Thanks Obama *Sigh*

Feds Set to Crack Down on California Pot Dispensaries

Published October 06, 2011
| Associated Press

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FILE-A patient buys bags of medical marijuana at the Coffeeshop Blue Sky dispensary in Oakland, Calif.
SAN FRANCISCO – Federal prosecutors have launched a crackdown on pot dispensaries in California, warning the stores that they must shut down in 45 days or face criminal charges and confiscation of their property even if they are operating legally under the state's 15-year-old medical marijuana law.

In an escalation of the ongoing conflict between the U.S. government and the nation's burgeoning medical marijuana industry, at least 16 pot shops or their landlords received letters this week stating they are violating federal drug laws, even though medical marijuana is legal in California. The state's four U.S. attorneys were scheduled Friday to announce a broader coordinated crackdown.

Their offices refused Thursday to confirm the closure orders. The Associated Press obtained copies of the letters that a prosecutor sent to at least 12 San Diego dispensaries. They state that federal law "takes precedence over state law and applies regardless of the particular uses for which a dispensary is selling and distributing marijuana."

"Under United States law, a dispensary's operations involving sales and distribution of marijuana are illegal and subject to criminal prosecution and civil enforcement actions," according to the letters signed by U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy in San Diego. "Real and personal property involved in such operations are subject to seizure by and forfeiture to the United States ... regardless of the purported purpose of the dispensary."

The move comes a little more than two months after the Obama administration toughened its stand on medical marijuana. For two years before that, federal officials had indicated they would not move aggressively against dispensaries in compliance with laws in the 16 states where pot is legal for people with doctors' recommendations.

The Department of Justice issued a policy memo to federal prosecutors in late June stating that marijuana dispensaries and licensed growers in states with medical marijuana laws could face prosecution for violating federal drug and money-laundering laws. The effort to shutter California dispensaries appeared to be the most far-reaching effort so far to put that guidance into action.

"This really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. The administration is simply making good on multiple threats issued since President Obama took office," said Kevin Sabet, a former adviser to the president's drug czar and a fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Substance Abuse Solutions. "The challenge is to balance the scarcity of law enforcement resources and the sanctity of this country's medication approval process. It seems like the administration is simply making good on multiple statements made previously to appropriately strike that balance."

Greg Anton, a lawyer who represents dispensary Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana, said its landlord received an "extremely threatening" letter Wednesday invoking a federal law that imposes additional penalties for selling drugs within 1,000 feet of schools, parks and playgrounds.

The landlord was ordered to evict the 14-year-old pot club or risk imprisonment, plus forfeiture of the property and all the rent he has collected while the dispensary has been in business, Anton said.

Marin Alliance's founder "has been paying state and federal taxes for 14 years, and they have cashed all the checks," he said. "All I hear from Obama is whining about his budget, but he has money to do this which will actually reduce revenues."

Kris Hermes, a spokesman for the medical marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access, said the warnings are part of what appears to be an attempt by the Obama administration to curb medical marijuana on multiple fronts and through multiple agencies. A series of dispensary raids in Montana, for example, involved agents from not only the FBI and U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, but the Internal Revenue Service and Environmental Protection Agency.

Going after property owners is not a new tactic though, Hermes said. Five years ago, the Department of Justice under President George W. Bush made similar threats to about 300 Los Angeles-area landlords who were renting space to medical marijuana outlets, some of whom were eventually evicted or closed their doors voluntarily, he said.

"It did have an impact. However, the federal government never acted on its threats, never prosecuted anybody, never even went to court to begin prosecutions," Hermes said. "By and large, they were empty threats, but they relied on them and the cost of postage to shut down as many facilities as they could without having to engage in criminal enforcement activity."

Besides the dozen dispensaries in San Diego and the one in Marin County, at least three shops in San Francisco already have received closure notices, said Dale Gieringer, director of the California chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

The San Diego medical marijuana outlets put on notice were the same 12 that city officials sued last month for operating illegally, after activists there threatened to force an election on a zoning plan adopted to regulate the city's fast-growing medical marijuana industry, City Attorney Jan Goldsmith said. A judge on Wednesday ordered nine of the targeted shops to close, while the other three shut down voluntarily, Goldsmith said.

