Feds Threaten State Dispensaries Nationwide

[Brick Top]

Feds Threaten State Dispensaries Nationwide Read the Department of Justice’s “Haag Memo” here: http://www.cannabistherapyinstitute.....haag.memo.pdf


In a little-publicized memo, the federal government has indicated that the gloves are off with regards to medical marijuana dispensaries, “regardless of state laws.” Previous memos had indicated a loosening of federal prosecutions of medical marijuana, however the new memo states very clearly that the feds consider all dispensaries illegal under federal law and that their prosecution is a “core priority” of the feds.


The “Haag Memo” was written on Feb. 1, 2011 from United States Attorney Melinda Haag (Northern District of California) to John A. Russo, Esq., Oakland City Attorney, in response to an Oakland City Council request for guidance regarding medical marijuana and federal law. The memo was written with consultation and approval from U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.


The “Haag Memo” clarifies the “Ogden Memo”, which was written by former Deputy Attorney General David W. Ogden on Oct. 19, 2009 for the Department of Justice. The “Ogden Memo” seemed to indicate that the new Obama administration would restrict federal prosecution of medical marijuana providers in states that had medical marijuana laws. This was heralded by many as giving them the green light to pursue medical marijuana activities, as long as they were in compliance with state law.


The “Haag Memo” clears up that misconception with some very unambiguous statements. The memo says clearly that the feds will not look the other way on medical marijuana. The “Haag Memo” states very clearly that the feds will continue to investigate, arrest and prosecute medical marijuana dispensaries in every state “regardless of state laws.”


In addition, the memo calls prosecuting medical marijuana dispensaries a “core priority” for the feds.


According to the memo, medical marijuana commercial activity is still considered by the Department of Justice to be “a violation of federal law regardless of state laws permitting such activities.”


The memo may be the cause of the recent increase in federal raids at medical marijuana dispensaries. Only 4 days after the memo was issued, the DEA raided 4 dispensaries in California Just this week, the DEA raided more dispensaries in California and Montana. They arrested dozens of people, and seized the assets and bank accounts of several dispensaries.

 

[Flo Grow]

Let'em keep THINKING the ppl will take this shit forever !
The previous generation of 60+yr olds will soon be gone, and so will their proganda beliefs.
The newer, younger generations WILL prevail someday and they DON'T believe the hype !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Brick Top]

Let'em keep THINKING the ppl will take this shit forever !
The previous generation of 60+yr olds will soon be gone, and so will their proganda beliefs.
The newer, younger generations WILL prevail someday and they DON'T believe the hype !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not to sound like I am taking the government's side because I think it was totally wrong for cannabis to have ever been made illegal in the first place, but what you just said is almost word for word what I said in the 70's.

I was absolutely positive that by the mid to late 80's, or early 90's at the very latest cannabis would be made legal. I knew that by then there would be enough members of Congress and possibly a President or two who had smoked herb when in high school and or in college and or possibly while in the military and without any doubt they would know that it had wrongly been demonized. I was sure enough of them would think, I smoked pot and here I am, a member of Congress or the President and say it is time to end the wasteful funding fighting against something that is not a danger and to stop making criminals out of honest hard working people and put an end to all the madness, because they would know that all the propaganda and hype was just that, all propaganda and hype.

But here is is, 2011, we've had a coke freak as a President and there are more than enough people in Congress who are easily young enough to have gotten high while in high school and or college and or the military .... and cannabis still remains illegal.

There is something about taking that oath of office that makes you toe the propaganda line. There is something about being in 'the club' that keeps you from standing up before the nation and admitting that government has been in the wrong for decades and has lied for decades and has wasted billions of dollars trying to fight a war against a harmless plant and those who enjoy it. No one packs the gear to be the one to cause the government to lose face and admit that all the just say no and this is your brain, this is your brain on drugs campaigns and claims of pot being a gateway drug and all the rest, right down to the racist-based demonetization of Blacks and Mexicans to help get marijuana made illegal in the first place might as well have been concocted by Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels himself for all the 'honesty' they contained.

