Feds' Threat to Shut Down World's Largest Dispensary Reveals Motives Behind Pot War

[Vicki]

Feds' Threat to Shut Down World's Largest Dispensary Reveals Motives Behind Pot War

http://www.alternet.org/story/156319/feds'_threat_to_shut_down_world's_largest_dispensary_reveals_motives_behind_pot_war?page=entire

The drug war is Obama's war.

July 14, 2012

One month ago, Eric Holder testified before Congress that the Dept. of Justice is only targeting medical marijuana businesses that violate their state's laws. Anyone who didn't realize it was a lie should be getting the message right about now.

The federal government is moving to shut down the nation's largest and highest-profile medical marijuana dispensary operation, filing papers to seize properties in Oakland and San Jose where Harborside Health Center does business.​

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Copies of the federal Complaint for Forfeiture were taped to the front doors of the two dispensaries Tuesday, alleging that they were "operating in violation of federal law."​

Medical marijuana advocates, as well as some state and local officials, decried the action, saying it hurts patients in legitimate need of the drug and breaks repeated promises by President Obama's Justice Department that it was targeting only operations near schools and parks or otherwise in violation of the state's laws. [LA Times]​

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They're not even pretending it's about state law anymore. Harborside has a permit from the City of Oakland and pays millions in taxes to the state of California. They've been covered extensively in the press, and featured on the Discovery Channel program "Weed Wars". Everyone knows exactly what goes on inside Harborside because we've seen it with our own eyes: they provide high-quality medical cannabis and other services to qualified patients. This is the definition of a legal and well-regulated medical marijuana dispensary.

So how are the feds justifying their attempt to shut down the most responsible business in the industry? They are claiming, I kid you not, that it's just too successful:

I now find the need to consider actions regarding marijuana superstores such as Harborside. The larger the operation, the greater the likelihood that there will be abuse of the state’s medical marijuana laws, and marijuana in the hands of individuals who do not have a demonstrated medical need. – U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag​

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This is beyond outrageous and it flies in the face of even the most recent excuses put forward by the Attorney General and the President himself when attempting to justify their escalating war on medical marijuana.

By targeting Harborside solely on the basis of its reputation as the nation's "biggest" medical marijuana provider, DOJ forgets something rather important: it's the biggest because it's the best. Harborside is a model of safe, secure, patient-oriented medical marijuana services. It's also a model of legal compliance, and any effort to shut its doors simply obliterates the Attorney General's recent claims that DOJ is merely upholding local laws. He really should stop saying that.

It boggles the mind to imagine what sort of perverted logic is driving Obama's vicious assault on a voting block that helped elect him four years ago. What little the President has said on the matter in recent months is now even more obviously false, and if it isn’t about upholding state laws, then the question of the Administration's true agenda is something about which we can only speculate. It isn't winning him any votes, that's for sure.

Today, anyone who's tried to make excuses for Obama's horrible handling of all this should just stop. Anyone who says this President is secretly a friend of the marijuana reform movement should close their mouth. Anyone who's claimed that "they're only busting bad dispensaries" can cut the crap. This is a war. It's Obama's war. And to my friends who are too afraid of Mitt Romney right now to criticize Obama, I say you're making our President more dangerous by meeting his mistakes with silence.

If you don’t want Obama to destroy medical marijuana in America, this would be a good time to speak up about it.

 

[VWFringe]

Thanks, I just wrote the President (again)

drug laws are human rights abuses hidden beneath the guise of lawfulness, IMHO.

 

[AGBeer]

Okay then Romney. Wow us...

I mean, its not like we haven't been lied to pre-election before anyway. But right now, false hope is better than the truth that is peeling away from BHOs arse.

I swear... Donald Duck is looking better and better as a write in after all

 

[Vicki]

No way I'm voting for scumbag Romney, and I am also pissed at Obama. I am seriously considering going with Ron Paul, despite the fact that he is Republican.

 

[stickstones]

I am writing in Ron Paul.

I used to not want to throw my vote away. But after the last two presidents, I decided no one gets my vote unless they deserve it.

Write in Ron Paul!!

 

[storybookhero]

I now find the need to consider actions regarding marijuana superstores such as Harborside. The larger the operation, the greater the likelihood that there will be abuse of the state’s medical marijuana laws, and marijuana in the hands of individuals who do not have a demonstrated medical need. – U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag​

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Melinda Haag sounds like a real hag!

 

[Elluzion]

The shutting down of all of these dispensaries kept me from renewing my medical card. I just don't feel safe anymore, even if I did still have my card. Thanks Barack O'bummer

:/

 

[Vicki]

The shutting down of all of these dispensaries kept me from renewing my medical card. I just don't feel safe anymore, even if I did still have my card. Thanks Barack O'bummer

:/

That is very sad. My husband said he might not want me to apply for a card for this very reason. I'm not in a medical cannabis state, but we had actually considered moving to one so I could get a card. However, with everything that's going down, my husband said he didn't feel safe with my name in that kind of system.

