Federal Enforcement/ California Marijuana

October 29, 2011

Closure of Medical Marijuana Dispensaries in California Harming Whole Community

The U.S. government was designed to allow each state to act as guinea pigs of democracy, according to U.S. News. Through this, states are allowed to experiment with policies that officials believe will benefit their needs. Federal law is there to protect that state’s right. But apparently that right doesn’t include medical marijuana in Riverside and elsewhere.

Back in 2009, the Obama Administration indicated it would restore allow states to regulate their own medical marijuana industry. That the valuable time and resources of the Justice Department would not be wasted enforcing federal marijuana laws in state’s where medical marijuana is legal.

Our Riverside marijuana attorneys are thus urging dispensaries to obtain legal representation in the face of the new federal crackdown. Recent regulation efforts from the feds are targeting dispensaries throughout California and are aiming to shut down the industry. The U.S. government says that this enforcement effort will help to organize and regulate the distribution of marijuana. The problem is that it’s going to do anything but. And patient access is threatened, which may only serve to fuel the criminal underground.

The medical marijuana story started back in 1978 when Robert Randal was placed under arrest for using marijuana to help to treat glaucoma. After being arrested, he sued the country and won! The ruling of this suit required the FDA to supply Robert with marijuana to help to continue to treat his condition. It was legalized in California in 1996 and since then there have been 15 states to legalize medicinal use of the drug. Now, residents are able to purchase the product from state-sanctioned operations. These operations however, are the target of federal law enforcers as purchasing, selling and growing of marijuana is still considered illegal under federal law.

Patients rely on these dispensaries because they’re unable to grow their own or are unable to achieve the quality that is sold through these shops.

Marijuana not only benefits patients, but if benefits our state’s economy. In 2010, state-licensed businesses contributed nearly $200 million in taxes to federal, state and local governments. They also reported more than a billion dollars in revenue.

With the economy still struggling, these shops provide much needed taxes and jobs. The federal government is looking to punish these shops for being successful and for helping the community.

Feds wants their efforts kept quite as well. The Debate Club for U.S. News reports that officials from the Department of Justice claim it’s going to prosecute any radio, TV or newspaper outlets for running ads about medical marijuana. Unfortunately, these ads provide much needed income for these companies in a struggling economy. Without this income, many media-related companies will have to cut staff or completely shut down.

Most Californians support state-regulated medical marijuana operations. Marijuana advocates say that feds should have more important things to worry about.

So far, companies in Orange Country, Inland Empire and Riverside County have received threatening letters from government officials to shut down, pack up and get out.
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October 27, 2011

Fed Enforcement Threats Patients and Medical Marijuana Industry in California

By Cannabis Law Group

Patients who rely on medical marijuana in Los Angeles to help to treat illnesses and debilitating conditions may soon be forced to buy the product off the streets.

While no one wants that, it may be the only choice left to patients if the feds continue their forceful sweep on the industry. Every year, thousands of patients with various conditions turn to this treatment for help. Medical marijuana can help to treat conditions from post-traumatic stress disorder to chronic pain, cancer and AIDS.

The recent federal enforcement effort to shut down medical marijuana operations in California was announced by four U.S. attorneys in California. Agents don’t appear to be letting up anytime soon either.

Our medical marijuana attorneys in Los Angeles understand that areas targeted for enforcement include Temecula, Wildomar, Rancho Santa Margarita, Laguna Hills, Pomona, Laguna Niguel, Lake Forest, Murrieta and many other areas in California. If you’re a dispensary owner in the state, you’re urged to seek experienced legal representation to help you in the battle.

Medical marijuana was approved for medicinal use in the state of California back in 1996. There have been 15 states who have passed laws since then. A 2010 California Supreme Court ruling even stated that residents should be able to possess in “reasonable amounts” with permission from a doctor.

Federal enforcement is a new threat, as the Huffington Post reported.

“Federal prosecutors are not trying to clean up the regulated medical cannabis industry, they are trying to destroy it,” said Steve DeAngelo from the Oakland medical cannabis club Harborside Health Center.

Attorney General Eric Holder had previously directed field offices not to make enforcement of federal law a priority in the 16 states where medical marijuana has been legalized. This new enforcement effort is a sharp reversal, with feds targeting landlords with threats of property enforcement and the IRS and DEA being used to go after large dispensary operations in Southern California.

Not everyone’s sure as to why the feds have decided to go on the offensive. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) and State Senator Mark Leno (D) have requested that the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service share its reasoning for the new efforts, but they’ve yet to receive a response.

Many find it odd that the enforcement efforts have shifted from gang-related distribution to the legally-regulated portion of the industry. Many advocates claim that this shift in enforcement is causing state’s millions and millions of tax dollars in addition to thousands and thousands of jobs. Closing up our state’s dispensaries is hurting patients tremendously by cutting off access to medicine.

Many find the new enforcement odd considering that support for the industry is stronger than ever, too. About 35 percent of U.S. citizens supported the industry back in 2006. More than 50 percent of residents support it in 2011.

Closing up our state’s dispensaries is hurting the economy, our rights as citizens and patients by cutting off access that is a constitutional right under state law.
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October 15, 2011

Patient Access Could Suffer after Feds Raid Lake Forest Medical Marijuana Dispensaries

By Cannabis Law Group

As part of a major enforcement blitz, the feds are making no promises that medical marijuana patients in Los Angeles and elsewhere will be able to get the medicine to which they are legally entitled under state law.

