Feds' war on medical marijuana goes overboard
Feds' war on medical marijuana goes overboard
Monday, April 30, 2012
The Department of Justice maintains that there has been no change in the Obama administration's medical marijuana policy. President Obama recently told Rolling Stone, "I never made a commitment that somehow we were going to give carte blanche to large-scale producers and operators of marijuana - and the reason is, because it's against federal law."
Medical-marijuana dispensaries run into trouble at the bank
Medical-marijuana dispensaries run into trouble at the bank
The booming medical-marijuana industry in Washington is struggling to gain business legitimacy. Already on shaky legal footing because of the conflict between state and federal law, dispensaries are bogged down by troubles with banking and federal taxes.
Seattle Times staff reporter
Conscious Care Cooperative has a solid footing in a growing industry, with three storefronts in Seattle and a loyal customer base. But for much of the last two years, the nonprofit medical-marijuana provider has lacked one business basic: steady access to a bank.
The cooperative has bounced among five financial institutions, and four others rejected the cooperative outright, said CCC's president, Nate Chrysler. In one case, a bank closed the account without notice.
Federal agents raid Oakland's pot university
Federal agents are conducting a search of Oakland's Oaksterdam University, a training school for the study of marijuana.
Agents from the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Drug Enforcement Administration arrived with a search warrant this morning at the school variously called the Princeton of Pot and the Harvard of Hemp.
Once-budding pot school wilts
CLASSES SHRINK AMID FEDS’ DRUG CRACKDOWN
OAKLAND – For the school renowned as the Princeton of Pot and the Harvard of Hemp, the high times have wafted into a downer.
Enrollment has plummeted at Oaksterdam University, the Oakland college that since 2007 has attracted 15,000 students to study cannabis cultivation and related careers, while boosting commerce in one of America’s most pot-friendly cities.
The pilgrimage for pot scholarship in Oakland is waning as California’s four U.S. attorneys wage a crackdown on medical cannabis dispensaries. And yet, at Oaksterdam and elsewhere in the city, neither fewer students nor heightened federal scrutiny of the cannabis business seems to be killing Oakland’s vibe for promoting the possibilities of pot.
Despite the closing of hundreds of dispensaries elsewhere in California, Oakland is doubling down. It is seeking to license four new marijuana stores and attract new local pot tax revenue on top of the $1.7 million it gets from its four current dispensaries.
And Oaksterdam University – with its leafy green “CAN-NA-BIS crest mimicking Harvard’s crimson VE-RI-TAS seal – was drawing students last week from California, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Florida, Washington, Puerto Rico and even Japan.
The mere prize of an Oaksterdam diploma was enough for Aats Otoina, 33, a rice and spinach farmer from Chiba, Japan. His country imposes strict penalties for pot possession. Yet Otoina wants to use his status as an Oaksterdam grad to lecture on Japan’s cannabis traditions under the ancient Shinto religion.
LA pot shop workers join labor union
Associated Press
RX Cannabis Consumer Alert
ATTENTION CONSUMERS
Don’t sign the new pot initiative, nor the next one, nor the next one etc.!
A MASSIVE FRAUD IS ABOUT TO BE PULLED ON CALIFORNIA CONSUMERS
Consumers beware- there is a massive fraud about to be perpetuated on you – worse than the first one that created a ‘new industry’ on the hopes that the ‘old industry’s image would not tarnish the new one.
Initiative would have state regulate med pot in CA
Nannette Miranda
More: Bio, E-mail, Twitter, News Team - ABC News
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KGO) -- Should the state of California take over regulation of medical marijuana outlets and collect taxes from all of them? The voters will get a chance to decide if a new initiative gets on the ballot. Many pot shops are backing the idea as an alternative to being shut down.
Medical marijuana supporters hold weekly vigils in front of federal buildings throughout California to protest the Obama administration's recent raids on dispensaries.
They hope the president hears about them during his fundraising trip to the Golden State.
"One of the most frustrating things is that there is no rhyme or reason or any kind of formula that they're going by and who they're going after," said Courtney Sheats, a representative for Americans for Safe Access.
While California voters legalized marijuana for medical use in 1996, it remains a federal crime to sell or possess it.
Pot forces look to ballot - 2/6/12
INITIATIVE BID FOR STATE REGULATION IS NOVEMBER GOAL
By Peter Hecht phecht@sacbee.com
A proposed ballot initiative aimed for the November elections begs a key question looming over California’s medical marijuana industry: Can stricter state regulation keep the federal government from shutting it down?
Dispensaries, medical marijuana growers and a powerful union local are rallying behind an initiative that would regulate California’s $1.5 billion pot trade.
They predict they will be able to raise $2 million from medical marijuana businesses and drug policy groups to qualify the measure for the November ballot. A drive to gather a required half-million valid voter signatures could begin this week after Attorney General Kamala Harris completes a legal summary and petitions are certified by Secretary of State Debra Bo-wen.
California’s medical marijuana economy is mostly governed by local governments, often with conflicting rules. The proposed initiative, the “Medical Marijuana Regulation, Control and Taxation Act,” would largely put the state in charge.
It would establish a medical marijuana enforcement bureau in the Department of Consumer Affairs. A commission – with major- ity representation from the medical cannabis community – would oversee the enforcement bureau, license dispensaries and marijuana cultivators, and set standards for the pot trade.
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