story and photo by
LEO E. LAURENCE, J.D.
Copyright © 2011 by Leo E. Laurence, J.D. • All rights
reserved
PHOTO: Eugene
Davidovich
President
Obama’s justice department is swiftly trying shut down everything nationwide
connected with medical marijuana, including any publication carrying ads for
dispensaries such as the popular monthly magazines KUSH and NUG.
Rather than
raiding dispensaries, all U.S. attorneys in California are telling landlords
their property could be subject to seizure under federal law if dispensaries
are not closed.
After
California, the feds intend to expand their prosecutorial assault into all 15
states where medical marijuana is legal under state law, but unlawful
federally, according to confidential sources inside the justice department.
Reeling In the Catch
“We are under
severe attack,” said Eugene Davidovich of the San Diego chapter of Americans
for Safe Access (ASA) at their October
monthly meeting. “We’ve got to fight back!”
The federal
assault is a “far cry from (Obama’s) pledge on the campaign trail that he was
‘not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state
laws on this issue’,” Davidovich added critically in an e-mail to supporters.
According to an
editorial in the October 12 San Diego CityBeat, the Obama administration’s change in policy came after former deputy
attorney general David Ogden left office in February 2010. His replacement,
James Cole, “had completely rewritten the federal government’s policy towards
medicinal marijuana” by June 2011, “giving U.S. attorneys the go-ahead to
target those who grow or sell marijuana without regard to its intended use or
any existing state laws,” CityBeat reported.
“This,
presumably, came with the blessing of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and
Obama,” CityBeat argued. “It’s as if the
Obama administration baited the hook in 2009 and reeled in the catch this
year.”
Community Alarmed
The crisis is
alarming the activists in the cannabis community and attendance at the ASA
meeting October 11 nearly doubled. It was standing-room-only.
“My clients are
petrified,” says attorney Jessica C. McElfresh, who represents many dispensary
owners and medical-marijuana patients.
Some urged
everyone to send letters to their congressional representatives. Their naïveté
is astounding.
“Letters (now)
will have little effect,” said attorney McElfresh.
“We need a huge outcry (to the justice department and the White
House) and very, very quickly,” she emphasized.
Only the White
House may be able to stop the federal prosecutors’ unprecedented actions, but
does the medical marijuana community have anyone influential enough to reach
the president?
“(The 70,000
patients in San Diego) are being pushed underground.
“If the
dispensaries no longer exist, where are these patients going to get their
(marijuana) meds,” asked Julian Cole, 26, a manager of the One-on-One
dispensary at 923 Sixth Avenue in the Gaslamp area. The patients, he said, are
still going to buy it — but on the street.
“Do you want
taxation money (from the sales) or not?
“Do you want to
increase crime, or not?” Cole asked.
“Abolish the
dispensaries and you create more criminals.”
“This is a
national threat and is potentially quite damaging,” said attorney McElfresh.
If prosecutors
are successful in shutting down all medical
marijuana dispensaries by going after their landlords in California, the feds
plan to carry the attack into all 15 states where medical marijuana is legal
under state law, according to a confidential source inside the U.S. attorney’s
office in San Diego.
“California is
on the chopping block,” McElfresh added.
While speaking
on NUGRadio.com, longtime cannabis activist Rudy Reyes suggested a massive
march on Sacramento. Such a huge event, however, would require lots of money
and time to organize, two elements that don’t exist in the community.
Two leaders of
the new Patients’ Care Association of California (PCA), Randy Welty and Will
Senn, did not return phone calls at press time to determine the PCA’s response
to the crisis.
Landlords and
property owners of buildings with medical marijuana dispensaries will have
until early December to comply, or face federal prosecutions.
What Will Happen?
If federal
prosecutors are successful in shutting down all medical marijuana dispensaries in the San Diego area, which now appears
likely, three former combat infantrymen, living in Mission Beach and suffering
from PTSD horrors, will lose their meds.
“My first (of
two) purple hearts, I was driving a vehicle in the Kunar Province of
Afghanistan and we got ambushed. The Taliban hit us with a rocket-propelled
grenade. I got hit with shrapnel of metal and glass in my face,” said Aaron
Miller, 22.
“My second
resulted while we were on patrol and somebody suddenly shot from a nearby
mountain and hit me.
“I was on two
meds for pain and two for severe depression, but the side effects were worse
than the PTSD. Now with medical-marijuana, I take zero meds and have lost 40
pounds in two months. I’m just a happier person now,” the wounded combat
veteran explained.
Josh Orcutt, 26, served in the same combat
unit. “If they close the dispensaries, I’ll have to go back on Zantac and other
depression pills, but I don’t want to because it’s a horrible feeling.”