Duffy, the U.S. attorney for far Southern California, planned to issue warning letters to property owners and all of the 180 or so dispensaries that have proliferated in San Diego in the absence of compromise regulations, according to Goldsmith.

"The real power is with the federal government," he said. "They have the asset forfeiture, and that means either the federal government will own a lot of property or these landlords will evict a lot of dispensaries."



Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10/06/feds-set-to-crack-down-on-california-pot-dispensaries/#ixzz1a3v4QCuq

This is bullshit. The states and people have voted on it. Its legal and the feds are making a mistake and wasting money and resources.
_______________________________________________________________
"You get more with kind words and a gun than you do with just kind words"

Fed must keep growing......at any and all expense.

State rights are merely an obstructionist obstacle to the One World government that most of our Federal officials are so desperate to implement.

Transnational banks.....corporations......and power craved politicians have their own objectives and giving up their reigns of power, influence, and money isn't one of them.

Just goes to show how fucking STUPID the federal government is.

Rather than wasting all that manpower and money to drive pot buying/selling underground again, they should tax it.

Any idea how much $$$ the feds would make off legalizing and taxing pot? Probably BILLIONS.

Fucking idiots. Every one of them.

John C. Calhoun disapproves!

Originally posted by: The Article
They state that federal law "takes precedence over state law and applies regardless of the particular uses for which a dispensary is selling and distributing marijuana."

Read it again!

Originally posted by: The Constitution Article 1, Section 8
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

To establish Post Offices and Post Roads;

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations;

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; And

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

"Constitutional Law" and it's "professors" strikes (fails) again!


Post edited by Nathan Bedford Forrest at 10/7/2011 8:09:24 AM

_________________
"I supported President Lincoln. I believed his war policy would be the only way to save the country, but I see my mistake. I visited Washington a few weeks ago, and I saw the corruption of the present administration - and so long as Abraham Lincoln and his Cabinet are in power, so long will war continue. And for what? For the preservation of the Constitution and the Union? No, but for the sake of politicians and government contractors." J.P. Morgan, American financier and banker, 1864

On a side note I finally got some of my own to play with! Jose my gardener finally came through!!!! \o/

Originally posted by: The Constitution Article 1, Section 8
The Congress shall have Power To...

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

Not sure what "professors" you're referring to, but maybe the final arbiter of the law can weigh in...

Originally posted by: US Supreme Court

Respondents in this case do not dispute that passage of the Controlled Substance Act (CSA), as part of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act, was well within Congress' commerce power...

[T]he regulation is squarely within Congress' commerce power because production of the commodity meant for home consumption...has a substantial effect on supply and demand in the national market for that commodity

Source: Gonzales v. Raich, 545 U.S. 1 (2005) (Find Law link)
Post edited by CaptPlanet at 10/7/2011 8:44:53 AM

Capt I think I understand your position but to clarify it further for my tired brain what's YOUR stance on this???
_______________________________________________________________
"You get more with kind words and a gun than you do with just kind words"

Can NBF put the smack down on Cappie again?

NBF = 1

Cappie = 0

Best 3 out of 5.

===========================================

If you choose to take drugs, you shouldnt be allowed access to taxpayer money for any kind of support. You got yourself into that mess, you can get your ass out of it. Be responsible for your actions. Turn to family and charity for help.

Originally posted by: CaptPlanet

Originally posted by: The Constitution Article 1, Section 8
The Congress shall have Power To...

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

Not sure what "professors" you're referring to, but maybe the final arbiter of the law can weigh in...

Originally posted by: US Supreme Court

Respondents in this case do not dispute that passage of the Controlled Substance Act (CSA), as part of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act, was well within Congress' commerce power...

