Obama Sends Feds to Shut Down Medical Marijuana Industry in California

[Created4]

In an escalation of the ongoing conflict between the U.S. government and the nation's burgeoning medical marijuana industry, California's s four U.S. attorneys sent letters 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. The attorneys are scheduled to announce their coordinated crackdown at a Friday news conference.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44806723/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/#.To4lyZ4k6dA

"With the blink of an eye and the flick of the wrist, they can shut down medical marijuana in California," said Christopher Glew, who represents several cannabis collectives in Orange County and elsewhere in California. "The funny thing is they have the absolute right to do it and there's nothing anyone can do to stop it. By going after landowners, they can grab a bunch of land, make a bunch of money, and save face politically by saying, 'Hey, we're not going after sick patients or arresting little old ladies--we're going after rich landlords.'"

The actual decision to go after landlords appears to have been made back in February, in the form of a letter to Oakland's city attorney from the U.S. Attorney's office warning that the feds would have no problem seizing land used for pot production whether or not Oakland was issuing permits for such activity. But nobody really noticed the memo until now, when the feds actually started warning specific landowners.

"They are starting up north and working their way down south," Glew said. "I think the feds are seeing how much land, especially in northern California, is being used for marijuana growing, and realize they can start seizing these properties and turn it into federal land. And the thing with federal forfeiture is that it can take two or three years before it goes to court, but meanwhile you lose all your property."
http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2011/10/obama_administration_memo_spel.php

[Reason]

Read the full article @ http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MEDICAL_MARIJUANA




SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- 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 and confiscation of 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, at least 16 pot shops or their landlords received letters this week stating they are violating federal drug laws, even though medical marijuana is legal in California. The state's four U.S. attorneys are scheduled to announce a broader coordinated crackdown at a Friday news conference.


Their offices refused to confirm the closure orders. The Associated Press obtained copies of the letters that a prosecutor sent to at least 12 San Diego dispensaries. 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."

[JoshLowry]

ಠ_ಠ

[bluesc]

I hope all smokers, whether patients or casual, support Ron. For some reason many believe it's only the left wing that wants to end the drug war. Now this. Gary Johnson said the other day that it is a big voting block that is untapped. He's right. Get them and poker players on board.

[dannno]

I sure could go for some of those UK Cheese clones...

http://msnbcmedia2.msn.com/j/reuters/2011-04-13t230617z_01_btre73c1s6n00_rtroptp_3_marijuana.gr id-6x2.jpg

[acptulsa]

I sure could go for some of those UK Cheese clones...

What you really need is some states' rights. You ever consider providing these shops with complimentary posters which read, 'Closed due to a lack of federal respect for the will of the California populace. Will return when Ron Paul is president of the United States'?

[Dr.3D]

I hope California locks up those federal agents for violating state law.

[PierzStyx]

I hope California locks up those federal agents for violating state law.

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!! You make a funny!

[muzzled dogg]

I will try to remember to upload the drug handout tonight someone remind me

[dannno]

What you really need is some states' rights. You ever consider providing these shops with complimentary posters which read, 'Closed due to a lack of federal respect for the will of the California populace. Will return when Ron Paul is president of the United States'?

Good idea, I will make some up and hand them out to the local dispensaries. Maybe email the pdf to some out of town shops.

I don't think ours have been threatened yet, but I guess tomorrow may be a different story.

[Dr.3D]

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!! You make a funny!
I don't see what is so funny about California keeping people from violating state laws. The federal government has no authority to arrest anybody for anything that isn't against the law. It's a states rights issue.

[PierzStyx]

I personally think medical marijuana is idiotic. Pot smoke is 8x as harsh and cancer causing as cigarette smoke. Its a great way not just to give yourself cancer, but anyone else who may be in your home as well. And no not everyone, such as your children, can just get up and leave if they don't like it. And if you're using it as a painkiller for a serious disease, such as advanced cancer, smoking it is the most ineffectual way to deliver the THC to your body outside of just sitting in the middle of a pot field hoping to absorb it through the air. Far better is the THC pill, where they take the substance out of the pot and put it in a pill. Its a lot cleaner, you don't hurt yourself or those around you through pot smoke, and you can actually take specifically measured dosages for you specific level of pain. Its a lot safer drug that accomplishes the goal of medical marijuana in a much more efficient way. You could even use the elft over plant pulp for paper and other hemp products. Less waste, higher results. Its a much smarter system than smoking it.

