Pubdate: Thu, 13 Oct 2011
Source: Sacramento News & Review (CA)
Copyright: 2011 Chico Community Publishing, Inc.
Contact:  http://newsreview.com/sacto/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/540
Author: Nick Miller

FEDS AND MEDS

Local Medical-Cannabis Community Faces Crackdowns, Talks Union

The federal government is literally going postal on the Sacramento 
medical-cannabis community.

Already this past week, downtown-based U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. 
Wagner has sent out "more than a dozen letters," according to a 
spokesperson, to area landlords, warning that they face both seizure 
of land and also federal prosecution for allowing medical-cannabis 
operations on their property. This comes on the heels of last 
Friday's press conference, where California's four U.S. attorneys 
announced a ramped-up enforcement strategy against the state's 
medical-cannabis community.

"It's a warning letter," explained Wagner spokeswoman Lauren Horwood. 
"But if people don't act on the advice of the letter, then action 
will be taken."

Unlike federal letters that went out in Los Angeles, where landlords 
were given as few as 10 days to comply, Sacramento-area letters 
included no timeline for action. "Our recommendation makes it clear 
that the owners need to comply immediately," Horwood said. She added 
that landlords should retain an attorney and each will be handled on 
a "case-by-case" basis.

A total of 16 states in the nation permit medical cannabis, but the 
feds have zeroed in on California for what they see as egregious 
violations of its laws, including interstate trafficking, selling to 
minors and multimillion-dollar commercial operations that violate its 
Compassionate Use Act of 1996.

This isn't the first time the feds have sent letters. Courtney 
Sheats, the local representative for cannabis-advocacy group 
Americans for Safe Access, noted that in 2007, the federal government 
warned property owners in the L.A.-area, but never followed through 
with any actual enforcement.

So far, no Sacramento-area collectives have shut down due to the 
federal enforcement.

"I have not heard of anybody closing," Sheats said. "And the feedback 
that I'm hearing is that the collectives do want to stay open and 
anticipate staying open, because our patient need is great."

But, local medical-cannabis collective owners, who spoke to SN&R on 
the condition of anonymity, are at once panicking and also organizing.

One collective operator has already laid off a handful of employees. 
Others have removed their online presence from Facebook, Twitter, 
Yelp, WeedMaps and WeedTracker. Many have pulled their print, TV and 
radio advertising as well. Celebrity Montel Williams even flew in to 
Sacramento this past Tuesday to speak with patients personally at his 
Midtown-based collective.

Also, Tuesday was a deadline for collectives to pay a $12,000 permit 
fee to the city of Sacramento as part of its ordinance. But owners 
are concerned that the city may eventually alter its ordinance in 
light of the federal announcement and a recent Los Angeles Superior 
Court verdict on a government's ability to regulate cannabis.

Meanwhile, Sacramento collectives are reaching out to unions-similar 
to Richard Lee in Oaksterdam joining the United Food and Commercial 
Workers union in May 2010. City collective owners have said they hope 
to better leverage the federal government with union backing.

For certain, it's all hands on deck. In the words of the National 
Association for the Reform of Marijuana Laws' Dale Gieringer: "I 
think it's safe to say the medical-marijuana community is under 
attack right now."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom