After news broke on Thursday that the feds were planning a new crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries throughout California, many medical-pot patients and advocates cast the sky is falling€ scenarios in which every dispensary in the state would be out of operation by Thanksgiving. But at the press conference held Friday at the Sacramento Federal CourtHouse, U.S. Attorneys for the four districts of California clarified that initially, at least, they will be targeting dispensaries in close proximity to schools, parks, sports fields and other locales generally inhabited by children.
Additionally, they will go after what U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner (Eastern District) described as significant commercial operations,which includes rural farmland utilized for medicinal cannabis cultivation. Also, dispensaries located in cities and counties that have licensed and taxed pot shops will feel the Fedsa's wrath, especially after an appellate court ruled earlier this week that Long Beach's dispensary ordinances violate federal law.
California's weed sector provisions to the country. Although, the federal attorney failed to note that CA has always been the marijuana supplier to the nation “ in the context of black market sales€" despite his implication that it's only been the last 15 years (since medical marijuana was legalized in California) that the Emerald Triangle and other regions of the State have been major epicentres.
U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr. (Central District) decried that medical marijuana is the new California gold rush as if the financial stimulation that medical marijuana has brought to the state's moribund economy is a bad thing, even to the extent of generating revenue for third-party concerns, such as dispensary advertising in local newspapers. Have some people taken advantage of Prop 215 and profited greatly? Sure. But so do pharmaceutical companies, and the actions of a few should not bring down an entire system that has generated an estimated $53 to $104 million in statewide tax revenue annually, a substantial boost to a financially strapped state cutting the budget left and right on a seemingly daily basis.
U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag's (Northern District) comments underscored the federal government's blatant hostility to medical marijuana: What we are finding, however, is that California’s laws have been hijacked by people who are in this to get rich and don’t care at all about sick people. Haag has obviously never tried to buy medical marijuana in the black market (with its corresponding high prices and risks) compared to purchasing it from a dispensary where patients are able to choose from a wide variety of efficacious strains at a whole range of prices- – always featuring cheaper options than the price on the street. Haag should realize that it's the black market that doesn't care about sick people as opposed to licensed and regulated dispensaries.
An encouraging sign is that the medical marijuana industry isn't planning to take the news passively, as protestors in Sacramento rallied outside the federal courthouse during the press conference. National Cannabis Industry Association spokeswoman Melissa Milam told AP: We’re not going anywhere. We’re mothers, and we’re patients, we’re family members of patients. We want to pay duties; we want to be able to make deposits at our bank. We want to be a business.รข€
California's two most prominent pro-pot politicians from San Francisco/Northern California both lashed out at the federal crackdown. State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D) stated it signifies that Mr. Obama’s medical cannabis policies are worse than Mr. Bush. It’s a terrible return to failed policies that will cost the state millions in tax revenue and harm countless lives. State Senator Mark Leno (D) wryly noted with an appropriate double negative:
U.S. Attorney Haag did make one concession: I comprehend there are people in CA who believe cannabis shops should be allowed to exist, but I think we can all agree we don’t need weed stores across the street from schools and Little League fields. While California patients will still be permitted to grow their own medicine, Haag added gravely that dispensaries that did not initially receive warning letters are still regarded as illegal by the federal government. Those dispensaries that have been told to shut down have from anywhere from two weeks (in Los Angeles County) to 45 days (in San Diego County).
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