Feds order California pot dispensaries to shut down - despite being legal under state laws



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.

They also threatened to confiscate 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, California's four U.S. attorneys sent letters on Wednesday and Thursday notifying at least 16 pot shops or their landlords that they are violating federal drug laws, even though medical marijuana is legal in California.



Shut down? A worker at a San Francisco medical marijuana dispensary weighs out an amount of cannabis for a patient

The attorneys are scheduled to announce their coordinated crackdown at a Friday news conference. Their offices refused to confirm the closure orders.



HARBOURSIDE Harborside, which recently celebrated its fifth anniversary, serves 94,000 patients with 84 full-time employees and brings in about $22 million in annual revenue.

According to DeAngelo, the centre, set up as a not-for-profit business, pays about $1.1 million in taxes to the city of Oakland, $2 million to the state of California and $500,000 to the federal government.



Copies of the letters that a prosecutor sent to 12 San Diego dispensaries were obtained.



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,' letters signed by U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy in San Diego read.



'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 following a two-year period during which 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.

Tim Blakeley, manager of Sunset Junction medical marijuana dispensary, shows marijuana plant buds in Los Angeles, California

The effort to shutter California dispensaries appears to be the most far-reaching effort so far to put that guidance into action

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 appears to be the most far-reaching effort so far to put that guidance into action.

San Diego alone has 150 dispensaries.



STATE LAW

Under state law, the California Compassionate Use Act of 1996 patients and their 'primary caregivers' are protected from criminal prosecution under state law for personal possession and cultivation of marijuana, but NOT for distribution or sale to others.

FEDERAL LAW

Possession, sale, distribution and transportation of marijuana, medical or otherwise, remain completely illegal under federal law.

Under the U.S. Controlled Substances Act (CSA), marijuana is currently classified as a Schedule I drug, meaning that it has no accepted medical use.



'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,' Kevin Sabet, a former adviser to the president's drug czar who is 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 a Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana, said the 14-year-old dispensary's landlord received an 'extremely threatening' letter on 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 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.