Federal prosecutors are preparing to target newspapers, radio stations and other media outlets that advertise medical marijuana dispensaries in California, another escalation in the Obama administration’s newly invigorated war against the state’s pot industry. This month, U.S. attorneys representing four districts in California announced that the government would single out landlords and property owners who rent buildings or land where dispensaries sell or cultivators grow marijuana. Now, newspapers and other media outlets could be next, Michael Montgomery reports in California Watch. U.S. Attorney Laura E. Duffy, whose district includes Imperial and San Diego counties, said [...]
A man in his mid-20s was shot to death Wednesday morning in a marijuana grove near Strathmore, the Tulare County Sheriff’s Department said. The victim, who lived in Los Angeles and was visiting here, was asleep in a home when he heard a noise outside and went to investigate. He was shot about 5 a.m. by someone trying to steal marijuana, the Sheriff’s Department said. The victim, whose name was not released, was shot several times, the Fresno Bee reports. The incident took place in the 20100 block of Road 244. Anyone with information is [...]
The Obama administration’s crackdown on California’s highly profitable medical marijuana industry represents a dramatic departure from the low-key approach it has long pursued. California’s four U.S. attorneys said Friday that they are taking aim at large-scale growers and dispensary owners who are raking in millions of dollars while falsely claiming that their medical marijuana operations comply with state law, which does not allow for-profit sales. In the early days of President Obama’s tenure, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that prosecutors would not target medical marijuana users and caregivers, as long as they followed state laws. [...]
Cloud of smoke. That’s what the chaotic mess surrounding medical marijuana has become, Santa Cruz Sentinel Editor Don Miller writes in the paper’s Sunday editorial. This week, federal prosecutors began a move against a select number of dispensaries in California, warning them to either shut down or face criminal charges and possible confiscation of their property. The new crackdown so far has not hit Santa Cruz County, but creates a new climate of uncertainty in a movement almost constantly embattled in the 15 years since voters legalized medical marijuana in California. The reasons why the [...]
In the first local discussion after recent federal crackdowns on medical cannabis in California, Shasta County planning commissioners will consider recommending county supervisors ban dispensaries and update regulations on cultivation in unincorporated parts of the county at Thursday’s meeting. The recommendation from the county Resource Management Department comes after a series of moratoria first enacted by county supervisors in early 2010 on medical marijuana collectives in the county. Establishing dispensaries has been illegal in unincorporated areas since, although the city of Redding currently has 16 collectives, Alayna Shulman reports in the Record Searchlight. Federal strikes [...]
Though Gov. Jerry Brown called federal regulation of industrial hemp plants “absurd,” potential enforcement of those regulations ultimately led to his veto of state Senate Bill 676, which would have allowed hemp cultivation in four California counties, including Kern, as part of an eight-year pilot program. Supporters of the bill said the federal categorization of industrial hemp plants as the same as marijuana plants is woefully outdated, Jill Cowan reports in the Bakersfield Californian. The fact that industrial hemp is imported for legal products means Californians are missing out on a cash crop, advocates say. [...]
California’s four U.S. attorneys, declaring that marijuana dispensaries in the state are illicit, profiteering operations violating federal law, today announced multiple criminal complaints and forfeiture actions against medical pot stores, property owners and major cultivators. “We want to put to rest the notion that large marijuana businesses can shelter themselves under state law,” said Melinda Haag, the top federal prosecutor in San Francisco who joined U.S attorneys from Sacramento, San Diego and Los Angeles in a Sacramento press conference. Haag said the voter-approved Compassionate Use Act, which legalized medical marijuana use in California in 1996, [...]
The Arcata City Council voted Wednesday to continue to process applications for medical marijuana dispensaries but directed city staff to withhold final approval until it receives information about a threat of potential legal action from the federal government. The city council voted 3-2 in favor of withholding final approval for dispensaries, collectives and industrial-size grow operations that serve medical marijuana patients, Jessica Cejnar reports in the Eureka Times-Standard. Councilmen Shane Brinton and Michael Winkler dissented, saying they would like the permitting process for dispensaries to continue despite a potential legal threat to the city. The [...]
Federal law prohibits California cities from issuing permits to collectives authorizing them to supply marijuana to medical patients, a state appeals court has ruled, raising questions about the scope of local regulation of pot dispensaries. In overturning a Long Beach ordinance, the court said the city went a step beyond California’s action in 1996, when state voters eliminated criminal penalties for patients who used marijuana with a doctor’s approval. Deciding not to prosecute someone for drug use doesn’t conflict with the federal ban on marijuana possession and distribution, the court said. It also said a [...]
Stepping up an aggressive policy toward medical marijuana dispensaries in California, U.S. attorneys are warning landlords that they may seize properties of anyone leasing space to marijuana stores. Letters sent this week to targeted dispensaries in San Diego, San Francisco, Marin and elsewhere warn that California’s medical marijuana law is no protection against property seizure or prosecution under federal law. The letters demand that landlords or operators “discontinue the sale and/or distribution of marijuana … within 45 days,” Peter Hecht reports in the Sacramento Bee. The specter of new federal intervention against California dispensaries follows [...]
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