I really hope that you are right but like I said, about 40 years ago I said almost the very same words as you and I felt positive that I was correct when saying them. And now I do not expect to live long enough to ever see cannabis made legal.

 

[racerboy71]

Not to sound like I am taking the government's side because I think it was totally wrong for cannabis to have ever been made illegal in the first place, but what you just said is almost word for word what I said in the 70's.

I was absolutely positive that by the mid to late 80's, or early 90's at the very latest cannabis would be made legal. I knew that by then there would be enough members of Congress and possibly a President or two who had smoked herb when in high school and or in college and or possibly while in the military and without any doubt they would know that it had wrongly been demonized. I was sure enough of them would think, I smoked pot and here I am, a member of Congress or the President and say it is time to end the wasteful funding fighting against something that is not a danger and to stop making criminals out of honest hard working people and put an end to all the madness, because they would know that all the propaganda and hype was just that, all propaganda and hype.

But here is is, 2011, we've had a coke freak as a President and there are more than enough people in Congress who are easily young enough to have gotten high while in high school and or college and or the military .... and cannabis still remains illegal.

There is something about taking that oath of office that makes you toe the propaganda line. There is something about being in 'the club' that keeps you from standing up before the nation and admitting that government has been in the wrong for decades and has lied for decades and has wasted billions of dollars trying to fight a war against a harmless plant and those who enjoy it. No one packs the gear to be the one to cause the government to lose face and admit that all the just say no and this is your brain, this is your brain on drugs campaigns and claims of pot being a gateway drug and all the rest, right down to the racist-based demonetization of Blacks and Mexicans to help get marijuana made illegal in the first place might as well have been concocted by Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels himself for all the 'honesty' they contained.

I really hope that you are right but like I said, about 40 years ago I said almost the very same words as you and I felt positive that I was correct when saying them. And now I do not expect to live long enough to ever see cannabis made legal.

damn brick, you beat me to the punch.. i was going to say the same about the kids of the 60's whom are in charge of things today.. and look at how good their drug laws are.. things are getting worse, not better..

 

[Brick Top]

damn brick, you beat me to the punch.. i was going to say the same about the kids of the 60's whom are in charge of things today.. and look at how good their drug laws are.. things are getting worse, not better..

You hit the nail on the head. Other than a few fossils the government is made up of people from 'The Woodstock Generation' and younger. They are not at all strangers to pot. They know it is not as dangerous as the bourbon or scotch they sip every night when they get home, or as dangerous as the lines of coke they sniff off the inner thighs of strippers, but there is something about becoming a part of the establishment that changes a person. Even if you used to protest against "the man," once a part of government, you become "the man."

 

[deprave]

Good thoughts brick as usual but I kind of see this as one of the last ditch efforts of the DEA to round up some cash personally. There has been some amazing strides in just the past few years to put an end to marijuana prohibition and I believe that it all will be over rather quickly. Marijuana is becoming much less taboo and is now mainstream, with new medical states being added every year and decriminalization, legalization, and medical legislation coming to the table every single week by the dozens. You can not ignore all the amazing progress that has been made lately and is still currently being made like it doesn't exist - just like the politicians can not ignore this issue any longer, its a hot issue and they are going to dragged into this discussion if we have to do it with them kicking and screaming because bill after bill is getting dragged across their desk and they are going to have to vote on it and they are also going to need to talk about it to get votes.

You can't Ignore the fact that more than half of the country has decriminilized marijuana for either medical and/or recreational use and say that we have made no progress.

 

[crazedtimmy]

The last election in california was a hoax, they made/kept it illegal cause of the financial impact it will make, there are too manny extremeists, most think it will help(californians), lots think it will hurt(mr mexican president)

Mexico paid anti campain in Cali

 

[taipanspunk]

...I think as long as it is illegal it's a good secondary source of income - even in small amounts...

...my broke patients sometimes turn their allotment around for some good cash just because it's illegal, but I think the US system is skewd...

