Marijuana Blog

Federal prosecutors took aim at medical marijuana in southern California yet again, filing three lawsuits and sending out over 60 letters telling medical cannabis operations in Orange County to shut down or face the consequences.

Asset-forfeiture lawsuits filed against landlords who own buildings that house six marijuana shops in Anaheim and the letters order the closure of clinics elsewhere in the OC. Since the medical marijuana crackdown kicked off in CA last fall, more than 300 dispensaries have been targeted in what is known as the Central District of California, the area between Santa Barbara and San Bernardino counties.

In total, 66 warning letters were sent to marijuana dispensaries in Anaheim and La Habra, CA. Some have closed recently, but the feds say 38 remain open.

It has been over 10 months now since the four California U.S. Attorneys announced the crackdown. Since then they have decimated the medical cannabis industry in the state, destroying access for patients and killing thousands of jobs.

And all this comes after Presidential candidate Obama said he would not use federal resources to circumvent state law when it comes to medical marijuana; something that has now become an outright lie. A lot of federal resources are being used to circumvent state law in California as the feds target dispensaries that are completely legal under CA law and well-respected in their communities.

Many hope the upcoming Presidential election will help the situation, but how? Unless Gary Johnson or Roseanne Barr is elected, the crackdown will go on.

Advocates across the state will continue to fight on, but they cannot outlast the feds, who have a ton of resources and can always print or borrow money to get more.

Has there ever been a more disappointed group of voters than those medical marijuana patients who supported Barack Obama in 2008?

Source: http://www.boston.com

"How can you have 56 percent of Americans in support of fully ending the drug war, and zero senators in support of it?" asks Doug Fine, investigative journalist and author of new book, Too High To Fail.

Fine sat down with ReasonTV's Tracy Oppenheimer to discuss his time spent in the cannabis capital of California, Mendocino County, and why he thinks this drug can help save the American economy. And it's not just about collecting taxes.

"The industrial [uses] may one day dwarf the psychoactive ones. If we start using it for fermentation for our energy needs, it can produce great biofuels," says Fine, "already, cannabis is in the bumpers of Dodge Vipers."

So why don’t more politicians favor legalization? The key lies with who owns elected officials. These business interests don’t want to “revolutionize” our economy because this means more competition for them. They prefer the old economy and their safe positions within it.

Which means no matter what the poll numbers say, the money behind prohibition must be overcome. The revolution is coming, slowly but surely. Truth cannot be contained forever.