[T]he regulation is squarely within Congress' commerce power because production of the commodity meant for home consumption...has a substantial effect on supply and demand in the national market for that commodity

Source: Gonzales v. Raich, 545 U.S. 1 (2005) (Find Law link)

Ok, Mr. Guy Who Didn't Know the Constitution is a Contract Amongst the States Despite Being a "Constitutional Lawyer"

From your link:

"Justice O'Connor, with whom The Chief Justice and Justice Thomas join as to all but Part III, dissenting.

We enforce the "outer limits" of Congress' Commerce Clause authority not for their own sake, but to protect historic spheres of state sovereignty from excessive federal encroachment and thereby to maintain the distribution of power fundamental to our federalist system of government. United States v. Lopez, 514 U. S. 549, 557 (1995); NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp., 301 U. S. 1, 37 (1937). One of federalism's chief virtues, of course, is that it promotes innovation by allowing for the possibility that "a single courageous State may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country." New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann, 285 U. S. 262, 311 (1932) (Brandeis, J., dissenting).

This case exemplifies the role of States as laboratories. The States' core police powers have always included authority to define criminal law and to protect the health, safety, and welfare of their citizens. Brecht v. Abrahamson, 507 U. S. 619, 635 (1993); Whalen v. Roe, 429 U. S. 589, 603, n. 30 (1977). Exercising those powers, California (by ballot initiative and then by legislative codification) has come to its own conclusion about the difficult and sensitive question of whether marijuana should be available to relieve severe pain and suffering. Today the Court sanctions an application of the federal Controlled Substances Act that extinguishes that experiment, without any proof that the personal cultivation, possession, and use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, if economic activity in the first place, has a substantial effect on interstate commerce and is therefore an appropriate subject of federal regulation. In so doing, the Court announces a rule that gives Congress a perverse incentive to legislate broadly pursuant to the Commerce Clause--nestling questionable assertions of its authority into comprehensive regulatory schemes--rather than with precision. That rule and the result it produces in this case are irreconcilable with our decisions in Lopez, supra, and United States v. Morrison, 529 U. S. 598 (2000). Accordingly I dissent."

Yet another broad translation of Federal power with the intention of consolidating power and limiting personal liberty.

From Thomas Jefferson:
“For the power given to Congress by the Constitution does not extend to the internal regulation of the commerce of a State, (that is to say of the commerce between citizen and citizen,) which remain exclusively with its own legislature; but to its external commerce only, that is to say, its commerce with another State, or with foreign nations, or with the Indian tribes.”

From James Madison aka The Motherfucker Who Wrote this Shit:
"Yet it is very certain that it grew out of the abuse of the power by the importing States in taxing the nonimporting, and was intended as a negative and preventive provision against injustice among the States themselves, rather than as a power to be used for the positive purposes of the General Government, in which alone, however, the remedial power could be lodged."


What the commerce clause actually means is that the Federal Government is to keep one State or States from unfairly taxing or impeding trade with another State or States (States, motherfucker, not people). It was never intended to be used to micromanage the internal economies and liberties of the People of the States.

Post edited by Nathan Bedford Forrest at 10/7/2011 9:41:56 AM

_________________
"I supported President Lincoln. I believed his war policy would be the only way to save the country, but I see my mistake. I visited Washington a few weeks ago, and I saw the corruption of the present administration - and so long as Abraham Lincoln and his Cabinet are in power, so long will war continue. And for what? For the preservation of the Constitution and the Union? No, but for the sake of politicians and government contractors." J.P. Morgan, American financier and banker, 1864

it should be legalized, end of story

Originally posted by: [-NM-] -SS-
Can NBF put the smack down on Cappie again?

NBF = 1

Cappie = 0

Best 3 out of 5.

===========================================

If you choose to take drugs, you shouldnt be allowed access to taxpayer money for any kind of support. You got yourself into that mess, you can get your ass out of it. Be responsible for your actions. Turn to family and charity for help.

Interestingly, that thread went without a response...