 

[solvalou]

look at why it was banned in the first place and that will give you a clue as why its banned now and why it will be for a long time to come.

 

[Brick Top]

Good thoughts brick as usual but I kind of see this as one of the last ditch efforts of the DEA to round up some cash personally. There has been some amazing strides in just the past few years to put an end to marijuana prohibition and I believe that it all will be over rather quickly. Marijuana is becoming much less taboo and is now mainstream, with new medical states being added every year and decriminalization, legalization, and medical legislation coming to the table every single week by the dozens. You can not ignore all the amazing progress that has been made lately and is still currently being made like it doesn't exist - just like the politicians can not ignore this issue any longer, its a hot issue and they are going to dragged into this discussion if we have to do it with them kicking and screaming because bill after bill is getting dragged across their desk and they are going to have to vote on it and they are also going to need to talk about it to get votes.

You can't Ignore the fact that more than half of the country has decriminilized marijuana for either medical and/or recreational use and say that we have made no progress.

I hope you are right ... but about decriminalization, much of that began and occurred a rather long time ago and not so much recently and it hasn't advanced much since.

What makes me wonder if we are all just suffering from a pipe dream of legalization, no pun intended, is California, the most liberal state in the U.S., had a vote to make small amounts of pot legal ... and the voters said no, they voted it down.

If small amounts cannot pass a vote among the people in the most liberal state in the U.S. what chance do you think it would have in the more conservative states, or at the federal government level where the only truly important and meaningful legal change could ever occur?

As I have since 1968, I hope for the best, but I expect little if any true meaningful change, as in at federal levels, to occur in what remains of my life.

 

[Serapis]

A large portion of the nay voters on 219 came from our OWN CAMP! Mostly growers that supply dispensaries for profit. Until we get our own shit in step, we aren't going to accomplish shit as a community. There is money to be made and even some dopers will go down kicking and screaming if they feel their livelihood is threatened.

We had several threads where providers and others were encouraging everyone to vote no....

The last election in california was a hoax, they made/kept it illegal cause of the financial impact it will make, there are too manny extremeists, most think it will help(californians), lots think it will hurt(mr mexican president)

Mexico paid anti campain in Cali

 

[Brick Top]

...I think as long as it is illegal it's a good secondary source of income - even in small amounts...

If so that proves how stupid the members of the federal, and state, governments are. Yes a lot of pot is U.S. grown now, but there is still a great deal that comes from other countries. If you add up all the money spent on illegal pot, domestic or foreign produced, and figure out how many tax dollars would be brought in if a legal system where actual businesses would sell it and the customers would pay taxes and the businesses would pay taxes it would be VASTLY more than the government can make on busts.

Unless they stumble onto a bust through sheer luck it takes time and effort and forms of surveillance and often the need for warrants and then the people busted have to go to trial and if given jail time they have to be housed and fed and taken care of and then later parole officers are needed. All that would add up to far more than most every bust, unless they bust a bunch of multimillionaires and are able to confiscate all their property and seize and keep all their assets.

Then if you look at the amount of money that leaves the country, without having taxes paid on it, and how it goes to fuel another nation's economy. It goes into banks that then lend the money and make profits and it goes into investment accounts where the businesses invested in receive operating capital for expansion so they can increase profits, and the investors earn profits from their investments ... all fueling foreign economies rather than fueling the U.S. economy.

If the government thinks it will bring in more revenue through busts than by legalizing it, making a legal distribution network like cigarettes or alcohol and taxing it from the initial sale to the companies that would market it right down to each individual consumer and individual business being taxed ... then the nation is being run by people who are clearly insane.

 

[Serapis]

All it would take is a huge march on Washington.... I'm talking millions.... surely we have tens of millions of smokers in a country of over 300 million. We have to demand that government work for the people, not special interests like big pharmaceuticals or distillers that would hate to see pot go legal. But as long as our own community is more interested in income from teh plant than it's abilities to heal and entertain, it'll be a lost cause. Arizona of all states legalized MMJ...

