Pubdate: Fri, 01 Feb 2013
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2013 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

OAKLAND, FEDS FIGHT OVER POT DISPENSARY

The city of Oakland told a federal magistrate Thursday that the 
federal government's shutdown of the nation's largest medical 
marijuana dispensary would damage residents' health and welfare as 
well as the city's revenues. The Obama administration replied that 
the city doesn't belong in the case.

The 90-minute hearing in San Francisco was a potentially critical 
stage in the legal battle that started in July when U.S. Attorney 
Melinda Haag filed suit to close down Harborside Health Center and 
seize the building for violation of federal drug laws.

Harborside, located along the Oakland Estuary at 1840 Embarcadero, 
supplies marijuana to 108,000 patients. While its operators fight the 
government's forfeiture suit, Oakland filed its own suit in October 
seeking to represent its residents' interests in keeping the dispensary open.

The city claims the federal government waited too long to move 
against Harborside, an argument also raised by the dispensary's 
operators. But the threshold question Thursday before U.S. Magistrate 
Maria Elena James was whether Oakland has any legal rights at stake.

"Oakland is trying to protect the health and safety of its citizens 
and its tax revenues," Cedric Chao, a lawyer for the city, told James.

If Harborside is closed, he said, "tens of thousands of patients, 
they're going to go into the streets" and buy marijuana from street 
dealers, Chao said. "There's going to be a big health crisis."

Oakland, meanwhile, would lose much of the $1.4 million it collects 
in taxes each year from Harborside and three other city-licensed dispensaries.

But Justice Department attorney Kathryn Wyer said Oakland has no 
right to challenge the forfeiture of a building it doesn't own.

Allowing Oakland to proceed with its lawsuit "would allow anyone who 
does not have a property interest to bypass all the limitations" in 
the forfeiture law, Wyer told James.

The magistrate did not issue a ruling and gave little indication of 
her own views.

The two sides also disagreed over the legality of the government's 
forfeiture suit. Oakland claims the suit was filed too late and also 
argues that the city, and the dispensary, were entitled to rely on 
the Obama administration's public statements that it would not target 
suppliers who complied with state medical marijuana laws.

Chao argued that the five-year statute of limitations, the deadline 
for filing suit, should be measured from 2006, when Harborside 
opened. Federal officials are "complaining about the continuous 
operation of a business," he said.

"The government stood by for six years and they knew full well that 
every single day there were hundreds of sales," while President 
Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder and other administration 
officials made reassuring statements about deferring to the states, Chao said.

Wyer countered that each marijuana sale is an illegal act that 
restarts the five-year clock.

"Forfeiture can be based on individual acts," she said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom