Politics The Shake: America’s Most Famous Dispensary Wins Fight Against Feds Ben Adlin May 3, 2016 Share Twitter Facebook Share Print

Harborside Health Center beats back the feds. One of the country’s most famous cannabis establishments has won the dismissal of a federal enforcement action that would’ve shuttered the shop and seized buildings that house dispensaries in Oakland and San Jose. The historic victory was the product of unprecedented cooperation between the dispensary and Oakland city officials, who stood together against U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag’s forfeiture actions. The federal government has just agreed to dismiss the case, according to a press release, bringing to an end nearly four years of legal wrangling.

So your adorable little pet ate an edible. Here’s what to do, according to Foodbeast. (TL;DR: Go to the vet, tell the truth, don’t let it happen again.)

Hey, other states: Colorado’s governor has come around on cannabis. Gov. John Hickenlooper opposed the state’s adult-use legalization measure in 2012. But thanks to administrators’ “excellent job” of creating a safe, legal framework (and thanks to hundreds of millions of dollars in new tax revenue), he’s changed his tune.

More on cannabis and the NFL. “Athletes are embracing the medicinal and financial benefits of marijuana,” says the International Business Times, “so why can’t the league play nice?”

Stop calling synthetic cannabis “synthetic cannabis.” It’s not related to cannabis at all, and it’s a terrible association. U.K. prisons are overrun with the stuff, which corrections officers say has led to deaths, serious illness, and self-harm in both male and female blocks. Twenty quid says the corrections officers would rather the prisoners use real cannabis.

Cannabis arrests in New Jersey are at an all-time high. They also make up more than half of all drug enforcement policing, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

A news outlet did a story on “black cannabis entrepreneurs.” Sadly, it could only come up with five — and one was Snoop Dogg.

Here’s one thing we learned from UNGASS. That big U.N. summit about the global drug war? It didn’t lead to the reforms cannabis advocates had hoped for, but Vice says it underscored an important point: “America has basically resigned as the world’s lead narcotics cops.”

Colorado lawmakers took aim at pesticides, but they missed. A failed bill would have treated cannabis grown with unapproved pesticides as a threat to public safety and required its destruction, the Denver Post reports. The measure died in the House over concerns about the government destroying personal property.

Cannabis in Colorado schools, though? That’ll go forward. The Legislature approved a bill that would make Colorado the second state to require schools to accommodate medical cannabis use by students. The bill would require cannabis be in non-smokeable form, the Associated Press reports, and it would need to be administered by a parent or adult caregiver. It awaits Gov. John Hickenlooper’s signature.

California is finally fixing its patchy, inconsistent MMJ system. And as the Orange County Register reports, the process can be a bureaucratic headache.

Here’s today’s reminder that medical cannabis is a real thing. Meet an Iowa family working to change Iowa’s cannabis oil law. Sally and Steve Gaer say they’re forced to break the law to obtain cannabis oil — so far the only medicine to successfully treat their daughter’s epilepsy.

And finally, from the Tabloid Desk: Franklin Graham, Christian evangelist and son of Billy Graham, railed against cannabis on Facebook this weekend. As support, he posted a link to an anti-cannabis page. The catch? It was written by Scientology’s Foundation for a Drug-Free World. Sweet Xenu, that's a lot of propaganda. Somebody get me a free stress test.

Image Source: Harborside Health Center via Facebook

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Ben Adlin Ben Adlin is a Seattle-based writer and editor who specializes in cannabis politics and law. He was a news editor for Leafly from 2015-2019. Follow him on Twitter: @badlin View Ben Adlin's articles