[Tarzan]

So much for Tom Wood's nullification hypothesis.

[Created4]

And this comes just days after the IRS ruled that these dispensaries could not deduct legitimate business expenses for tax purposes:

In a potentially crushing blow to the burgeoning medical marijuana industry, the IRS has ruled that dispensaries cannot deduct standard business expenses such as payroll, security or rent. Harborside Health Center, one of the nation's largest medical marijuana dispensaries and considered a model for the industry, is on the hook for $2.5 million in taxes from 2007 and 2008. That is $2 million more than the Oakland, Calif.-based company paid for those tax years.

The IRS ruling is based on an obscure portion of the tax code -- section 280E -- passed into law by Congress in 1982, at the height of Reagan administration’s “war on drugs.” The law, originally targeted at drug kingpins and cartels, bans any tax deductions related to "trafficking in controlled substances."

“We have no complaint about the taxes we pay," DeAngelo said. "We are doing our part. All we ask is that we be treated like any other business enterprise. To treat us like criminals is simply wrong. Drug kingpins and cartels don’t file taxes. We do. But no business, including ours, can survive if it is taxed on its gross revenue. The IRS is trying to tax us out of existence.”

Some members of Congress have taken up the cause.
Reps. Pete Stark, D-Calif., Barney Frank, D-Mass., and Jared Polis, D-Colo., have introduced legislation to ensure the medical marijuana industry is treated like any other business. Two Republican presidential candidates — Ron Paul and Gary Johnson — also support the legislation.

http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/04/8153459-irs-ruling-strikes-fear-in-medical-marijuana-industry

[Dr.3D]

I personally think medical marijuana is idiotic. Pot smoke is 8x as harsh and cancer causing as cigarette smoke. Its a great way not just to give yourself cancer, but anyone else who may be in your home as well. And no not everyone, such as your children, can just get up and leave if they don't like it. And if you're using it as a painkiller for a serious disease, such as advanced cancer, smoking it is the most ineffectual way to deliver the THC to your body outside of just sitting in the middle of a pot field hoping to absorb it through the air. Far better is the THC pill, where they take the substance out of the pot and put it in a pill. Its a lot cleaner, you don't hurt yourself or those around you through pot smoke, and you can actually take specifically measured dosages for you specific level of pain. Its a lot safer drug that accomplishes the goal of medical marijuana in a much more efficient way. You could even use the elft over plant pulp for paper and other hemp products. Less waste, higher results. Its a much smarter system than smoking it.

*Bites the hook*

Well, if that's your personal opinion, just don't use it. :D

[gls]

This is not going over well in the hippie forums I read. Obama is getting attacked pretty viciously and no one is standing up to defend him. One would think people would be incensed about the never-ending occupations, the huge civil liberty and privacy invasions, and/or his administration being in bed with big banks, unions, and corporations. But it is marijuana that results in disillusionment.

You guys out west might be forced to start living like us poor saps on the East coast again, but I doubt it.

[Bruno]

I personally think medical marijuana is idiotic. Pot smoke is 8x as harsh and cancer causing as cigarette smoke. Its a great way not just to give yourself cancer, but anyone else who may be in your home as well. And no not everyone, such as your children, can just get up and leave if they don't like it. And if you're using it as a painkiller for a serious disease, such as advanced cancer, smoking it is the most ineffectual way to deliver the THC to your body outside of just sitting in the middle of a pot field hoping to absorb it through the air. Far better is the THC pill, where they take the substance out of the pot and put it in a pill. Its a lot cleaner, you don't hurt yourself or those around you through pot smoke, and you can actually take specifically measured dosages for you specific level of pain. Its a lot safer drug that accomplishes the goal of medical marijuana in a much more efficient way. You could even use the elft over plant pulp for paper and other hemp products. Less waste, higher results. Its a much smarter system than smoking it.

Please cite how many people have died of cancer, much less contracted it, from marijuana, and your source. Otherwise, stop spewing govt propaganda full of lies.

[Reason]

////

[dannno]

Pot smoke is 8x as harsh and cancer causing as cigarette smoke. Its a great way not just to give yourself cancer, but anyone else who may be in your home as well.

Actually that is completely untrue. Cannabis has never been linked to lung cancer. In fact, THC is an anti-cancer agent that has shown to shrink tumors in mice. There are plenty of studies on all of this out there. The only studies that claim cannabis causes cancer are ones that compare oil content, but increased oil content in cannabis is actually a positive thing because it means you end up smoking less plant matter for the same effect.



I personally think medical marijuana is idiotic.

Well I am a full time employed (5 years at the same job), former honors graduate student who got a 4.0 GPA and have been high on cannabis for the last 10 years of my life. It helped me get through school while simultaneously working full time. It does not deteriorate mental function, although it does change the way you think which can be confusing for some inexperienced users. This is assuming you are using clean, relatively high grade cannabis.





And if you're using it as a painkiller for a serious disease, such as advanced cancer, smoking it is the most ineffectual way to deliver the THC to your body outside of just sitting in the middle of a pot field hoping to absorb it through the air. Far better is the THC pill, where they take the substance out of the pot and put it in a pill.

The THC pills big pharma makes don't work, they actually make people more sick. There is a relatively easy process, however, whereby you can eat it in food.

However smoking or vaporizing is much more effective if you are using it BECAUSE YOU CAN'T EAT. Imagine telling somebody who can't keep down food to try and eat that pot brownie so that they can keep down food. Not really effective.

Smoking is great also because you can better titrate your dosage. Eating it is difficult because you don't know exactly how much you are getting or how much you need for it to be medicinally beneficial at the time.

[dannno]

This is not going over well in the hippie forums I read.

I hope you're telling them about Ron Paul.

Post them a quote or speech of Ron Paul saying how he believes medical cannabis helps some people and people should be free to use whatever medicine they want.

[dannno]

Cannabis not linked to lung cancer

http://www.webmd.com/lung-cancer/news/20060523/pot-smoking-not-linked-to-lung-cancer


Cannabis shrinks tumors in mice

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=marijuana-extract-fights

[dannno]

I personally have asthma, but have been off the inhaler for over 10 years thanks to smoking cannabis. It is great at relaxing the bronchials and as an expectorant will help rid your lungs of dust, pollen, smoke and pollution.

Look, it can even cure hyperinflation :D


In one study, marijuana, “caused an immediate reversal of exercise-induced asthma and hyperinflation.”

http://www.cannabismd.net/asthma/


When you smoke high grade cannabis, the amount needed is extremely small, equivalent to just a few small drags off of a single cigarette which is often enough to give hours of relief to patients and hours of enjoyment for recreational users.

This is why asthmatics can potentially use high grade cannabis as a treatment, because you actually aren't putting all that much smoke into your lungs as compared to the dust, pollen and (potentially) pollution that individuals breathe in on a day to day basis.

Ever look at how many particles are in a 5" x 5" cube when the light comes through a crack in a window in a dark room? Every time you breath, all that crap goes into your lungs. Cannabis smoke, after being cooled with a nice water filter such as a bong, is relatively harmless and not much different, imo, than doing a few minutes of solid breathing, perhaps during exercise.

[specsaregood]

In one study, marijuana, “caused an immediate reversal of exercise-induced asthma and hyperinflation.”

now we know the real reason dr. paul thinks it should be legal.

[gls]

I personally think medical marijuana is idiotic. Pot smoke is 8x as harsh and cancer causing as cigarette smoke. Its a great way not just to give yourself cancer, but anyone else who may be in your home as well. And no not everyone, such as your children, can just get up and leave if they don't like it. And if you're using it as a painkiller for a serious disease, such as advanced cancer, smoking it is the most ineffectual way to deliver the THC to your body outside of just sitting in the middle of a pot field hoping to absorb it through the air. Far better is the THC pill, where they take the substance out of the pot and put it in a pill. Its a lot cleaner, you don't hurt yourself or those around you through pot smoke, and you can actually take specifically measured dosages for you specific level of pain. Its a lot safer drug that accomplishes the goal of medical marijuana in a much more efficient way. You could even use the elft over plant pulp for paper and other hemp products. Less waste, higher results. Its a much smarter system than smoking it.