 

[Elluzion]

That is very sad. My husband said he might not want me to apply for a card for this very reason. I'm not in a medical cannabis state, but we had actually considered moving to one so I could get a card. However, with everything that's going down, my husband said he didn't feel safe with my name in that kind of system.

Yeah it's pretty sad. I am not sure if there is an indefinite "list" or not, but I wouldn't be surprised. I just don't know what agent people would do with our names.. I can't think of much?

I love the feel of dispensaries and being able to just have a relaxed chill atmosphere, but at the possible threat of being there while it gets raided and humiliated, I don't know if I could handle that.

 

[Vicki]

Yeah it's pretty sad. I am not sure if there is an indefinite "list" or not, but I wouldn't be surprised. I just don't know what agent people would do with our names.. I can't think of much?

I love the feel of dispensaries and being able to just have a relaxed chill atmosphere, but at the possible threat of being there while it gets raided and humiliated, I don't know if I could handle that.

I don't even want to think about what they would do with those names.

Regarding dispensaries, I would LOVE to experience one. To be able to always have safe access and have so many choices would be great. I cannot complain, though. My supplier is a compassionate person, and I always get top shelf medicine.

 

[max]

"This is a war. It's Obama's war."

The fact that the drug war can't be won continues to be ignored by the Feds. It's only Obama's war because he's the guy currently occupying the White House. Could be that the pollsters have convinced him that more votes are to be won by pressing it than by backing off. IMO it's gonna be a good while before any president admits to a pro legalization stance, even with medical mj. We certainly aren't gonna be better off with Romney. The GOP doesn't want to admit that any card carrying Repubs are in favor of legalization.

"One issue upon which Romney has been consistent is the legalization of medical marijuana. The few times that he has discussed the issue, he has remained adamantly opposed to legalization. In 2007, he addressed a group of New Hampshire voters and explained that he opposed legalizing medical marijuana because pot "is the entry drug of people trying to get kids hooked on drugs." Additionally, he acknowledged that sick people might need medical marijuana, but asserted that synthetic substitutes would work just fine. This basic position was solidified a couple months later in 2007 when Romney spoke to a group of students and reaffirmed that the national prohibition on recreational and medical marijuana should continue even if a state chooses to legalize the drug. He reiterated his support for alternatives for pain management and his belief that marijuana is a gateway drug that "is one of the great causes of crime in our cities." In his book No Apology: The Case for American Greatness, Romney attributes the legalization effort to the "passion and zeal of the members of the pleasure-seeking generation that never grew up ... their arguments are elaborate but empty -- a great nation has never been built on hedonism." Overall, his stance on the legalization of medical marijuana is aptly demonstrated in the 2007 video posted on Points a few weeks ago, which shows then-Governor Romney walking away from a man dying from muscular dystrophy who has asked him if he will have him arrested for using marijuana, the only drug that helps ease his pain." http://www.theatlantic.com/health/a...nt-mitt-romneys-drug-policy-look-like/253547/

 

[Elluzion]

The issue isn't even just the president because he is obviously receiving lobyist money to remain in his stance against marijuana. We know Obama isn't a huge hater of the herb, but he keeps it illegal for the pharmaceutical companies and to progress some presidential hidden agenda of keeping a plant illegal and seeing how many years they can get away with it? lol..

 

[t-dub]

drug laws are human rights abuses hidden beneath the guise of lawfulness, IMHO.

This is an excellent thought, if I may add to it: Not only is it a violation of your human rights but, to be specific, it violates your property rights. When the government can tell you what you can and can not, in the privacy of your own home, put into your body, then who owns your body? And if you don't own your body then what are you?

Edit: Lawfulness is not a guise, it is the real force that government uses to operate. They've got guns. This is one big thing that makes government different from corporations.

 

[lesvape]

I thought the whole idea of America was to make money in a safe and legal manner. And now that someone is making too much money on a disputed item(though in a legal manner) it's wrong? I would have thought they would be ecstatic he is paying a load of taxes. Damn.

 

[pakalolo]

I've said many times that I am firmly against medical marijuana. I believe that MMJ supporters are misguided and do not realize the implications of what they are asking for.

Legalized MMJ will be firmly in the hands of Big Pharma and their lawyers. Penalties for recreational use will be harsher. There will be no dispensaries or designated growers. Cultivation for personal use will be outlawed and this will be strictly enforced, again with harsher penalties. There will be no MMJ-card-on-demand as we see today in California. Those who require MMJ for medical purposes will be forced to prove their need. The bar will be high, and if they can hurdle it they will be forced to buy from pharmacies at Big Pharma prices. Eupohoriant components will be removed or bred out of strains. Of course, the black market will still exist but prices will skyrocket.

