Kush Magazine

MESSAGE TO THE WHITE HOUSE
MONDAY, 17 OCTOBER 2011 16:17

Message to the White House:
Go after real criminals, not law abiding tax paying patients!
By Robert E. Selan, CEO Kush Magazine
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Federal prosecutors from all four California judicial districts got together on October 7th in Sacramento for a press conference on marijuana. Their speeches, although predictable, were not about medical cannabis patients or medical cannabis collectives per se since all cannabis is federally illegal.

Although their hot buttons appear to be large commercial growing operations, money laundering, and tax evasion cases, there was no denial that they had started a letter writing campaign, with the first batch of letters primarily going out to collective directors, and some of their landlords whose store fronts were in close proximity to schools, threatening them with the possibility of property forfeiture and criminal penalties for violating federal law.

This is a letter writing PR blitz so far, and no one receiving a letter has yet faced criminal or civil repercussions, but some landlords have panicked sending eviction notices to their tenants. The fed quad made no qualms that the federal government and each of their respective offices did not have nearly enough resources or where-with-all to enforce or prosecute the magnitude of issues they threatened. According to Benjamin B. Wagner, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of California, no new prosecutors or investigators have been hired for these efforts, nor were any being transferred from other cases to handle additional workloads that could be created by these announcements. "Our intention is not to prosecute everybody in the state," said Wagner, "Our intention is to get people's attention in order to deter this activity."

Despite the previous Department of Justice memo back in May 2009 stating that targeting medical marijuana is an inefficient use of their time and resources, the four California-based U.S. Attorneys and their staffs gathered in front of the State Capitol in Sacramento to announce their “aggressive new crackdown on medical marijuana operations throughout the state” -- this one aimed at the landlords who own buildings in which dispensaries operate. The results of this press conference worked. Fear has spread virally throughout the industry sending shock waves and causing wide spread panic about whether these threats are real. Patients are scratching their heads, why now?

Questions flourished about whether this is just another situation like what occurred in Los Angeles in 2008 and 2009, when the Drug Enforcement Agency sent letters to landlords threatening to take their buildings if they didn’t immediately evict their medical marijuana tenants. This prior DEA action was taken before the first Obama policy announcement in May 2009 that medical cannabis would not be a federal priority or a good use of federal resources when state laws allowing medical cannabis were being followed. So who’s driving the bus? It is evident that the DOJ and the Obama Administration need to reign in their own out of control employees.



Sources in the know including Steph Sherer, the Founder and Executive Director of Americans for Safe Access opined that it is likely that this press conference was done without the knowledge or consent of Attorney General Eric Holder, or President Obama. Sherer stated “normally when the feds have a press conference (of this magnitude and importance) where California laws are being challenged, the Governor and State Attorney General would get a heads up. There was no heads up given”


While the relevance is not clear, the prosecutors claimed that many of the targeted medical cannabis businesses were not in compliance with California medical cannabis laws suggesting that they were not collectively cultivating with their medical cannabis patients, and concluding they were operating for a profit which is prohibited under Prop. 215.

This all comes at a time when cities throughout the state have forged ahead with implementing or drafting zoning and safety ordinances intended to regulate and police the industry with local resources. In the absence of regulated and licensed dispensaries, however, many patients will likely be forced to obtain medical marijuana from street dealers and gangs, which will undoubtedly create additional law enforcement and public safety problems for cities and counties throughout California. Additionally cash starved cities and counties will lose the abilities to tax and regulate medical cannabis, losing millions of dollars in tax revenues that would otherwise be available.

What about all of the landlords, and their buildings, that but for medical cannabis tenants will have empty buildings further deteriorating our real estate market and local economies? And what about the loss of over 10,000 direct medical cannabis jobs, compounded by tens of thousands of additional lost jobs that will be a trickle down from the thousands of ancillary businesses that service and provide products to the medical cannabis industry and patients. Did anyone think this through before opening their mouths?

Examples were given by the prosecutors portraying California collectives as cash cows owned by greedy millionaires who own planes, yachts, homes and even hotels. They went on to claim that many if not all involved with the multi-billion dollar medical cannabis industry were just drug dealers, selling pot to anyone who had a note from their doctor. Patients who visit their local collective know that in most cases this is simply not true. A collective director who requested to remain anonymous told us that she is a mother with 3 children and a fourth on the way. She works at the collective and her and her partner are barely able to make ends meet. They got into the medical cannabis business out of family medical need, and it is not about money, and certainly not about driving an expensive car.

What the Federal prosecutors do not realize, and was conspicuous by its absence is that patients with doctor recommendations utilize medical cannabis as an effective treatment for their physical illnesses and do so in accordance with privacy and protection afforded to patients under the Hippocratic Oath. Why do these U.S. Attorneys think they are now going to get between the coveted doctor and patient relationship? Are they now going to decide how doctors diagnose and treat their patients?