There are plenty of studies that contradict your claims, for example this one.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/25/AR2006052501729.html

Study Finds No Cancer-Marijuana Connection

The largest study of its kind has unexpectedly concluded that smoking marijuana, even regularly and heavily, does not lead to lung cancer.

The new findings "were against our expectations," said Donald Tashkin of the University of California at Los Angeles, a pulmonologist who has studied marijuana for 30 years.

"We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the association would be more positive with heavier use," he said. "What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect."

Federal health and drug enforcement officials have widely used Tashkin's previous work on marijuana to make the case that the drug is dangerous. Tashkin said that while he still believes marijuana is potentially harmful, its cancer-causing effects appear to be of less concern than previously thought.

Earlier work established that marijuana does contain cancer-causing chemicals as potentially harmful as those in tobacco, he said. However, marijuana also contains the chemical THC, which he said may kill aging cells and keep them from becoming cancerous.

Tashkin's study, funded by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute on Drug Abuse, involved 1,200 people in Los Angeles who had lung, neck or head cancer and an additional 1,040 people without cancer matched by age, sex and neighborhood.


As far as the THC pill, it doesn't really work very well. They're trying to develop it further but honestly I hope they fail because I want the medical-industrial complex (plus the cigarette companies) to stay far away from marijuana.

I don't really like to smoke pot not because I'm worried about cancer but because after a while it does hurt your throat. That is why I use a Volcano vaporizer (plus it is much more efficient). It only heats the herb up enough to release the active ingredients -- there is no smoke. It is completely safe and most of the legitimate medical patients use it.

[parocks]

Obama must want to run against Ron Paul.

[dannno]

Obama must want to run against Ron Paul.

loll...

[dannno]

bump

[Xelaetaks]

http://anonym.to/?http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MEDICAL_MARIJUANA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-10-06-16-20-34


Well if you needed more reason to vote for Ron Paul here it is. Disgusting move on Obama's part and disgusting violation of civil rights. I don't live in Cali but I would be pissed if I did. If I lived there I would be campaigning hard for Ron Paul. He is the only top tier candidate in top 3/4 places who actually gives a flying fuck about dispensary owners and medical patients in Cali. I would highly suggest we could all medical marijuana patients and workers on Ron Paul's side. No one else would stop this madness from going on.

[JoshLowry]

Dupe thread: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?321000-Obama-Sends-Feds-to-Shut-Down-Medical-Marijuana-Industry-in-California

I agree with your sentiment.

[Brett85]

http://anonym.to/?http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MEDICAL_MARIJUANA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-10-06-16-20-34


Well if you needed more reason to vote for Ron Paul here it is. Disgusting move on Obama's part and disgusting violation of civil rights. I don't live in Cali but I would be pissed if I did. If I lived there I would be campaigning hard for Ron Paul. He is the only top tier candidate in top 3/4 places who actually gives a flying duck about dispensary owners and medical patients in Cali. I would highly suggest we could all medical marijuana patients and workers on Ron Paul's side. No one else would stop this madness from going on.

+Rep.

[liberalnurse]

The IRS also took away any small business tax breaks citing that marijuana is illegal. The largest dispensary in CA states they will now owe 22 million in back federal taxes and will be forced to close. What bullshit.

