Calif. pot dispensaries told by feds to shut down

[Rukind]

That's basically what we have with representative government. Even though we consider national lawmakers as federal, state voters decide who's elected.

Also the government is important for any basic human rights and the constitution.

States do play roles in those decisions. The fact they act in concert is indicative of problems associated with no arbitrating authority.

The commerce clause is where most 'states rights' debates focus. But 'states rights' has a ceiling and we found out the hard way.

I think the state voters should decide who is elected on the federal level to enforce federal laws. I also think the states should be the ones voting on federal issues. not just 1 lawmaker who the states voted for. There is no single person out there that has all the answers. thats why the state voters should also vote on federal issues.

At least in my opinion. i am trying to see things your way, I really am. I see competition as a good thing. It mocks natural selection. Since everything corrupts, why not spread it out and allow for more variables of change?

The way things are now, the folks on the hill are the ones calling the shots. they have a huge influence on politics that effect all of our lives and these people cannot relate to most of us. except for a few, they dont really care. we are the ones being effected. not them so much, because they make and break the laws. All the other people, all over the country, need to have a say so in all this too.

Since none of us is really able to be involved in the way things work, most of us are stupid and brain dead. We deal with all the bullshit that comes from the top and since we cant do anything about it, most people dont care to know. since it is no use anyways. I hate to say that we are like sheep. people use that too often, but we relate. what can we do about it, though? It isn't like we have much of a choice. that is the problem.


What did we "find out the hard way" with states rights?

 

[Dr. Purpur]

Also the government is important for any basic human rights and the constitution.

Important for the Constitution? The Federal Government?
Forget the bad apple Scenereo. That was long ago. The whole barrel is rotten now

 

[Headbandf1]

So the Answer is to put dispensaries on Indian reservations in California as they're exempt from Federal law and jurisdiction.


Gambling and medicine, and a lock on it

 

[IE2KS_KUSH]

The federal gov will go onto Indian land to enforce the CSA. They have MANY times when tribes were getting hemp from Canada. Nevermind real weed.

 

[greenmatter]

So the Answer is to put dispensaries on Indian reservations in California as they're exempt from Federal law and jurisdiction.


Gambling and medicine, and a lock on it

great idea!!!!!!!!! ......... but i think the dispensary owners on the reservation would all have cells next to leonard peltier very quickly

 

[Hydrosun]

Then who checks the power of said corporations? I agree that regulation in certain areas should be curtailed. I also stated that we need to remove corporate/purchased influence from government, so not sure how thats backward. My point was that under Ron Paul's ideals EVERYTHING would be privatized (privatized is code for corporate-run FYI), which would be disastrous for this country. People get wrapped up in this ideal of having the government out of our daily lives, which in some circumstances is appropriate, but the reality is that there are aspects of our culture which require that we as a nation work together.

The consumer checks the power of corporations, it is only when the government is allowed to interfere and bestow special status on some corporations (wall street banks come to mind) that the individual is relegated to surf / slave status.

Privatized is code for NOT done by the fucking government. Most services should be ELIMINATED and government should be shrunk to the size it was during "Little House on the Prairie" time period.

Fuck OUR culture, that is code for things you think are fucking right and will use force to tax or cage me in order that "Our Culture" goes your way.

The only thing I want to work together on is EQUAL FREEDOM for ALL HUMANS. Any side projects of passing safety nets to save some, and special programs to help others deserve to burn on the ash heap of history with all other immoral schemes run by special men in the name of OUR CULTURE.

 

[Hydrosun]

Been there and done that, was called the 'guilded age'.

Right the Golden age. How much murder and violent crime was occurring before the FBI and DEA even existed? Way less than today when we have a 15 TRILLION debt amassed from keeping the sheeple "Safe" and the politicians "Rich."

 

[Hydrosun]

Are you familiar with Alan Greenspan? He's the lifelong free marketeer who painfully confessed before congressional committee that free markets don't govern good business practices.

There are many areas and aspects that don't require regulation. But honesty, morality and ethics aren't universally inherent. It goes against the tenants of law and order to assume we don't need it.

I've asked you many times to quit misrepresenting Alan Greenspan as a "Free Marketeer"

He should be judged by his actions and not the double speak with is required from government elites who benefit from the current system.

Your argument is because ethics are NOT universal, we should vest special men with powers to set ethical guidelines that apply to only others, while they alone have the power of the monetary printing press.

God damn where is my copy of 1984?

 

[Midnight]

Federal prosecutors rattle California's medical marijuana industry

Federal prosecutors rattle California's medical marijuana industry

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/10/14/3979692/federal-prosecutors-rattle-californias.html

Published: Friday, Oct. 14, 2011 - 12:00 am | Page 1A
Venture capitalist Steve Berg figured he had an unassailable business model.

