Federal prosecutors are cracking down on dozens of marijuana growers and dispensaries in California, saying they are really for-profit trafficking operations - not efforts to help sick people.
Dozens of people have been indicted, and numerous pot dispensaries ordered to shut their doors in a wide-ranging series of investigations conducted by U.S. Attorneys in several parts of the state.
“The California marijuana industry is not about providing medicine to the sick,” said Laura E. Duffy, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of California. “It’s a pervasive for-profit industry that violates federal law.”
Among those named in indictments unsealed Friday were seven people affiliated with a now-defunct North Hollywood operation called NoHo Caregivers, where investigators said they found 23 pounds of pot, a pound of hashish and two 16-year-old boys smoking the merchandise.
Others named in a variety of cases include:
- A Wilshire Blvd. attorney who prosecutors said conducted a pot-growing operation from his law office.
- Two Modesto men who allegedly had 500 pot plants growing in a cornfield, with an assault rifle nearby.
- A father and son accused of running a “marijuana store” in Fresno County.
Prosecutors also issued letters to dozens of dispensaries – which they called “marijuana stores” around the state that are operating in cities that have banned them. These include operations in Pomona, Laguna Niguel, Murietta and others.
Marijuana dispensaries operate in a precarious environment in California, because while it’s legal under state law to operate a non-profit dispensary for patients who have prescriptions, that’s still against federal law.
Federal officials and the Obama Administration have said that they won’t go after people who are really ill, or collectives that are truly distributing pot to patients who need it.
But they say a huge for-profit industry has grown up in the state, masquerading as medical collectives.
"The federal enforcement actions are aimed at commercial marijuana operations," said André Birotte Jr., the United States Attorney for the Central District of California. The marijuana industry is controlled by profiteers.”
But advocates of medical marijuana said pot provides needed relief for chronic conditions including the pain from end-stage cancer and degenerative diseases like multiple sclerosis.
Joe Elford, chief counsel for the pro-medical marijuana group Americans for Safe Access, predicted that it won’t be long before patients begin to fight back.
"It’s extremely unfortunate for a lot of folks who really need this medicine," Elford said. "If they see problems in the way it’s being implemented they could work with us on it. But it’s not an excuse to really deprive people of medical marijuana."
The crackdown comes at an already difficult time for the hundreds of pot dispensaries that have crowded street corners throughout the state since medical marijuana became decriminalized.
On Tuesday, a California appeals court ruled that cities and counties could not regulate the stores in any way that makes it appear that local governments are endorsing the sale of marijuana. The ruling is expected to lead to a ban on pot dispensaries in many cities, and up-end efforts in Los Angeles to regulate them.
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