The Obama administration has just officially threatened the city of Oakland, California over their licensing of those four proposed weed-culture-crushing, 100,000 square-foot marijuana factories saying “the plan is in violation of state and federal law and could trigger multiple legal actions against the city.”
The blunt Federal threats were recently delivered to Oakland City Attorney John Russo by anonymous officials in the Justice Department’s Civil Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco. “The warning is clear: These are illegal, large-scale pot growing operations, with Oakland planning to get a cut of the illicit profits,” officially, said one officially anonymous official.
Back in November when Prop 19, the ballot initiative to legalize weed here in California, failed…Oakland stuck it to medical marijuana patients state-wide by approving a business tax-hike of 5-percent on all medical marijuana operators and future growers that’ll surely lead to a windfall of cashola for Oakland when these factories open next year. So Oakland ain’t gonna be giving up on the idea of mainstreaming marijuana any time soon.
Russo admits the Justice Department officials have been barking about the large-scale grows since last month. “They’ve expressed their concerns that the path Oakland is taking is in violation of the law,” he’s admitted on record. Anyhow, supporters and weed opportunists looking to cash-in on the large scale grows are behind Attorney General Jerry Brown’s recent guidelines calling for a closed-circuit cycle of “marijuana cultivation and consumption with no purchases or sales to or from non-members,” which is really just a reminder of how marijuana collectives and cooperatives are set-up in the first place…as a result of Proposition 215, the measure that legalized medical marijuana back in ’96.
But the Feds, who have gone on record saying they’re taking a “hands-off” approach to legally operating medical marijuana dispensaries, see it otherwise…insisting marijuana, medical or not, remains illegal in California under Federal law. And, now they have concluded…after “careful” study of Oakland’s approved Mega-Weed Mart ordinance…that the new ordinance violates state law because it treats medical marijuana grows as distinct business entities for tax purposes, severing the direct tie between grower and patient that underpins the legal standing of a medical marijuana collective or cooperative. Therefore, “Oakland would be on the hook for violating state and federal law,” said another anonymous official.
As far as we know, Oakland hasn’t responded yet and their plan for factory weed-farming is still underway. Of course, we’ll let you all know more when we hear more…
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3 Responses to “Obama Administration Threatens Oakland Over Large-Scale Weed Factories”
Barry Sator
The FEDs could also use the same bogus reasoning that they use to gain jurisdiction of marijuana in the first place…..interstate commerce.
They claim they can regulate marijuana even when it is not sold outside of the state because it might influence pricing in neighboring states. Imagine the “influence” on pricing the 4 huge grow operations would have.
blaine
someone needs to pin sarah palin douwn that if she wins, would she honor states rights on med pot
javier
everyone smoke your weed, and dnt forget to pass the torch