[Created4]

The liberal media is really running with this. Should get Dr. Paul some good airtime.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPs1Oem0yvI

[Xelaetaks]

Thanks. Didn't see that thread before. It's disgusting what the government does though. Hopefully people will wake up. :)

[Revolution9]

I personally think medical marijuana is idiotic. Pot smoke is 8x as harsh and cancer causing as cigarette smoke. Its a great way not just to give yourself cancer, but anyone else who may be in your home as well. And no not everyone, such as your children, can just get up and leave if they don't like it. And if you're using it as a painkiller for a serious disease, such as advanced cancer, smoking it is the most ineffectual way to deliver the THC to your body outside of just sitting in the middle of a pot field hoping to absorb it through the air. Far better is the THC pill, where they take the substance out of the pot and put it in a pill. Its a lot cleaner, you don't hurt yourself or those around you through pot smoke, and you can actually take specifically measured dosages for you specific level of pain. Its a lot safer drug that accomplishes the goal of medical marijuana in a much more efficient way. You could even use the elft over plant pulp for paper and other hemp products. Less waste, higher results. Its a much smarter system than smoking it.

BS. THC causes apoptosis of cancer cells on contact. I have smoked nearly everyday for 4 decades and I bet I can beat you in a footrace or holding my breath. I can hold for 2 minutes and 45 seconds. Smoking is an excellent method for introducing only the dose you want. It takes way more when eaten to get a similar effect and it is not almost instant. THC pills do not give me the same high where I am driven to do artwork and play music or write. It gives me a weird throat coating and makes me lazy. Bottom line..keep your busybody uninformed opinions out of the quest for me to remain a non-criminal. You have no experience obviously.

Rev9

[specsaregood]

//

[speciallyblend]

I will try to remember to upload the drug handout tonight someone remind me

if anyone can print these in mass and get them to me in colorado! i will gladly put them in all shops starting in denver. I have no money to buy these things but if someone wanted to send me 1000-5000 of these i will make sure they get delivered asap.

[speciallyblend]

I personally think medical marijuana is idiotic. Pot smoke is 8x as harsh and cancer causing as cigarette smoke. Its a great way not just to give yourself cancer, but anyone else who may be in your home as well. And no not everyone, such as your children, can just get up and leave if they don't like it. And if you're using it as a painkiller for a serious disease, such as advanced cancer, smoking it is the most ineffectual way to deliver the THC to your body outside of just sitting in the middle of a pot field hoping to absorb it through the air. Far better is the THC pill, where they take the substance out of the pot and put it in a pill. Its a lot cleaner, you don't hurt yourself or those around you through pot smoke, and you can actually take specifically measured dosages for you specific level of pain. Its a lot safer drug that accomplishes the goal of medical marijuana in a much more efficient way. You could even use the elft over plant pulp for paper and other hemp products. Less waste, higher results. Its a much smarter system than smoking it.

medical marijuana is proven, my wife is living thanks to marijuana not morphine, total nonsense in the first part of your post!! gov thc pills are a joke but edibles are not!! try having 14 fused vertebrae then you might know something about medical marijuana. not one study shows you get cancer from smoking marijuana just the opposite. The real danger of marijuana is not the smoke but the law!!

[Dark_Horse_Rider]

I personally think medical marijuana is idiotic. Pot smoke is 8x as harsh and cancer causing as cigarette smoke. Its a great way not just to give yourself cancer, but anyone else who may be in your home as well. And no not everyone, such as your children, can just get up and leave if they don't like it. And if you're using it as a painkiller for a serious disease, such as advanced cancer, smoking it is the most ineffectual way to deliver the THC to your body outside of just sitting in the middle of a pot field hoping to absorb it through the air. Far better is the THC pill, where they take the substance out of the pot and put it in a pill. Its a lot cleaner, you don't hurt yourself or those around you through pot smoke, and you can actually take specifically measured dosages for you specific level of pain. Its a lot safer drug that accomplishes the goal of medical marijuana in a much more efficient way. You could even use the elft over plant pulp for paper and other hemp products. Less waste, higher results. Its a much smarter system than smoking it.