_________________
"I supported President Lincoln. I believed his war policy would be the only way to save the country, but I see my mistake. I visited Washington a few weeks ago, and I saw the corruption of the present administration - and so long as Abraham Lincoln and his Cabinet are in power, so long will war continue. And for what? For the preservation of the Constitution and the Union? No, but for the sake of politicians and government contractors." J.P. Morgan, American financier and banker, 1864

I know it did.

Why is the government so fucking stupid?

Do they realize that if they legalized Marijuana nationally that the national debt would probably disappear over night?

And not to be a faggot hippy or anything, because I'm not, but how about using hemp instead of trees for paper? It's better anyway. Corrupt government is always corrupt.


This isn't really anything new in California though. There have been federal raids in Southern California (where I live) and I have had my Medical Marijuana License for the past 2 years or so now. They raid collectives all the time, but they usually end up coming back. But heh either way, government is dumb and marijuana is .
Post edited by Vaxemous at 10/7/2011 10:10:34 AM

Glaucoma?

Originally posted by: Vaxemous
Why is the government so fucking stupid?

Do they realize that if they legalized Marijuana nationally that the national debt would probably disappear over night?

Because hemp is a threat to the cotton industry, automotive industry, oil industry, alcohol industry, tobacco industry, and most significantly, big pharma.

_________________
"I supported President Lincoln. I believed his war policy would be the only way to save the country, but I see my mistake. I visited Washington a few weeks ago, and I saw the corruption of the present administration - and so long as Abraham Lincoln and his Cabinet are in power, so long will war continue. And for what? For the preservation of the Constitution and the Union? No, but for the sake of politicians and government contractors." J.P. Morgan, American financier and banker, 1864

Originally posted by: Nathan Bedford Forrest

Originally posted by: Vaxemous
Why is the government so fucking stupid?

Do they realize that if they legalized Marijuana nationally that the national debt would probably disappear over night?

Because hemp is a threat to the cotton industry, automotive industry, oil industry, alcohol industry, tobacco industry, and most significantly, big pharma.

exactly and all of those industries own politicians

Originally posted by: Nathan Bedford Forrest

Originally posted by: Vaxemous
Why is the government so fucking stupid?

Do they realize that if they legalized Marijuana nationally that the national debt would probably disappear over night?

Because hemp is a threat to the cotton industry, automotive industry, oil industry, alcohol industry, tobacco industry, big pharma and most significantly, big government.

Fixed.

QFT

Originally posted by: Killet

Originally posted by: Nathan Bedford Forrest

Originally posted by: Vaxemous
Why is the government so fucking stupid?

Do they realize that if they legalized Marijuana nationally that the national debt would probably disappear over night?

Because hemp is a threat to the cotton industry, automotive industry, oil industry, alcohol industry, tobacco industry, and most significantly, big pharma.

exactly and all of those industries own politicians

I would agree with that.
_______________________________________________________________
"You get more with kind words and a gun than you do with just kind words"

Originally posted by: [-NM-] -SS-
Can NBF put the smack down on Cappie again?

NBF = 1

Cappie = 0

Best 3 out of 5.

===========================================

If you choose to take drugs, you shouldnt be allowed access to taxpayer money for any kind of support. You got yourself into that mess, you can get your ass out of it. Be responsible for your actions. Turn to family and charity for help.

Would you all say Obama flip flopped on this? Maybe I'm incorrect but I remember him stating the Fed wouldn't get involved..

Thoughts?
_______________________________________________________________
"You get more with kind words and a gun than you do with just kind words"

Originally posted by: ~~Snake~~
Would you all say Obama flip flopped on this? Maybe I'm incorrect but I remember him stating the Fed wouldn't get involved..

Thoughts?

I thought I read a few months ago he (or somebody) had directed the DEA not to make medical pot their #1 priority...or something like that.

So yeah, somebody somewhere got a wild hair up their ass and decided to turn fed attention to this again.

Personally, I think the entire War on Drugs is a total failure, and a complete waste of manpower and money. Just fucking legalize everything and tax the shit out of it.