Feds Order CA Medical Marijuana Dispensaries to Shut Down Within 45 Days
Filed Under: Health Issues on October 12, 2011
It appears the Federal government has no intention of slowing down in its prosecution of medical marijuana. After the IRS’s recent announcement that Oakland’s Harborside Health Center owed over $2.5 million in back taxes, the federal government has now decided to step things up a notch and are now warning California medical marijuana dispensaries they must shut down within 45 days or face criminal prosecution and having their property confiscated.
The California’s four U.S. attorneys sent letters Wednesday and Thursday notifying at least 16 medical marijuana dispensaries or their landlords that they are violating federal drug laws, even though medical marijuana is legal in California. The attorneys are to announce their coordinated crackdown at a Friday news conference.
The Associated Press obtained copies of the letters that a prosecutor sent to 12 of San Diego’s dispensaries. They state that federal law “takes precedence over state law and applies regardless of the particular uses for which a dispensary is selling pot.
This latest move signals that the federal government is tightening it’s stance against medical marijuana and reversing earlier promises to not prosecute medical marijuana businesses following state law. This latest action, along with the schizophrenic and confused statements about medical marijuana made by various federal agencies recently, indicates the federal government is no closer to creating a coherent medical marijuana policy now than it was when California’s 215 law was first passed, and will likely contribute to continued friction between medical patients, the state of California, and the federal government.
This latest announcement also begs the question – why, at a time when wars and economic hardship continue to consume our government and it’s citizens, is the federal government wasting time, energy, and money chasing after medical marijuana users?
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