This isn't a paranoid fantasy. I had a long talk with a person well placed inside a Big Pharma company who talked openly about it to me. Further, he said Big Pharma is drooling over the prospect of a new range of drugs for which today's growers have done the research and development that would have taken them years. He said Big Pharma is grateful to the MMJ campaigners. who have done their share by making the public aware that MMJ can be the next wonder drug. All that remains is to convince the public that you can't get high from their MMJ, and it's done. Then, enter the patent lawyers.

I am strongly in favour of complete legalization, but MMJ is a deadly trap.

 

[Vicki]

I've said many times that I am firmly against medical marijuana. I believe that MMJ supporters are misguided and do not realize the implications of what they are asking for.

Legalized MMJ will be firmly in the hands of Big Pharma and their lawyers. Penalties for recreational use will be harsher. There will be no dispensaries or designated growers. Cultivation for personal use will be outlawed and this will be strictly enforced, again with harsher penalties. There will be no MMJ-card-on-demand as we see today in California. Those who require MMJ for medical purposes will be forced to prove their need. The bar will be high, and if they can hurdle it they will be forced to buy from pharmacies at Big Pharma prices. Eupohoriant components will be removed or bred out of strains. Of course, the black market will still exist but prices will skyrocket.

This isn't a paranoid fantasy. I had a long talk with a person well placed inside a Big Pharma company who talked openly about it to me. Further, he said Big Pharma is drooling over the prospect of a new range of drugs for which today's growers have done the research and development that would have taken them years. He said Big Pharma is grateful to the MMJ campaigners. who have done their share by making the public aware that MMJ can be the next wonder drug. All that remains is to convince the public that you can't get high from their MMJ, and it's done. Then, enter the patent lawyers.

I am strongly in favour of complete legalization, but MMJ is a deadly trap.

That makes me very depressed.

 

[lesvape]

I think I read on cnbc that big tobacco who could be do I doing this. They have the space and plantations to do it, plus a good distribution system with liquor stores and smoke shops. Why not them?

 

[Vessel]

I think I read on cnbc that big tobacco who could be do I doing this. They have the space and plantations to do it, plus a good distribution system with liquor stores and smoke shops. Why not them?

I don't know if your serious .. but to start - Their a majorly corrupted and evil organization working to immensely degrade the human populace on a Grand scale.
If it ever where to become 'legal' in the united states, I think it would probably still be illegal to grow your own.

I use to think that vaporizing would be able to bring cannabis into a whole new positive spot light, with the opportunity to expand and further explore the true medical value this plant and its cannabinoids has to offer. I may be a bit naive but I blame combusters on a small level for all of the immense negative stigma.. I really do.

 

[lesvape]

Well I was just repeating what I've heard. I would like to think big tobacco in some ways is less evil than big farma, but I could be just naive on that matter.

 

[vorrange]

Romney and Obama represent their party, but most of all, they represent the lobbies behind them. This is as true in the US as any other country in the world. Their oppinions count for nothing really.. I am convinced that even smaller candidates will eventually be corrupted or killed if they ever got to a place where they could change things. Humanity will have to change, and then we will have politicians who are making an effort to better the world and their country and their people.
Obama says one thing and does another.. Romney just perpetuates untruths as a means to justify "his" position.

That said, i must say that i am torn between what Pakalolo said and MMJ legalization. I think it is a likely scenario, and one where we must be carefull about when we express the desire for legalizing medical MJ.

But it is clear already that Big Pharma's attempts like Sativex or Marinol, does not achieve the same effects and has in fact unwelcome side effects, which are not present in the way we consume the plant.
This could be a good argument to allow for the use of natural, unprocessed cannabis plant for curing various ailments and provide relief in a number of health conditions.

What i think would be fair is to acnowledge that cannabis is about the same as alcohol, and to be treated as such. Why can i buy enough alcohol to kill myself and nothing happens, but it is wrong to the point of jail to use cannabis for recreation purposes and there is no lethal dose? It is an hipocrisy, and everyone who is trully informed knows it. That is why there is a need to keep propagating myths and untruths.

 

[Vicki]

That is why there is a need to keep propagating myths and untruths.

Yet, they continue to do it anyway.

 

[djonkoman]

Yeah it's pretty sad. I am not sure if there is an indefinite "list" or not, but I wouldn't be surprised. I just don't know what agent people would do with our names.. I can't think of much?

one thing I can think of is higher insurancefees. they say weed is unhealthy, so you're a bigger risk, so you have to pay moee for healthinsurance.
another thing would be employers.
and there could be consequences for your driver's license, since it's detectable for so long, and it seems traffictests for cannabis are becoming more common.