Wrong and un / mis - informed

[Dr.3D]

Wrong and un / mis - informed
Prolly attended a DARE class or two. LOL

[COpatriot]

I personally think medical marijuana is idiotic. Pot smoke is 8x as harsh and cancer causing as cigarette smoke. Its a great way not just to give yourself cancer, but anyone else who may be in your home as well. And no not everyone, such as your children, can just get up and leave if they don't like it. And if you're using it as a painkiller for a serious disease, such as advanced cancer, smoking it is the most ineffectual way to deliver the THC to your body outside of just sitting in the middle of a pot field hoping to absorb it through the air. Far better is the THC pill, where they take the substance out of the pot and put it in a pill. Its a lot cleaner, you don't hurt yourself or those around you through pot smoke, and you can actually take specifically measured dosages for you specific level of pain. Its a lot safer drug that accomplishes the goal of medical marijuana in a much more efficient way. You could even use the elft over plant pulp for paper and other hemp products. Less waste, higher results. Its a much smarter system than smoking it.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e2/ReeferMadnessPoster.jpg

[Jandrsn21]

Obama is already teetering in edge of collapse with his re-election bid. Now he takes the pot smokers in America, which I venture is double digit percentage points of our population, and attacks them! Maybe the establishment has given up on saving his image! Insert next dupe! copy paste rinse repeat!

[Fox McCloud]

If I was Governor of California, I think I would send a number of police officers to a few of the locations to guard the stores to at least send a message.

[speciallyblend]

If I was Governor of California, I think I would send a number of police officers to a few of the locations to guard the stores to at least send a message.

everyone should call the cali governor and ask them to please protect the ill medical patients and arrest the federal terrorists.

[PierzStyx]

So much for Tom Wood's nullification hypothesis.

Nullification went out in 1865, like it or not.

[PierzStyx]

If I was Governor of California, I think I would send a number of police officers to a few of the locations to guard the stores to at least send a message.

Sure if you want the state to declared in a state of rebellion and martial law imposed on the state.

[PierzStyx]

Actually that is completely untrue. Cannabis has never been linked to lung cancer. In fact, THC is an anti-cancer agent that has shown to shrink tumors in mice. There are plenty of studies on all of this out there. The only studies that claim cannabis causes cancer are ones that compare oil content, but increased oil content in cannabis is actually a positive thing because it means you end up smoking less plant matter for the same effect.




Well I am a full time employed (5 years at the same job), former honors graduate student who got a 4.0 GPA and have been high on cannabis for the last 10 years of my life. It helped me get through school while simultaneously working full time. It does not deteriorate mental function, although it does change the way you think which can be confusing for some inexperienced users. This is assuming you are using clean, relatively high grade cannabis.





The THC pills big pharma makes don't work, they actually make people more sick. There is a relatively easy process, however, whereby you can eat it in food.

However smoking or vaporizing is much more effective if you are using it BECAUSE YOU CAN'T EAT. Imagine telling somebody who can't keep down food to try and eat that pot brownie so that they can keep down food. Not really effective.

Smoking is great also because you can better titrate your dosage. Eating it is difficult because you don't know exactly how much you are getting or how much you need for it to be medicinally beneficial at the time.

I could support eating it in food. But pills are still a better way to give exact measured doses than smoking would be, or eating it for that matter. Smoking it can make you sick as well. So that isn't a reason to support it over a pill. I think the reason better pills aren't there (assuming all pills make you sick) has more to do with the drug war than anything else. The incentive isn't really there to make a higher grade product. More investment would produce better results. You make a good point about eating, but then if you literally are unable to eat, ever, then you're in severe condition in which case you're probably on a feeding tube. And that could be utilized for THC delivery.

And as for cancer causing, I've found various tests that show both its cancer causing in smoke and its cancer reducing effects. My general understanding as consensus of everything I've read is that pot smoke = cancer causing , pot oil =anti-cancer agent. This leads me to support a pill or edible oil over smoking even more so, not less.

And as for personal experience, I have a 47 yr old uncle who is an intelligent man who literally never made it out of his mother's house. He became a recreational pot smoker in the 70s and ever since its been his life. So much so that all he does is sit around, smoke pot, and watch television. He complains about having to drive my half-blind grandmother anywhere when its all he has to do around the house. He is the living embodiment of every anti-drug commercial ever. And in my experience people tend to be more like him than yourself.