The raid on the Raymond Way strip mall in Wake Forest targeted 8 dispensaries and the building’s owner. More than $130,000 was seized from the bank accounts of the building owner. The feds cite the more than $500,000 spent by the city trying to close the dispensaries as reason for the enforcement action. Wake Forest Medical Marijuana Attorney Damian Nassiri represents two of the dispensaries.

There’s no indication yet that the feds intend to target individual patients.

“We will not likely use our limited resources toward individuals with cancer or other serious illnesses, or their individual caregivers, if they use marijuana based on a doctor’s recommendation,” said Melinda Haag, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California.

But neither are they promising access — And by targeting the retail end of California’s medical marijuana system, they threaten to deny patient access and destroy dispensaries and collectives in the process. Dispensaries, collectives and growers need to have an experienced law firm in their corner. The CANNABIS LAW GROUP continues to believe there is strength in numbers and is representing numerous medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles, Lake Forest, Riverside and throughout Southern California.

“It’s outrageous,” said Stephen Downing, a retired deputy chief of Los Angeles Police Department and a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a group of police officers who support medical marijuana. “It’s going to send the people who need their medical marijuana to the black market … It’s going to send more money to the gangs and the drug cartels.”

Officials with the Justice Department are also targeting dispensaries in Rancho Santa Margarita, Dana Point, Laguna Hills and Laguna Niguel in Orange county.

Targets in Riverside County include Murrieta, Wildomar and Temecula. Inland Empire enforcement efforts are occurring in Chino, Pomona, Montclair, Upland and Claremont.

Landlord defense will be necessary in some of these cases. Attacking the economic welfare of real estate owners is a new low in this battle against voter and patient rights being conducted by state and federal authorities. Protecting your rights to rent to the viable and legal business of your choosing can help ensure your financial well-being and the value of your real property.
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October 13, 2011

CANNABIS LAW GROUP Fighting Federal Medical Marijuana Enforcement in Lake Forest

By Cannabis Law Group

The CANNABIS LAW GROUP continues to fight for the rights of several Lake Forest dispensaries targeted in a federal raid earlier this month on 8 stores located in a two-story strip mall.

“These collectives had a hard time finding landlords who were willing to rent to them,” said Lake Forest Medical Marijuana Attorney Damian Nassiri.

The feds targeted the complex with a forfeiture action after contending the building’s prior owner had received a warning letter from the Drug Enforcement Administration. The feds also seized $136,686 from the building owner’s bank account, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.

It is “a Costco, Walmart-type model that we see across California,” said Andre Birotte Jr., U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, who also called it “the new California gold rush.”

Problem is the feds are all over the map. Small shops, big shops and growers. The Internal Revenue Service is in on the action in some cases. And all this comes after two years in which the Obama Administration had indicated it would not make enforcement a priority in states where medical marijuana is legal. California became the first state to legalize marijuana with the Compassionate Use Act of 1996. Today, 16 states have legalized medical marijuana.

In this case they point to the city’s efforts at closing the dispensaries as a primary reason for the action — saying Lake Forest has spent more than $585,000 trying to shut down the dispensaries operating out of the building.

A recent Long Beach appeals court decision calls into question a city’s rights to regulate dispensaries, hold lotteries or make other moves that would put it in a position of sanctioning retail sale of marijuana.

The Los Angeles dispensary fight has just begun. Voters legalized marijuana 15 years ago. As recently as the Great Depression, medical marijuana was a state right. All of the wrangling is a bureaucratic construct that in the end must not be allowed to interfere with the will of the voters or the rights of the patient.
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October 11, 2011

Los Angeles Medical Marijuana Attorneys at CANNABIS LAW GROUP Defendnt Dispensaries in Face of Federal Enforcement

By Cannabis Law Group

Sacramento officials are looking to toughen the stance on medical marijuana dispensaries — calling some of them “storefront drug dealers in the wake of the Obama Administration’s crackdown on medical marijuana in California, which has been legal since 1996.

Our Los Angeles medical marijuana lawyers encourage dispensaries, collectives, patients, caregivers and growers to seek experienced legal consultation. As we reported on our Marijuana Lawyer Blog, the federal crackdown targeted a North Hollywood dispensary authorities charge with wholesaling marijuana nationwide. Medical marijuana dispensary forfeiture actions were filed in Wildomar, Montclair and Lake Forest.

Damian Nassiri of the CANNABIS LAW GROUP represents two of the dispensaries inside an Orange County shopping center where authorities targeted eight medical marijuana dispensaries. “These collectives had a hard time finding landlords who were willing to rent to them,” Nassiri said
Federal authorities are also targeting marijuana dispensaries in Orange County, Riverside County and Inland Empire.

CBS News reports the feds are looking to raid retail establishments — particularly larger operations.

It is “a Costco, Walmart-type model that we see across California,” said Andre Birotte Jr., U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, who also called it “the new California gold rush.”

The increased enforcement, which includes action by the Internal Revenue Service and pressure on the banking operations of dispensaries, comes after two years in which the Obama Administration had indicated it would not make enforcement a priority in states where medical marijuana is legal. California became the first state to legalize marijuana with the Compassionate Use Act of 1996. Today, 16 states have legalized medical marijuana.

Attack on larger operations could hurt patient ability to obtain medical marijuana, which is their right under state law.

“We’re not going anywhere. We’re mothers, we’re patients, we’re family members of patients,” said Melissa Milam, of the National Cannabis Industry Association. “We want to pay taxes, we want to be able to make deposits at our bank, we want to be a business.”

The California Board of Equalization has estimated medical marijuana could generate more than $100 million in tax revenue on sales of more than $1 billion in sales. However, recent court actions continue to call into question the rights of cities to regulate the industry.
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