Sunday, July 03, 2011
The Obama administration made it clear this week with a memo to federal prosecutors that Washington is not going to allow large-scale cultivation of medical marijuana by local governments.
With the growing acceptance of medical marijuana dispensaries, some cities and towns in California began shifting toward the idea of having indoor “pot farms” within their jurisdictions as a means to increase the local tax base. Oakland, in particular, discussed the idea of establishing four privately-owned cultivation centers that might generate millions of dollars in new revenue for the city.
The U.S. Department of Justice, though, decided enough was enough. On Wednesday, Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole informed U.S. Attorneys in a communiqué that the administration’s hands-off policy on medical marijuana did not apply to urban cultivation efforts.
Joe Elford, chief counsel for Americans for Safe Access, warned that the memo might embolden prosecutors in California to go after dispensaries and roll back medical marijuana systems in other states. “I would be hearing, ‘If you get too big, we may well put a target on your back,’ ” he told The Los Angeles Times.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Memo to U.S. Attorneys (Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole) (pdf)
Justice Department Shoots Down Commercial Marijuana Cultivation (by John Hoeffel, Los Angeles Times)
Marijuana Growers in States Allowing Medical Use May be Charged, U.S. Says (by Joel Rosenblatt, Bloomberg)
Latest Obama/DOJ Memo Emphasizes Why We Must Pass HR 2306, the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011 (by Paul Armentano, AlterNet)
First-Ever Federal Bill to Legalize Marijuana (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
More Californians Voted for Marijuana than for Republican Candidates (by David Wallechinsky, AllGov)
How to Buy Marijuana Legally in California (by Sidney Finster, AllGov)
Comments