[silentshout]

And as for personal experience, I have a 47 yr old uncle who is an intelligent man who literally never made it out of his mother's house. He became a recreational pot smoker in the 70s and ever since its been his life. So much so that all he does is sit around, smoke pot, and watch television. He complains about having to drive my half-blind grandmother anywhere when its all he has to do around the house. He is the living embodiment of every anti-drug commercial ever. And in my experience people tend to be more like him than yourself.

That's because most responsible, hard-working people who use cannabis, medicinally or recreationally on their time off, are in the closet, so you don't hear as much about them. They have much more to lose than someone in their mother's basement would.

[Keith and stuff]

Watch 1,000s of medical marijuana workers all over CA lose their jobs. Watch crime go up all over CA. Watch less Democrats vote all over CA. Obama is not only taking away rights, illegally interfering with state law, and hurting himself; but, he is hurting current elected Democrats and Democrats that are going to run for office all over CA in 2012.

[Keith and stuff]

everyone should call the cali governor and ask them to please protect the ill medical patients and arrest the federal terrorists.

No way I see that happening, the current Democratic governor doesn't even support medical marijuana in CA. Heck, Arnold was better on marijuana issues...

If I was one of those wild-eyed conspiracy theorists I'd make up a conspiracy about how Obama is a plant by Republicans to get Republicans elected to state and national offices all across the nation for years to come. Maybe Republicans realized that Bush hurt the GOP brand so much in the US that they only way to bring the Republicans back into power was to get Obama elected and make him look so bad, over and over again, that he hurts the Democrat brand just as much and Republicans get back power...

[cornbread]

*Bites the hook*

Well, if that's your personal opinion, just don't use it. :D aint that the damn truth,do your own thing,and let me do mine.

[cornbread]

how can the federal government tell its citizen that they are breaking the law for growing,smoking saleing marijuana,when they grow it there self,and send it to patences,its time for the people to rise up in this country,and tell the government,we are the people and we run this country,im facing up to 30 years in prison in tennessee for growing,i go to trial oct,26th,its all bullshit

[squarepusher]

of course its going to increase crime. Right now, a medical patient can goto a local shop to buy their goods. If they can't get it there, it will be black market, shady alley cash transactions, ripe for crime.

[Noob]

Probably because the drug cartels are losing money to the legal medical marijuana industry.

[gb13]

What you really need is some states' rights. You ever consider providing these shops with complimentary posters which read, 'Closed due to a lack of federal respect for the will of the California populace. Will return when Ron Paul is president of the United States'?

That's a really great idea. It might require some face-to-face education of dispensary owners. It would be wise to come equipped with some educational materials for them to read, and some links to prominent Ron Paul sites/videos. Maybe we could even get some "for liberty" DVDs to donate to that cause.

[LibForestPaul]

Probably because the drug cartels are losing money to the legal medical marijuana industry.
hmmm, cia funding in danger?

[Brian4Liberty]

From yesterday:



http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2011/1007/Showdown-in-California-over-medical-marijuana-as-feds-crack-down

Showdown in California over medical marijuana, as feds crack down

Four US Attorneys in California said Friday they are targeting growers and distributors who use California's medical marijuana law as a cover to engage in illegal drug trafficking.

By Daniel B. Wood, Staff writer / October 7, 2011
Los Angeles

Reefer wars are reigniting in California, and the US Justice Department is leading the charge.

Four US Attorneys based in California said Friday they will step up prosecution of marijuana growers and pot dispensaries suspected of drug trafficking outside the confines of the state's medical marijuana law.

Production and sale of marijuana are federal crimes, but the Obama administration said two years ago that it would not go after patients with marijuana prescriptions or dispensaries in states where marijuana is legal for medicinal use. California and 15 other states have such laws.
...
At a press conference Friday at the federal courthouse in Sacramento, four US Attorneys outlined a new enforcement effort that will take effect statewide. The three key components are:

• Pursue civil lawsuits to seize property involved in drug trafficking.

• Send warning letters to owners and lienholders of properties where illegal marijuana sales are suspected of taking place.

• Target commercial marijuana activities by filing criminal charges. In the past two weeks, such cases have been filed in US district courts in Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, and Fresno.