While they briefly mentioned that they were not targeting seriously ill patients, they did in the same breath promise to crack down on every channel of distribution, effectively denying all patients’ legal access to their medicine. According to Dan Rush, the National Director of the Medical Cannabis and Hemp Division United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (“ UFCW”), “this type of concerted and concurrent effort by rogue prosecutors will remove the transparency of the commercialized dispensary and move the industry back to the streets. The only way to legitimize this industry is to properly regulate it, not to shut it down”.
Rush along with members of ASA, NORML, MPP, PCA and other cannabis activist groups and trade associations are launching a united front to join together once and for all and stand up to federal interference with medical cannabis patients and workers in the industry. A press release is being drafted to announce the unified plan and efforts.
Also swept under the rug was any mention about the documented evidence which the federal government has received or established through its own research that marijuana has proven medical benefits. The feds refusal to reclassify the plant to a lower schedule under the Controlled Substance Act is a cover up to maintain draconian government practices of prohibition at any cost. The press conference is further evidence of this federal conspiracy.

Although there may be some criminals who are attempting to disguise their illegal activities by manipulating state medical cannabis laws, to treat all collectives, and their patients as criminals without any evidence or due process is simply outrageous and unconstitutional. The feds focus should be on just that, getting rid of the criminals, and not going after collectives and cultivators attempting to meet the needs of their medical cannabis patients.

The U.S. attorneys announcement comes on the heal of recent news about the ATF retroactively denying medical cannabis patients the right to possess fire arms an inalienable right afforded by the 2nd Amendment to the United States Constitution, and the IRS disallowance of normal business deductions to collectives, because they classify them as drug traffickers, under a internal revenue code section designed to go after organized gangsters like Al Capone.

I’m sorry but what country are we living in? Isn’t this the land of the free? To watch our economy hit rock bottom, have California unemployment rates over 12%, see people in droves protesting on the streets through the Occupy efforts nationwide, and then have to deal with federal bullsh*it on whether marijuana has any medical benefit is appalling! Attempting to shut down the industry by scare tactics statewide is absolutely unconscionable.

This is no time for the feds to be muscle flexing on a failed drug act put into play by a president that would have been impeached if he hadn’t resigned. Where are the constitutional lawyers when we need them? Hasn’t anyone who works for the federal government heard of States Rights? Or do they just not give a damn about their constituents? Perhaps President Obama does have way too much on his plate to deal with a menial medical marijuana issue. Or maybe his advisors are failing to tell him that ignoring medical marijuana will cost him his base of 35 and under voters.

Here are some basic facts from California NORML about the multifaceted federal attacks on California medical cannabis patients and their providers:

"The federal government has no business dictating local zoning issues," says California NORML Director Dale Gieringer. "This is government over-regulation run amok."
• The IRS has assessed crippling penalties on tax-paying dispensaries by denying standard expense deductions.
• The Department of Treasury has browbeaten banks into closing accounts of medical marijuana collectives.
• The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms has warned firearms dealers not to sell guns to medical marijuana users.
• The DEA has blocked a 9-year old petition to reschedule marijuana for medical use, ignoring extensive scientific evidence of its medical efficacy.
• NIDA has blocked proposed research on medical marijuana to treat post-traumatic stress disorder.

California NORML estimates that the state’s medical marijuana industry generates $1.5 - $4.5 billion in business, over $100 million in taxes, and tens of thousands of jobs in the state. This is a wide range because the industry continues to spin backwards after press conferences and letter writing campaigns like what is going on now.

"With the federal budget on empty, the economy in disarray, our prisons overflowing, Aggressive tactics like these are a completely inappropriate use of prosecutorial discretion by the Obama Administration," said Joe Elford, Chief Counsel with ASA. "President Obama must answer for his contradictory policy on medical marijuana." On the campaign trail and in the White House, President Obama pledged that he was "not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state [medical marijuana] laws."

"How can the Obama administration say that it's fine for sick people to use this proven medicine, and yet tell them they can’t have any legal place to get it?” asked Rob Kampia, Executive Director of the Marijuana Policy Project. “Medical marijuana isn't going away. Over 70 percent of Americans support making medical marijuana legal, and 16 states (plus the District of Columbia) allow it.” Kampia continued, “The end result of the federal government's policy is to ensure that medical marijuana is sold illegally in most parts of the country, as well as to create needless suffering for patients who can't find a place to buy medical marijuana."

So here is the message to the White House: Mr. President – DON’T BE TOO CONFIDENT THAT YOUR VOTERS THAT YOU ARE IGNORING WILL STILL WANT YOU TO BE THEIR LEADER. MEDICAL MARIJUANA IS CRITICALLY IMPORTANT TO AT LEAST A MILLION VOTERS IN CALIFORNIA ALONE. THE UFCW HAS OVER 3 MILLION WORKERS MANY OF WHICH HAVE JOBS BECAUSE OF THE MEDICAL CANNABIS INDUSTRY. PLEASE DON’T LET THEM DOWN IF YOU WANT THEIR SUPPORT. PLEASE LET THE STATES REGULATE AND TAX MEDICAL CANNABIS. IT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO!

Supporters are urged to call President Obama to immediately act and announce that the federal government will respect state marijuana laws – White House Hotline: 202 -456-1111.
You can also sign the Petition at: http://www.kushmagazine.com/component/content/article/36-marijuana-activism-news/1752-stop-the-feds-sign-the-petition

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Bob Selan is the CEO of Kush Magazine and www.kushmagazine.com and is an advisor and attorney for the medical cannabis industry.