Feds Warn Oakland on Pot Farms

[marmar]

from Mother Jones:



Earlier this year, the City Council of Oakland, California, voted to issue permits for industrial-scale medical marijuana farms. Four hydroponic warehouses, each holding some 30,000 cannabis plants, are expected to yield the city between $4.8 and $7.7 million per year in tax revenues. City boosters hope the farms will help re-brand this rusting port city as a capital of all things cannabis, an "Oaksterdam" with its own brands of pot-related products and tourist destinations. But there's a hitch, California Watch reports, and it involves the federal government:

Officials from the Justice Department’s civil division and the U.S. attorney’s office in San Francisco delivered the blunt message to Oakland City Attorney John Russo, according to two officials who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to talk about the meetings.

"The warning is clear: These are illegal, large-scale pot growing operations, with Oakland planning to get a cut of the illicit profits," said one official.

Apparently, Russo saw all of this coming. Yesterday the Bay Citizen reported that he'd declined to sign off of the city's pot farm plan and issued a memo in August raising legal concerns about it. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/12/feds-warn-oakland-pot-farms

[pipoman]

1. It seems it would have been easier to defend

if the pot legalization bill had passed...now, not so much.