Berg's San Francisco firm, the ArcView Group, was pledging to find "angel investors" for startups offering products and services for California's $1.5 billion medical marijuana industry.

But last week, U.S. prosecutors in California announced criminal prosecutions against targeted marijuana dispensaries and threatened landlords with property seizures.

Suddenly, the state's burgeoning medical marijuana sector is dealing with fear and introspection. Industry advocates are calling for increased state regulation, thinking that could weed out bad actors in the trade – and ward off the feds.

The government's action has left politicians, medical marijuana businesses and would-be investors weighing the risks of operating in the industry.

Berg, whose firm is looking to fund companies that provide legal services, sales software, marijuana vaporizers and other items for dispensaries, was a panelist last weekend at a previously scheduled San Francisco forum on "jobs in the legal cannabis industry."

The mood at the event was unexpectedly dour. The day before, California's four U.S. attorneys declared that the state's medical marijuana law had been "hijacked by profiteers" and trumpeted charges against dispensaries and speculators allegedly raking in cash from purportedly nonprofit marijuana stores.

"Is this scaring the (expletive) out of investors?" Berg asked. "The answer is it's not making it any easier."

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, said the federal actions are a signal that California lawmakers must enact state regulations "to provide clear lines" for legal medical marijuana distribution.

He pointed to Colorado, America's second-largest medicinal pot market. Colorado has avoided federal raids while sanctioning for-profit marijuana stores and commercial cultivation with strict oversight, including mandatory video surveillance and state licensing of all marijuana workers.

"What is happening in Colorado is something we should emulate here," said Ammiano, adding that he would like to see a regulatory program but not necessarily for-profit operations.

But Sam Kamin, a University of Denver law professor who studies marijuana policy, said the federal crackdown in California is shaking the foundations of the medical marijuana economy everywhere, including Colorado.

"The bottom can fall out at any time," Kamin said. "If the federal government decides right now it's the end, it's over tomorrow."

IRS is a player

Along with federal enforcement actions, the outcome of legal battles over Internal Revenue Service rules for marijuana stores could be a major factor in their survival.
Oakland's Harborside Health Center is girding for a December court fight over an IRS demand for $2.4 million in penalties. Center director Steve DeAngelo said the government, citing federal drug-trafficking laws, is prohibiting the dispensary from claiming routine business tax deductions, such as salaries for Harborside's 100 employees.

"The legal medical marijuana industry has created tens of thousands of jobs," said DeAngelo, who boasts that Harborside paid $1.1 million in taxes to Oakland and $2 million to California last year. "And the Obama administration wants to shut that down? Talk about a job killer. Talk about a tax killer."

DeAngelo said he is telling "traumatized" medical marijuana users that Harborside will stay in business despite the federal threats.

The government says it isn't targeting medical use. Criminal cases to date include a North Hollywood dispensary accused of shipping up to 600 pounds of marijuana a month to the East Coast and a Los Angeles attorney accused of reaping millions of dollars organizing cultivation networks for marijuana stores.

"They went after drug dealers," said Lanette Davies, whose family operates the Canna Care dispensary in Sacramento. "I think their intention is to stop the abuses in the system."

Davies blames some dispensaries' marketing campaigns featuring women "with marijuana leaves over their breasts" for fueling federal authorities' contention that the industry serves recreational users, not people with serious medical needs.

Looming fight or hot air?

The irony of the current crackdown is that a 2009 U.S. Justice Department memo, by Deputy Attorney General David Ogden, is widely credited with spurring the explosion of medical marijuana businesses in California.
That memo said the government would target drug traffickers, not individuals who are "in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana."

But a new memo this summer by Deputy Attorney General James Cole asserted the government would enforce U.S. drug laws in the face of a boom "in the scope of commercial cultivation, sale distribution and use of marijuana for purported medical purposes."

"It was never the (Justice) department's policy to have a hands-off policy toward marijuana stores," Sacramento U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner said Thursday on Capital Public Radio. He said pot stores surged in California in a "virtually unregulated free-for-all."

U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy in San Diego said she may target TV and radio stations and print publications that run medical marijuana ads.

But the man who led the drive for California's 1996 medical marijuana law scoffed at the notion that the government could shutter the state's teeming medical marijuana trade.

"It's a lot of hot air," said Dennis Peron, who years ago battled authorities over his pioneering San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club. "There's no way they're going to do 2,000 jury trials" for marijuana stores.

Dan Rush, director of the "medical cannabis and hemp division" for the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, said he will push for a ballot initiative to legalize a for-profit medical marijuana industry in California. Despite federal enforcement threats, his union continues to organize pot workers in the state.

