06 Aug Obama Attempts to Seize Property of Largest Medical Cannabis Dispensary
Eric Blair
Activist Post
Cannabis is becoming widely recognized for itsdiverse medical uses and the trend toward marijuana legalization is clearly on the rise, but someone forgot to tell the Obama administration. Despite Obama’s 2008 sympathetic campaign rhetoric that he would honor states rights and protect medical marijuana patients, he continues to crackdown on legal medical pot.This time the Feds are going after the world’s largest medial cannabis dispensary which is bound to infuriate marijuana advocates.
Reuters reported today:
Federal prosecutors have filed civil forfeiture actions against an Oaklandmedical marijuana dispensary that bills itself as the world’s largest, as part of a crackdown by U.S. authorities on California’s massive cannabis trade. The lawsuits, filed on Monday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, seek forfeiture of two properties where Harborside Health Center operates, said Melinda Haag, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California.
This is not the first time the Feds have tried to destroy Harborside using backdoor technicalities in lieu of overt SWAT raids. The Harborside Health Center has also been targeted by the IRS. Although Harborside has gone above and beyond to report all income, they were slapped with a $2.5 million tax bill and denied the right to claim any legitimate business expenses. To make matters worse, Harborside was also hit with abusive local taxes that were raised 4000% and had to beprepaid in advance.
For anyone who wants to know the lengths to which Harborside has complied with the endless regulations, their struggle is recorded on Discovery’s TV show Weed Wars. Watch the clip below for a taste of their battle to delivery natural medicine to ailing patients:
The Feds announced last year that they would go after property owners who rent to lawful medical marijuana shops. This new property forfeiture (confiscation) case is the first high profile case of this type. It’s just one of the covert tactics Obama is using to intimidate and attack legalized medical cannabis.
Multiple polls show over 75% of Americans support legalizing medical pot with over half the population supporting outright legalization. Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana, while fifteen states have decriminalized personal possession.
Around the world other nations are finally beginning to see the folly of prosecuting cannabis crimes. Columbia and Uruguay are leading full scale legalization efforts in Latin America.
Obama and the Feds are clearly on the wrong side of history and risk facing universal ridicule for their continued war against marijuana.
Make your voice known and tell Feds what you think about their war on medical marijuana in states who voted to legalize it. Please comment below.
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