal attorney was talking about healthy looking young people parking their cars, running into dispensaries, and leaving with paper bags. Truth be told, I have been there and seen that many times, and have been wondering when it would be brought up like this.

420 production will simply go underground or move to other states. Too many people have enjoyed easy access for enough time that they WILL NOT stop, regardless of what the one termer in the white house says.

I currently do not live in California, but when the day comes that I can move back, I WILL grow and I WILL pay my bills from it. One way or another. These new restrictions will raise pot prices, due to supply and demand.

 

[Gothmog]

I've been seeing this story in some other media, and there may be some backpedaling. NBC News described the crackdown as being directed at certain dispensaries which are particularly troubling to the the DOJ. Even this is mostly under the color of suppressing violations of the state MMJ law, which prohibits collectives from operating on a for-profit basis. Another issue of particular urgency to them is the proximity of some dispensaries to schools.

As for the matter of non-profit status, one of the U.S. Attorneys quoted in this L.A. Times article said he had yet to see an instance of a dispensary that could prove its non-profit status--which begs the question of how that would even be possible. Dispensaries tend to operate on a cash-and-carry basis, because in the current climate nobody wants to use a credit card and leave a permanent record. I'd be surprised if it the situation is similar with the dispensaries own vendors--vendors not only of cannabis, but also of office space, supplies, and so on. Under these circumstances how can any dispensary offer convincing proof that its revenue doesn't exceed its expenses?

 

[Weed420]

Just another good reason for all of us to join the occupy wall street movement. The single biggest reason MMJ will never be federally legal is because the FDA is run by big pharma. Its not a conspiracy theory.lol Read a little and you will see its true. So the FDA will not allow any research on MMJ because there's no way to patent an organic compound. Hence big pharma can't make billions off of it.
Join the occupy wall street and get these corrupt thugs and there patsy federal agencies out of our homes.

 

[Brinna]

I really hate that lying basta#d. He is a no good one term won on the race and the ultra liberal show-biz vote. He's down on the MMJ patients and doesn't give a dam about the ghetto gangs running wild in the cities. This man really hates the white middle class and I'm sorry if that sounds racist because I;m not. HE IS. RD

We get it. You're not an ultra-liberal. But, what you said does sound racist, and divisive. I don't think you meant it that way, but that is how it comes across. However it may look to you, Obama is not the problem. Corporate power is the problem. Global corporations are the force majeure behind Prohibition.

If you want this insanity to end, your most effective action would be to join forces with Occupy Wall Street (Occupy Together, nationally). This movement is about redirecting our resources locally and conscientiously, so that corporations which put profit before people are starved of their life blood.

 

[GanjaAL2]

fUNNY how that meathead palosi put in her two cents worth when in fact she does the same thing. She got her family big money contracts instead of the little guy. What a joke these poloticians are.

 

[RGF2011]

Obama owns the unions. If they go against him they will be shut down also.

 

[dxco]

Just another good reason for all of us to join the occupy wall street movement. The single biggest reason MMJ will never be federally legal is because the FDA is run by big pharma. Its not a conspiracy theory.lol Read a little and you will see its true. So the FDA will not allow any research on MMJ because there's no way to patent an organic compound. Hence big pharma can't make billions off of it.
Join the occupy wall street and get these corrupt thugs and there patsy federal agencies out of our homes.

I'll agree with you about the pharma industry NEVER sitting idle while an organic compound, with the healing properties to replace most of the poison they peddle, is legalized for medical use by the federal government that they have bought and paid for. It's not going to happen!
As far as patenting an organic compound goes, it's happening all around us and has been since Dan Quayle pushed the laws through to make it so. GE had produced a synthetic microbe with an appitite for crude oil that could be unleashed on oil spills -With the help of the Bush 1 administration, they were able to patent this living organism. The problem was that the "invention" not only had an appetite for oil, but also for everything else in it's path!. The GE microbe was a failure but the legal presedent that came with it has far reaching consequences. While the original patent laws made it clear that life could not be patented, everything changed from that point on & now everything from strains of cancer-producing cells to Monsanto's Round Up Ready soy beans can be patented. There was a rush on the Dept.of Agricultures seed bank to catalog and patent strains of plants that had been passed down for generations that can now only be grown if royalties are paid to the "owner". Cancer-producing cells used in research by universities, trying to find a cure for cancer are now the property of some corporation and potential life-saving research cannot be done without paying a fee to use the cells and DNA sequences. Farmers whose crops have been contaminated by their neighbors Monsanto crops have been ruined after lawsuits were brought against them for patant infringement! Countries who don't want to be a part of this insanity are threatened and had to give in to these illegal patents.
Look into GW pharmaceutical's Sativex -They have essentially patented cannabis extract! All of you Honey Oil people might be paying royalties to them someday! They grow 20 tons a year, extract & purify the oils & convert the extract into a salt using hydochloric acid. The result they come up with is a 1:1 mixture of THC & CBD. Dissolve the chrystal salt in ethanol, add some peppermint to hide the alcohol & sell the mixture for $20 per gram (which, considering the mix ratio, is a lot more than you guys are getting for your (patent infringing) honey oil)!
GW Pharmaceuticals may have a patent on the product but honey oil extractions and purifications were around years before GW, there are dozens of published extraction processes done prior to their patent but it has held up somehow.
From what ShantiBaba and others said in an Italian magazine interview years ago, GW can be traced back to the original seed bank's Nevil Shoenmakers and his associate Sam the SkunkMan (probable DEA informant, aka Dave Watson, CEO of HortaPharm, DEA licence #PI0043113, who worked with Nevil back in the early 90's, never owned a seed bank but has laid claims to several strains -some of which are in the hands of Hortapharm & used to make the honey oil extract in GW Pharmaceutical's Sativex).
Sativex will soon be FDA approved for sale in the US which is the reason for the recent wave of busts. "Weed" out the competition, so to speak!
You might ask, "what about Marinol, it's been around for years?" Marinol only contains synthetic THD -it has no CBD which is the stuff that counteracts the THC and makes you veg on the couch. It also gets rid of the anxiety some people get when they smoke the strong indica's. Columbian gold, thai, jamacian strains were all high in CBD content but it was bred out of a lot of the current strains and now being bred back into some of the medical strains because of it's oain killing & anti anxiety properties.
Sativex is the only "drug" in the world with both. That's why it will be superior to Marinol. Just wait and see: Marinol's patent will expire and Satiex will be prescribed in it's place because the generic manufacturers will be making marinol and there is no money in a drug when you have generic competition.
Does it seem strange to anyone else that this SkunkMan/Dave Watson survives the DEA's operation Greenmerchant in the late 80's when his associate Nevil Shoenmakers was being hunted and had to go into hiding (still today) and SkunkMan's HortaPharma & GW Pharmaceuticals end up with DEA import export permits???
This is one of the biggest James Bond style scams the DEA has ever been involved in -spanning over continents over 20 years in the making. This is big money. And what sucks is that they have exploited the work of people like Neville Shoenmaker to do it and basically patented the essence of cannabis for profit...
So Big Pharma has already patented any cannabis that will ever be allowed to be used as medicine as far as the FDA is concerned. I wonder if anybody in the Obama administration has received any money from Bayer or GW Pharmaceuticals???
I'm not making this shit up (how could I?) do some research, it's all out there if you look.

 

[RGF2011]

I agree the pot I smoked in the early 70's didn't put me on the couch , some made me want to go get things done and not just think about it. I read some about Watson and Shoenmaker sounds like they were involved in something major.

 

[Bonehead]

Obama owns the unions. If they go against him they will be shut down also.

The Union will be shut down???

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (governing body) in Washington DC has already issued a press release condemning the annoucement by the Fed Gov't and is standing with operators, growers, workers, and patients. I don't think the UFCW is afraid to tell the Feds or the President to go shove it!. If there is an attack on working families, the UFCW will not tolerate it.

 

[Gothmog]

The US Attorneys claim they are only enforcing the state law, which did not explicitly provide for dispensaries (to the best of my understanding). However, they leave out a couple of important points. If patients are to be allowed to use cannabis as a therapeutic agent, they have to obtain it somehow. How can that happen without dispensaries and the grow ops that provide their stock? Some patients can avoid this problem by growing their own, but would the federal government be willing to prohibit building owners from evicting tenants who grow MMJ on the premises for their own use? Are the Feds willing to promise in good faith that they will not institute forfeiture proceedings against those landlords? And lastly, cannabis is an annual plant, which means that growers generally need seeds every year. But it is against the law to import viable cannabis seeds. Will the Feds make a statutory exemption to this law for MMJ patients in legal-MMJ states?

Legal MMJ is meaningless if patients do not have a dependable and consistent means of obtaining it.

 

[wackman]

Blackmail and a money grab by the feds. Classic double talk. Obama losing votes by the millions.

 

[budbro]

I wish you were right wack, but unfortunately the top two candidates possibly opposing him have all but swore on the bible to put an end to MMJ once and for all. So unless something changes in the Republican nominees, the liar will get all of our votes. The lessor of two evils wins again. Look, I'm all for the fight, but we all are missing something here and in order to fight, you need to know what the enemy's motivation is. You take away motivation, and you win the war. I'm not saying it's not Obama's fault, but I highly doubt he woke up the other morning and out of the clear blue sky decided that, "hmmm...I think I'll have the DEA start raiding medicinal dispensaries today". There has to be a reason other than he is just a liar. So what is the reason?

Was he forcing Governor Brown to veto the hemp bill? If so, it's over. Btw, where the hell is the gov on this? Hiding?

Is it Bayer seeking FDA approval of Sativex and Obama wants a check from them before the election? If so, boycott Bayer perhaps?

I don't know what the answer is but until it's found out and the fight is fought on that front, we will lose because we have no other candidate to vote for. I'm pretty sure Obama has that figured out and is not scared of losing our vote.

 

[wackman]

From what i read on HP on this subject, alot of P.O.ed people.