Did you know that alcohol is a gateway drug into unemployment, bad health, alcoholism, thousands of deaths each year on our highways, impotence, Alzheimer, etc.....

 

[Brick Top]

A large portion of the nay voters on 219 came from our OWN CAMP! Mostly growers that supply dispensaries for profit. Until we get our own shit in step, we aren't going to accomplish shit as a community. There is money to be made and even some dopers will go down kicking and screaming if they feel their livelihood is threatened.

We had several threads where providers and others were encouraging everyone to vote no....

Whatever the cause, reason or reasons my point still stands. If it could not pass in the most liberal state in the U.S. how much of a chance would it have in the truly conservative states or at the federal level?

What is needed is a high profile nationwide awareness campaign with well known well respected famous name spokespeople combined with medicinal users who have benefited greatly. The airwaves and magazines and newspapers and the news and TV talk shows and billboards and every other form of communicating need to be used. The majority of the public has to be deprogrammed and reeducated until they force the federal government to make it legal, even if not how we would like it as in an every man/woman for themselves growing their thing and instead if has to be controlled like say the cigarette and alcohol industry with a full legal distribution system put in place.

It wouldn't be perfect, but it would be one heck of a lot better than we now have.

Farmers that are paid taxpayer money to not grow certain crops or not grow more than a certain amount of certain crops could have that funding stopped and they could be taught by experienced growers how to grow on small plots of their farms or in greenhouses or in large farm buildings they already have. Quality herb could be mass produced and like tobacco it could be graded when sold by the farmer and then eventually sold through some sort of distribution network. The farmers could earn more and taxpayer dollars could be saved. Between the new tax revenues and the taxpayer dollars now given as subsidies the difference, as combined savings and additional new revenue, would be considerable.

It would not be the system that many or most would want, but it would sure beat being totally illegal, or only being half legal, as in legal at state level but still able to be busted by the feds, which they clearly are increasing their efforts too do so.

 

[Omar Green]

The international bankers, their goons, and their robot children are running the country and they have it fixed so that's the way it will always be. Cannabis will never be legal until there is a revolution.. Then you wont be thinking about "medicating" you'll be thinking about where and what you are going to eat.

Do you really think anyone's vote changes anything??

These people have an agenda. Pot has a special spot, in hell. Big pharma and lumber and Booze companies have their hands in the pie you want, and they know weed will give everyone free pie, so they hate it, and they make shitty 'meds' that cause more problems for people so they make money on the initial meds, and then the meds for your "side effects"

I call them "side Effects" because I know they are the main effect not a side one.. Prozac wasn't designed for depression, it was designed for mind control.

 

[Serapis]

I wasn't saying your points didn't stand; in fact, you made excellent points. I was merely adding another one that you didn't touch on. I agree with you fully. While I understood growers motives, it kind of pissed me off they would encourage everyone to vote no.

I like the awareness campaign, imagine Michael J Fox telling America that pot helped him with MS. As long as Charlie Sheen doesn't pitch for us, we may do well.

Whatever the cause, reason or reasons my point still stands. If it could not pass in the most liberal state in the U.S. how much of a chance would it have in the truly conservative states or at the federal level?

What is needed is a high profile nationwide awareness campaign with well known well respected famous name spokespeople combined with medicinal users who have benefited greatly. The airwaves and magazines and newspapers and the news and TV talk shows and billboards and every other form of communicating need to be used. The majority of the public has to be deprogrammed and reeducated until they force the federal government to make it legal, even if not how we would like it as in an every man/woman for themselves growing their thing and instead if has to be controlled like say the cigarette and alcohol industry with a full legal distribution system put in place.

It wouldn't be perfect, but it would be one heck of a lot better than we now have.

Farmers that are paid taxpayer money to not grow certain crops or not grow more than a certain amount of certain crops could have that funding stopped and they could be taught by experienced growers how to grow on small plots of their farms or in greenhouses or in large farm buildings they already have. Quality herb could be mass produced and like tobacco it could be graded when sold by the farmer and then eventually sold through some sort of distribution network. The farmers could earn more and taxpayer dollars could be saved. Between the new tax revenues and the taxpayer dollars now given as subsidies the difference, as combined savings and additional new revenue, would be considerable.

It would not be the system that many or most would want, but it would sure beat being totally illegal, or only being half legal, as in legal at state level but still able to be busted by the feds, which they clearly are increasing their efforts too do so.

 

[Brick Top]

I wasn't saying your points didn't stand; in fact, you made excellent points. I was merely adding another one that you didn't touch on. I agree with you fully. While I understood growers motives, it kind of pissed me off they would encourage everyone to vote no.

I like the awareness campaign, imagine Michael J Fox telling America that pot helped him with MS. As long as Charlie Sheen doesn't pitch for us, we may do well.

A few well known and much loved celebrities that have not been in trouble, maybe a few former members of government that were never in any trouble, a handful of med patients who could honestly say it gave them back quality of life, or at least far more than they had using pharmaceuticals, some doctors and scientists explaining the cancer fighting properties, and anything else positive put in front of everyone's face from the east coast to the west coast and from the Canadian border to Mexico and the Gulf Coast. Inundate the people with positives presented by people they like and respect and by people who have been helped and maybe even cured.

Toss in the financial gains for the nation, if a system like I described were to be pushed, and the public would go for it and they would tell their representatives in government they want it and they have to vote for it or the voters will replace them and if the new ones don't vote for it they will be replaced and it will keep happening until it is legalized, or at the very least legalized nationally for medicinal use. Once that would happen fully legalization would not be far behind.

 

[theexpress]

this all makes sense to me has the country's going broke, and there is alot of money in marijuana... very very sad though... but cuzz im not from a med state it doesnt effect me

 

[CaptainCAVEMAN]

I hear you guys and agree completely. They just passed a new law here in Colorado that gives the Department of Revenue virtually all control of how medicinal marijuana will be grown, handled, distributed, sold and consumed. It goes into effect July 1 and no one is even sure yet what they are going to 'require'(=demand) to stay in compliance. I understand thet the MAN wants his 'rightful' piece of the pie but he is deciding that his piece is so damn BIG that aspiring dispensary owners are deciding to stay caregivers, and more than likely engaging in at least some form of illegal activity since income cannot be legally reported and taxes paid on it even if you wished to do so. System is so fucked up that they're just shoveling fuel on the fire of illegal underground grows, and maybe even more so for the quasi-legal caregiver grows wich I'm sure far outnumber dispenaries.

 

[Brick Top]

I hear you guys and agree completely. They just passed a new law here in Colorado that gives the Department of Revenue virtually all control of how medicinal marijuana will be grown, handled, distributed, sold and consumed. It goes into effect July 1 and no one is even sure yet what they are going to 'require'(=demand) to stay in compliance. I understand thet the MAN wants his 'rightful' piece of the pie but he is deciding that his piece is so damn BIG that aspiring dispensary owners are deciding to stay caregivers, and more than likely engaging in at least some form of illegal activity since income cannot be legally reported and taxes paid on it even if you wished to do so. System is so fucked up that they're just shoveling fuel on the fire of illegal underground grows, and maybe even more so for the quasi-legal caregiver grows wich I'm sure far outnumber dispenaries.

That's sad but it's totally typical. You put a bunch of people in charge of something they know nothing about and do not understand all the various parts and aspects of and all that rests on it and they of course put what interests their own personal priorities say are most important first.

Government, on any level, would f-up a wet dream.

A group of Doctors, dispensary owners and care-givers should have first been assembled to explain it all to the government, both in person and in writing, and then be allowed to come up with an acceptable workable system that would be fair and equitable to all involved in any and every way at all levels, including to the 'taxman,' and then the government could step in and decide how to govern it, how to watch over it and keep tabs on it, but they should never have been allowed to set it up. Never.