Obama Administration Threatens Oakland Over Large-Scale Weed Factories

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…