UFCW STANDS WITH MEDICAL CANNABIS RETAIL WORKERS

[Omaha Steve]

Source: UFCW Blog



Demands an End to U.S. Attorney’s Misguided Enforcement Action



(Washington, D.C.) – The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), the nation’s largest retail worker organization, demands an immediate end to the U.S. Attorney’s misguided prosecution of operators of small dispensaries of legal medical cannabis in California.



In the past year, thousands of hardworking and taxpaying medical cannabis industry workers have joined together with the UFCW in various states in order to protect their jobs in this emerging industry. In today’s economy, hourly wage jobs like these that pay good wages with decent benefits are vital to keeping our economy afloat and families out of poverty.



At a time when the unemployment rate hovers around 9 percent, our economy requires bold action from our government to create good family-sustaining jobs. The steps taken by the four California U.S. attorneys to send letters Wednesday and Thursday notifying at least 16 medical dispensaries and their landlords that they are violating federal drug laws would do just the opposite.



“I have a good middle class American Job with good health benefits and a pension that I can look forward to,” said Larry Richards, a UFCW Local 5 member and a manager at the Blue Sky Dispensary in Oakland, California. “Because of our industry and our union I am able to be a productive breadwinner and, as a person living with HIV since 1983, I have fought and struggled not to be a drain on society. I want to work, I want to be productive but now, they want to take my job and put me back on the rolls of Social Security.”



UFCW proudly stands with our members in the Humboldt Growers Association, the Citizens for Safer Neighborhoods Committee of Colorado, the Michigan Medical Marijuana Association, and our coalition partners in MendoGrown, the Patients Care Alliance, the National Cannabis Industry Association, and the Citizens Coalition for Patient Care.

Medical cannabis is a safe and effective treatment option for many serious medical conditions including cancer, and patients should not be forced to purchase their medicine from criminals, drug dealers, and thugs. If the federal government closes commercial dispensaries and collectives in California, patients will have no safe access to their medication. In addition, thousands of workers will be forced from their jobs in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.



UFCW and our members are dedicated to a dignified, controlled, taxed, regulated, compliant, unionized medical cannabis industry. We stand in solidarity with the workers and patients of the unionized medical cannabis industry.



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United Food and Commercial Workers Union represents over 1.3 million workers in the United States and Canada, and is one of the largest private sector unions in North America. UFCW members work in a wide range of industries, including retail food, food processing, agriculture, retail sales, health care, manufacturing, and medical cannabis.



Read more: http://ufcw.blogspot.com/2011/10/ufcw-stands-with-medical-cannabis.html

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[GReedDiamond]

1. Excellent! KnR...nt

[patrice]

2. Entrepreneurship. LOCAL economy. Love. Solidarity!!!

[alittlelark]

3. I know a few members working in the trade.

They could make more $ under the table, but are choosing to make it all aboveboard and legal.

I respect them for it.

[DesertFlower]

4. K&R. nt

[red dog 1]

5. Obama breaks another campaign promise.

During a town hall meeting in Laconia, New Hampshire, on June 2, 2007, Senator Obama was asked if he would continue the federal raids on medical marijuana users and their caregivers.

Senator Obama responded.."I don't think that should be a top priority of us....
raiding people who are using..medical marijuana. With all the things we've got to worry about, and our Justice Department should be doing, that probably should not be a priority"

At another town hall meeting in Manchester, New Hampshire, Senator Obama was asked if he would end the raids, and Senator Obama replied: "The Justice Department going after sick individuals using this (marijuana) as a palliative instead of going after serious criminals makes no sense."

Speaking about going after criminals, the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Senator Lamar Smith (R-Texas) is requesting that a Special Counsel be appointed to see if Attorney General Holder lied to Congress about when he first knew of the Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF)'s "Fast and Furious" program

With his Attorney General facing such a serious charge as lying to Congress, one might ask if Obama deliberately gave the green light to the Justice Department,(and it's U.S. Attorneys) to go after medical marijuana dispensaries
now, nearly 3 years into his presidency

Why is he doing this now?...Does he even care about medical marijuana patients?

[CountAllVotes]

6. Does he even care about medical marijuana patients?

Very good question. I'm beginning to wonder if he cares about anyone at all in this country except for his good friends on Wall Street! :argh: :mad:

:dem: :kick:

[fascisthunter]

10. not as much as he does the elite

who do not want medical marijuana to mess with their bottom-line.

[IamK]

9. Simple... he lied to get votes and not just on this issue.....

[RainDog]

7. k&r n/t

[alp227]

8. Thom Hartmann theorized today that the alcohol/pharma industries lobbied DEA

into enforcing the anti cannabis laws.

But good on UFCW. Somebody has to stand up to the ruthless authorities.

[bemildred]

11. Good. Fill the jails, go to trial with it every time.

Show the bastards how impotent they really are against people who are not afraid.