George Mull, a Sacramento attorney who heads the California Cannabis Association, said he hopes lawmakers will put a ballot measure before voters to create state oversight for a "well-regulated" marijuana industry so federal authorities "would be less likely to use their enforcement powers."

But state Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, said lawmakers in California's capital and in Congress have little appetite for dealing with medical marijuana and conflicts between state and federal law.

"My experience is that the Legislature is very tepid about engaging in this subject," said Leno. "And as tepid as Sacramento is, Washington is just fearful of it."



Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/10/14/3979692/federal-prosecutors-rattle-californias.html#ixzz1am1GAgtP

 

[Midnight]

Permits for Sacramento pot dispensaries on hold

Permits for Sacramento pot dispensaries on hold

http://www.news10.net/news/article/158865/2/Permits-for-Sacramento-pot-dispensaries-on-hold

SACRAMENTO, CA - Sacramento pot dispensaries will remain in a state of limbo a while longer.

The Sacramento City Planning Commission was scheduled to consider granting special use permits to six of the 39 marijuana dispensaries in the city. All Sacramento city dispensaries are supposed to go through this process as part of a new city ordinance.

The commission removed the permit issue from the agenda blaming the uncertainty created by the federal crackdown. The planning commission needs more time to figure out what criteria to use to approve those permits.

RELATED STORY: 16 Sacramento pot shop landlords put on notice

Meanwhile, at least one dispensary said they're okay with the delay.

The owner of the Green Door dispensary in Midtown, Sacramento said she's worried about the federal crackdown, but is hopeful things will be resolved in favor of the businesses.

"I am very concerned. I think everybody should be concerned," Green Door Sarah Stanley said. "Today, was a motion to continue which we fully agree with. There's a lot of new information out there. As we go forward as a city, we want to make sure that we do things as appropriately and correctly so that what we have accomplished continues in the future. I expect to be back here in two months."

Attorney George Mull, president of the California Cannabis Association, said the ordinance process has three phases.

"In 2009, the city put a moratorium in place and there were 39 dispensaries at that point," Attorney George Mull said. "Those are the only ones that now, under the new permanent city ordinance, are allowed to apply for a permit. It's a three phase process. We're in the second phase."

Last year, Sacramento City Council passed an ordinance to tax city dispensaries 4 percent. According to Mull, that's expected to generate nearly $2 million for city coffers.

Mull and dispensary owners believe that's a big loss for Sacramento if those businesses are forced to shut down.

 

[Midnight]

16 Sacramento pot shop landlords put on notice

16 Sacramento pot shop landlords put on notice

http://www.news10.net/news/article/158828/2/16-Sacramento-pot-shop-landlords-put-on-notice

SACRAMENTO, CA - Federal prosecutors are warning 16 Sacramento-area landlords they could lose their buildings for renting to marijuana dispensaries.

United States Attorney Ben Wagner is following through on a threat formally announced at a news conference last Friday, and confirmed the number of landlord letters in an interview Thursday on Capital Public Radio.

Wagner previously said scores of warnings would be mailed to property owners in seven counties in the federal Eastern District, which includes Sacramento.

The U.S. Attorney's office declined to name the 16 Sacramento-area property owners, but sources identified two of them as El Camino Wellness and One Love Wellness.

Property records show the building housing El Camino Wellness at 2511 Connie Drive is owned by Dung Kim Creedon. Creedon did not return a phone call.

One Love Wellness at 1841 El Camino Avenue is located in a former car dealership owned by Lynell Ross of Auburn, who also did not return a phone call.

Landlord letters sent to a property owners in the federal Northern District, which includes San Francisco, give landlords 45 days to evict marijuana dispensaries.

Max Del Real, a lobbyist for marijuana dispensaries, said the Sacramento-area letters do not specify a deadline.

 

[megayields]

The federal gov will go onto Indian land to enforce the CSA. They have MANY times when tribes were getting hemp from Canada. Nevermind real weed.

yep....very true....their was some investors I was talking too who were going to do the same thing on a LARGE scale about 1/2 a year ago until our research showed this situation did NOT provide any legal protection from federal law.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

I think the state voters should decide who is elected on the federal level to enforce federal laws. I also think the states should be the ones voting on federal issues. not just 1 lawmaker who the states voted for.

States have reps for every district. 435 in the House, not to mention 100 Senators.

There is no single person out there that has all the answers. thats why the state voters should also vote on federal issues.

That's why we have three branches of government. It's why we have multiple supreme court justices.

Goggle unfunded voter initiates. If the nation is a reflection of election results, states-rights fans are outnumbered. It's pretty apparent a plurality of Americans are fine with interpretation of the commerce clause.

