The week started off with a bang, as Americans for Safe Access (ASA) Chief Counsel Joe Elford threatened to file a lawsuit against Los Angeles if the city banned medical marijuana “sales.” The threat was in response to public statements made by City Attorney Carmen Trutanich that over-the-counter sales of medical marijuana are illegal under state law. Trutanich had been urging the Los Angeles City Council to adopt his proposed ordinance banning over-the-counter sales.

ASA is confident that Trutanich has a flawed interpretation of state law. The Medical Marijuana Program Act, landmark court decisions, California Attorney General guidelines, and a sales tax policy by the State Board of Equalization provide ample evidence that medical marijuana sales are legal. So, ASA decided to fight Trutanich using his own public relations strategy. The Friday before ASA threatened to file suit against the City of Los Angeles, Elford went on Air Talk, broadcast by KPCC, the NPR affiliate, to debate the issue of sales with Special Assistant City Attorney David Berger. (more…)

U.S. Attorney Joseph Russoniello expressed his desire yesterday for medical marijuana dispensaries in San Francisco to be run as “communes” rather than as “candy stores.” Russoniello’s reference to “candy stores” is confusing enough, but the Bush-appointed federal prosecutor’s shift from conservative free-market thinking to Marxist communism was a surprise to many in the medical marijuana movement, not to mention the public at large. (more…)

Allison Margolin

(This is a guest blog by Allison B. Margolin, Esq.)

As the Obama administration attempts to steer federal agents away from prosecuting marijuana dispensaries, the LA District Attorney and City Attorney’s Office are attempting to undermine that shift by articulating a deceitfully narrow view of the state law.

Despite reports of trillion dollar deficits nationally and a collapsing state economy, District Attorney Steve Cooley says his office is committed to closing down revenue-generating medical marijuana dispensaries and the LA district attorney’s office continues to take prisoners of war in their fight against safe access to medical marijuana.

In doing so, LA City is threatening to plunge the state’s economy into further collapse by taking potential tax revenues that could be going to the state treasury. Moreover, the City’s position threatens to generate crime by forcing the huge demand for marijuana back to the street. If the free market has allowed for the proliferation of dispensaries, that demand is not going away. The avenue for its fulfillment will simply change and could go from safe to entrenched in the poly-drug trafficking black market economy.
(more…)

Jerry Brown

A spokesperson for California Attorney General Jerry Brown told the New York Times that the nonprofit sales of medical cannabis in storefront patients’ collectives are legal. The Attorney General is speaking up in response to a growing controversy about how to regulate hundreds of collectives and cooperatives in Los Angeles. City Attorney Carmen Trutanich told City Councilmembers in September that storefront collectives and nonprofit sales of cannabis are illegal, despite guidelines issued by the Attorney General last year that indicate otherwise.

(more…)

Last Friday, a day after Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich and District Attorney Steve Cooley attended a law enforcement training hosted by the California Narcotic Officers Association (CNOA) on the “eradication” of medical marijuana dispensaries, both officials declared a war on safe, affordable access to this therapeutic substance. In multiple newspapers, Trutanich and Cooley flagrantly stated their opinion that almost all dispensaries in Los Angeles are operating illegally, in violation of state law. Not only did these local prosecutors fail to provide any evidence of such violations, making unfounded accusations instead, but they have also ignored (or, more appropriately, rebuffed) the California Attorney General guidelines on this matter. (more…)

You might think the job of law enforcement is enforcing the law, but that’s not the way some California officers and organizations see it when it comes to the state’s medical cannabis statute. The latest disturbing evidence of this is an upcoming “training luncheon” on “The Eradication of Medical Marijuana Dispensaries in the City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County,” hosted by the California Narcotic Officers Association (CNOA).

What’s shocking is not that the CNOA would resist state law – the organization is one of the oldest and most virulent opponents of medical cannabis in the state – but who will be joining them in the effort. Headlining the training on how to close down medical cannabis collectives are Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley and Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, and police officers from Los Angeles, Pasadena, and Alhambra. (more…)

From the Associated Press:

SEATTLE — In one corner of Washington state, a 62-year-old rheumatoid arthritis patient could face more than eight years in prison for growing marijuana for himself and three others. In Seattle, meanwhile, a collection of grow operations serves 2,000 people with little interference from police…

…Unlike some states, Washington requires patients to grow marijuana themselves or designate a caregiver to grow it for them. For many, that’s unrealistic: They’re too sick to grow cannabis themselves and don’t have the thousands of dollars it can cost for a caregiver to set up a proper growing operation.

The “shock and awe” tactics used by local and federal law enforcement yesterday to raid several medical marijuana providers were indefensible. One would have thought that such paramilitary-style raids were a thing of the past, a remnant of the Bush Administration. And, yet, videos like this one indicate that not only is law enforcement still trying to undermine California’s medical marijuana law, it’s being done with a vengeance. Where else would you see wheelchair-bound people being thrown into police squad cars?

By Tommy Hawkins Jr., Community Liaison, ASA Fresno Chapter

The City of Fresno has started taking action to close down medical cannabis collectives and cooperatives in Fresno, CA. They have so far brought charges against one local dispensary operator, so ASA Fresno Chapter knew it was time to take a stand. (more…)

Last week, the Drug enforcement Administration (DEA) collaborated with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) to raid Organica, a medical cannabis dispensing collective (dispensary) in Los Angeles.

The only excuse provided by authorities was that the dispensary had failed to pay sales tax — hardly a reason for federal agents to carry out a paramilitary-style raid. (more…)