San Francisco Democratic Party Calls on Obama to End Medical Marijuana Attacks

[Comrade Grumpy]

31. The continued apologetics for Obama on this issue are astounding.

EVERY dispensary is violating federal law since federal law doesn't recognize medical marijuana. The Obama administration pretty much lived up to its promises and laid off dispensaries until last fall, but it has been going after them with a vengeance since then.

They have gone after long-lived and well-respected dispensaries that were not in violation of state laws, such as the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana, which has been forced to close under threat of prosecution and long-term imprisonment. They went after Oaksterdam University, which is not even a dispensary.

The US Attorneys seem to be selecting dispensaries based, among other things, on whether they're within a 1,000 feet of a school, but there is no federal law that sets that limit for dispensaries (since the feds don't recognize medical marijuana). There is a federal law that provides a sentencing enhancement for drug crimes committed within 1,000 feet of schools. Dispensaries within 1,000 feet of schools don't violate California state law, so it's just the feds looking for an excuse.

Yes, some dispensaries have had the feds sicced on them by reactionary Republican county sheriffs and boards of supevisors in Red areas of the state like the Central Valley and the Inland Empire. Patients have extremely limited access there.

There are indeed hundreds of dispensaries operating in California, a state with 38 million people, but there are dozens, if not hundreds, fewer than there used to be because of the administration crackdown.

The Obama administration is losing friends over this. I'm starting to hear increasing angry talk about voting for Gary Johnson. That won't be much of an issue here in California, but could hurt Obama in Colorado, which is a toss-up state, which has also seen federal raids on dispensaries, and which will be voting on marijuana legalization in November.