Pubdate: Tue, 08 Nov 2011
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2011 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Bob Egelko
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

MEDICAL POT COOPERATIVES SUE FEDS OVER CRACKDOWN

Pot suppliers went to federal court Monday to try to halt the Obama 
administration's campaign to close down their dispensaries, saying 
the survival of California's medical marijuana law is at stake.

In lawsuits filed in each of the state's four federal districts, 
medical marijuana cooperatives, joined by patients and property 
owners, accused the Justice Department of violating an agreement to 
leave them alone if they complied with state law.

The department had pledged to the courts, and to patients and their 
suppliers, that "those who possess, grow and distribute medical 
marijuana in compliance with state law will not be prosecuted nor 
their property seized," the dispensaries' lawyers said.

They argued that the federal government had made a binding commitment 
to follow that policy in a settlement last year of a suit by a 
marijuana collective in Santa Cruz. The government is now breaching 
that settlement, and breaking the law, with its strategy of going 
after marijuana dispensaries by threatening to prosecute their 
landlords, the plaintiffs' lawyers said.

They are seeking injunctions prohibiting federal prosecutors from 
filing charges or seizing their property.

The Justice Department declined to comment on the suits. But 
department officials have emphatically denied that their new policy, 
announced Oct. 7 at a news conference by the four federal prosecutors 
in California, broke any legal commitments to the courts or promises 
to the public.

Following up on President Obama's campaign pledge to let states set 
their own medical marijuana policies, the department told federal 
prosecutors in October 2009 - in a memo quoted in the new lawsuits - 
that prosecution of seriously ill patients and their caregivers who 
comply with state law "is unlikely to be an efficient use of limited 
federal resources."

Medical marijuana advocates interpreted that statement broadly to 
apply to pot dispensaries that operated with state and local 
government approval.

But recently, Justice Department officials have said they never meant 
to immunize suppliers of drugs that are banned by federal law.

At last month's news conference, the prosecutors said they had sent 
letters to owners of dozens of buildings warning them that they faced 
property forfeiture, and possible felony charges, unless they evicted 
the pot dispensaries within 45 days.

In Monday's lawsuits, lawyers for the marijuana suppliers said the 
threats have already forced numerous dispensaries to close. By 
cutting off patients' primary source of the drug, the lawyers said, 
this "comprehensive attack ... will eviscerate and likely eradicate 
California's medical marijuana program."

This is the second legal challenge to the Justice Department's 
campaign. A suit filed in San Francisco on Oct. 27 by the advocacy 
group Americans for Safe Access accused the department of mounting an 
unconstitutional attack on the state's authority to set its own health policy.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom