California

California dispensaries fight back in court against federal crackdown

Posted on November 5th, 2011 by Global Ganja Report and tagged , , , , , , , .

CaliforniaLawsuits were filed Nov. 4 in federal courts in Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Diego in a move to block efforts by US attorneys to crack down on medical marijuana dispensaries in California. A similar suit was filed in San Francisco days earlier. "We will ask for injunctive relief in all four districts," said PJ Johnston, a spokesman for the statewide legal effort, coordinated by American for Safe Access (ASA). "The US attorneys in each of the four districts have basically threatened landlords, cannabis cooperatives and media outlets with prosecution and property forfeiture if they don't shut down operations immediately."

Nine congress members protest medical cannabis crackdown in letter to Obama

Posted on November 1st, 2011 by Global Ganja Report and tagged , , , , , .

Nine Congress members on Oct. 31 issued an open letter to President Obama urging him to put a halt to new aggressive Justice Department tactics aimed at dismantling California's medical marijuana industry. "It's unconscionable...to endanger the lives of patients," the reps state in the strongly worded letter, which calls for rescheduling cannabis. It especially urges support for HR 1983, the States' Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act, which was introduced by Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) earlier this year.

Oaksterdam defies federal crackdown

Posted on November 1st, 2011 by Global Ganja Report and tagged , , , , , .

Richard Lee, central figure in downtown Oakland's cannabis-friendly Oaksterdam enclave, does not appear intimidated by the federal government’s crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries. Lee closed his dispensary, Coffeeshop Blue Sky, this week after US Attorney for California's Northern District Melinda Haag sent a letter to his landlord threatening criminal prosecution. But he promptly reopened it three doors down, with giant posters of cannabis buds in the windows. An employee at the door hands out fliers reading: "Thank you for your support. Together we will survive the attack. Long Live Oaksterdam." Lee told the New York Times he is not afraid of being a target. "If they do decide to prosecute me criminally," he said, "my defense is that juries cannot be punished for their verdicts."

Patient advocates sue Justice Department over cannabis crackdown

Posted on October 27th, 2011 by Global Ganja Report and tagged , , , , , , , , .

medical marijuanaAmericans for Safe Access (ASA), the country's largest cannabis patients advocacy organization, filed suit in federal court Oct. 27 challenging the Obama administration's attempt to subvert local and state medical marijuana laws in California. ASA argues in its lawsuit that Obama's Department of Justice (DoJ) has "instituted a policy to dismantle the medical marijuana laws of the State of California and to coerce its municipalities to pass bans on medical marijuana dispensaries." The DoJ policy has involved aggressive SWAT-style raids, criminal prosecutions of medical marijuana patients and providers, and threats to local officials for merely implementing state law.

Evictions close Orange County dispensaries

Posted on October 24th, 2011 by Global Ganja Report and tagged , , , , .

CaliforniaEviction notices from local and federal authorities shut down eight cannabis dispensaries in Orange County's Lake Forest this week, after years of litigation over zoning and more than $600,000 in legal fees. The dispensaries, in suites on the second floor of a strip mall, included Lake Forest Patients Group, Pharmers' Choice, Cannabis Permanente, Evergreen Holistic, Cooperative, Florentina Organic, Independent Collective of Orange County and The Health Collective.

Cannabis advocates to protest Obama's San Francisco visit

Posted on October 24th, 2011 by Global Ganja Report and tagged , , , , .

Supporters of California's medical marijuana laws will be protesting the Department of Justice crackdown on dispensaries and providers when President Barack Obama comes to visit San Francisco on Oct 25. Demonstrators will be protesting at the at the Hotel W, on the corner of 3rd and Mission from 10:30 AM to 3 PM. A preceding press conference will be held at 10 AM at the Marriott Hotel, 299 Second St, Room #3.

DEA raids Mendocino's Northstone Organics

Posted on October 16th, 2011 by Global Ganja Report and tagged , , , , , , , .

CaliforniaNorthstone Organics, a dispensary in Mendocino County's Redwood Valley, was raided by federal agents Oct. 13, in a move that has sparked outrage across Northern California's Emerald Triangle. "They came in, guns blazing," Northstone Organics owner Matthew Cohen said of the early morning raid, although it does not appear any shots were fired. "They calmed down and were pleasant at the end, but they came in with machine guns."

California Medical Association calls for cannabis legalization

Posted on October 16th, 2011 by Global Ganja Report and tagged , , , , , .

medical marijuanaTrustees of the California Medical Association, representing more than 35,000 physicians statewide, on Oct. 14 adopted a position calling for legalization of cannabis at their annual meeting in Anaheim—becoming the first major medical association in the nation to do so. Dr. Donald Lyman, the Sacramento physician who wrote the group's new policy, attributed the move to growing frustration over California's medical marijuana law, which puts practitioners in the situation of having to decide whether to recommend a substance that is illegal under federal law.

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