At least in my opinion. i am trying to see things your way, I really am. I see competition as a good thing. It mocks natural selection. Since everything corrupts, why not spread it out and allow for more variables of change?

I respect differing opinions. IMO, regulations only limit the freedom to rip us off, pollute our environment, foster unsafe working conditions and other aspects that threaten long-term stability, safety and environmental protection.

Regulation doesn't limit competition. Anti-trust tactics and monopolies that either takeover competitors in hostile fashion (or maneuver competitors into bankruptcy) limits competition.

The way things are now, the folks on the hill are the ones calling the shots. they have a huge influence on politics that effect all of our lives and these people cannot relate to most of us. except for a few, they dont really care. we are the ones being effected. not them so much, because they make and break the laws.

I could make the same point with corrupt corporations.

All the other people, all over the country, need to have a say so in all this too.

Hello OWS.

Since none of us is really able to be involved in the way things work, most of us are stupid and brain dead. We deal with all the bullshit that comes from the top and since we cant do anything about it, most people dont care to know. since it is no use anyways. I hate to say that we are like sheep. people use that too often, but we relate. what can we do about it, though? It isn't like we have much of a choice. that is the problem.

IMO, you're doing the right thing. You exercise your right to vote. You contact your representatives when things aren't working right and you vote your conscience instead of straight party. Unless of course straight-party best represents your interests.

What did we "find out the hard way" with states rights?

There's whole books on the subject. If you're interested, google Articles of Confederation +consequences. You can also use other pejoratives and get more hits.

You make great points, Rukind. If I disagree it's not an indication that I'm right and you're not. IMO, we need differences of opinion. IMO, we also need compromise. If you and I were lawmakers I couldn't expect to filibuster your every move and still accomplish tasks. IMO, compromise isn't mere virtue it's necessary.

IMO, no compromise is what's wrong with DC. That and the corrupting influence of corporate cash.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Important for the Constitution? The Federal Government?
Forget the bad apple Scenereo. That was long ago. The whole barrel is rotten now

You may be right, Dr. IMO, too much corporate cash is the first bad apple.

 

[SeaMaiden]

My federal representative is Dan Lungren, and he keeps getting voted back in.

My own method is to consistently vote out incumbents (Oh, hello Rep Paul, your son is crazy). But that is the very least a voter can do, the very least. Keep 'em on their toes!

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Right the Golden age. How much murder and violent crime was occurring before the FBI and DEA even existed? Way less than today when we have a 15 TRILLION debt amassed from keeping the sheeple "Safe" and the politicians "Rich."

Would be nice if I knew how to spell. I should have referenced 'gilded age' (thanks Rukind).

I might offer statistics if I had them at the ready. Absent that, I won't substitute ideology.

Now I'm no fan of DEA. I understand that hard drugs can ruin lives and communities. I can see why Nixon streamlined multiple agencies into one. I just don't like the way it translates to weed.

Aren't we closer to $16 trillion? Sorry, I happen to believe that supply side economics has a great deal to do with our debt. Aside from the fact that middle-class incomes peaked in 1973, we're learning more and more how corporations corrupt the legislative process.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

I've asked you many times to quit misrepresenting Alan Greenspan as a "Free Marketeer"

Was a free marketeer. Ever read a book about Greenspan's conflict of interest when he took over the fed? No? That's due in part to the rhetoric that suggested a free marketeer would meddle less than regulators. No better proof than him keeping interest rates near zero while loans were flying off the shelves in record amounts.

He should be judged by his actions and not the double speak with is required from government elites who benefit from the current system.

He was, is and will be judged by his actions. Some folks look at the ramifications (like economic statistics) and others are fine with the ideology. Some get tangled in the ideology and can't or won't look at the ramifications. Alan's idea of free markets didn't work when you look at the folks who institutionalized mortgage fraud. IMO, yours wouldn't work any better.

Your argument is because ethics are NOT universal, we should vest special men with powers to set ethical guidelines that apply to only others, while they alone have the power of the monetary printing press.

My argument is mine, not some morphing of yours. We have special crooks that rip us off. The idea a cloud will mitigate our ills is baloney.

God damn where is my copy of 1984?

If you have to go to the library it's listed under 'fiction'.

 

[McDank8O5]

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/articl...?Title=Feds-raid-medical-pot-co-op-near-Ukiah

the fact that raids have already started, just a week after the '45 day' notice. should speak volumes of the Feds intentions

 

[cobcoop]

If you have to go to the library it's listed under 'fiction'.

And libraries are publicly funded institutions... Oh the horror!

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

shit... outta rep.

good one cobcoop.