Cannabis Law Group's Medical Marijuana Legal Blog
Court Snuffs Out Attempted Extortion of Medical Marijuana Dispensary
Attorneys at Cannabis Law Group are committed to helping marijuana dispensaries achieve 
compliance with state and local regulations. We are experienced in civil and criminal cannabis-related cases and fight hard for the rights of our clients. We support the continued expansion of marijuana legalization and hope to see a day soon when businesses are free to operate on a national scale.
Too often, we see hard-working cannabis business owners who may be niave or unclear about the state and local regulations and their obligations. In a recent case in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, a former Congressional aid was recently convicted of taking advantage of a dispensary owner.
Recently Michael Kimbrew, a former Congressional aide, was found guilty of attempted extortion and bribery. He was convicted of taking a $5,000 bribe, which he allegedly elicited from a pot shop that at the time was operating illegally, according to the Associated Press. Prosecutors allege he approached the Compton dispensary in 2015, when it was still illegal to operate such a business in the city. He then allegedly told the owners they would be shut down unless they could work out a deal with him. That deal reportedly included a $5,000 payment to Kimbrew, even though he did not have the connections to get them proper medical marijuana permits that he allegedly claimed he did.
While many people drink socially, many others drink to cope with the stress of daily life, various mental health conditions, including anxiety and depression, and other forms of trauma. Even though most studies show that dependence on alcohol only makes those medical conditions worse, alcohol is often used as a form of self-medication even when it results in abuse. Alcohol also is well-known to cause liver poisoning, organ failure, and now it is suspected of causing cancer, according to a recent study that was popularized via a Netflix documentary on the same subject. 
Currently, Sessions cannot use any federal money to go after medical marijuana in states where it is legal because of an amendment passed by Congress in 2014 that prohibits any federal taxpayer dollars from being spent for this reason. This means that U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, any agency that falls under Sessions’ Department of Justice (DOJ), cannot go after those in the state-legal medical marijuana business. 
That being said, Congress has added language in budget acts that prohibit the federal government and its agencies from spending money to go after medical marijuana in states where it is legal under state law. There is no such prohibition on sending the DEA and FBI after state legal marijuana for recreational use, and that is scaring off many prospective investors, according to a recent news article from 
One area in which we are seeing growth, and see potential for a lot more growth, is in medical marijuana products for pets. As discussed in a recent news article from 
These new regulations are in the form of what are known as draft rules that have been promulgated by the three state agencies that have oversight over the medical marijuana business. This rules package will affect how medical marijuana is gown, processed and distributed throughout the entire state. 