Feds Target Sale, Distribution and Cultivation of Medical Marijuana

throughout the Southland must shut down within 45 days or face civil and/or criminal prosecution, federal prosecutors announced Friday.

The warning is part of a new federal crackdown on the state's medical
marijuana industry, which includes huge commercial grow operations, intricate distribution systems and hundreds of retail stores in the Southland and across the state -- even though the federal Controlled Substances Act prohibits the sale and distribution of cannabis.

"It is important to note that for-profit, commercial marijuana
operations are illegal not only under federal law, but also under California
law," U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr. said. "While California law permits
collective cultivation of marijuana in limited circumstances, it does not allow
commercial distribution through the store-front model we see across
California."

At a news briefing/teleconference attended by the state's four U.S.
attorneys in Sacramento, Birotte said warning letters had gone out to dozens of medical marijuana retail store operators across the state.

The typical medical marijuana dispensary sells pot solely for the purpose of recreational use, he said.

"That is not what California voters intended."

After his inauguration, President Barack Obama said the federal
government would not prosecute medical marijuana users and caregivers. In 1996, California was the first state to decriminalize marijuana for medical use, although it has remained a federal crime to possess or sell it.

Medical marijuana advocates say the Department of Justice's newly
announced stance is "harmful and unnecessary" to patients who use the drug as part of their treatment regimen.

"Aggressive tactics like these are a completely inappropriate use of
prosecutorial discretion by the Obama administration," said Joe Elford, a
lawyer with Americans for Safe Access, a medical marijuana advocacy group. "President Obama must answer for his contradictory policy."

Laura E. Duffy, the U.S. Attorney in San Diego, said it should be noted
that illegal marijuana grow operations often found flourishing on federal land create "significant negative consequences'" and result in "a very serious public safety issue."

Federal prosecutors said warning letters had been sent to the operators
and landlords of dozens of marijuana dispensaries in the Southland and
elsewhere, and forfeiture actions were filed against properties where owners allow pot stores to operate.

Those receiving letters were warned that the stores are in violation of
federal law and that they have less than two months to "take the necessary
steps to discontinue the sale and/or distribution of marijuana."

Birotte said all known marijuana stores in the following areas were
notified in Orange County: the cities of Laguna Niguel, Lake Forest, Dana Point, Laguna Hills, and Rancho Santa Margarita;

The letters note that the operation of a marijuana store "may result in
criminal prosecution, imprisonment, fines and forfeiture of assets, including
the real property on which the dispensary is operating and any money you
receive (or have received) from the dispensary operator."

City News Service