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July 17, 2012 – Digest for s..[email protected] – 3 Messages in 3 Topics

    Mickey Martin <s..[email protected]> Jul 17 09:19AM -0700  

    Do the work…again.
    Posted by Mickey Martin on July 17th, 2012
    Activism comes in many forms.
    Cannabis activism can be a thankless role in our society. On one hand you are preaching to a largely unmotivated and cynical choir that already likes weed, but because weed is so readily available and largely not a major problem, they do not heed the call to activism. On the other side you have those who are uneducated and skeptical about cannabis due to decades of misinformation and drug war propaganda. Both audiences present challenges in messaging and methodology.
    For the person who already likes weed but does not get the sense of urgency to actually do anything about these disastrous laws that are ruining our society, the objective is to find their motivation to get them to become active. This person already shares your views on cannabis freedom, and just needs a fire lit under their ass to join the fight. So what is your job? To light that fire. Too often we shy from the opportunity to have real and meaningful conversations about pot. We like to discuss how good it is, and how it grows, and all of the new fandangled methods of ingestion that are out there…but what about that “coming to Jesus” discussion about weed? Is anyone having that?
    It is easy…it starts like this….
    “Dude, can you believe we lock up 25% of the world’s prison population but only have 5% of the actual population? That is insane. We are taking poor people to jail for weed and other non-violent drug offenses at alarming rates. It is ruining our society. It makes me very sad and angry.”
    Did you see what happened there? You used real hard facts, combined with personal emotion, to create a dialogue that is both informative, and meaningful. The person you are having the discussion is forced to think about how the joint they enjoy helps fuel the war on drugs an in turn, imprisons poor kids who sell weed ”illegally.” You create an enormous realization when you can clearly show how out of control our nation’s drug laws are. The next thing to do is to challenge the person to be a part of the solution.
    The way this battle ends is with many more of us demanding an end to these policies than those that choose to keep them in place. When the voice of the American public grows louder than the big business lobbying groups that have sold us the drug war, then we win. So we must encourage our friends, family and supporters to continue to carry the message that this thing must end and we must quit taking people to jail for weed. It is not working. Encourage people to make phone calls and spread our message far and wide.
    Every conversation is important, whether it is other families on your kid’s soccer team, or some random person in line at the grocery store. If you can educate just one person, and motivate them to educate and inspire another, then we are making good progress. People have to feel empowered to do the work, and to find success to encourage them to do it again and again. Brick by brick we remove the walls of prohibition. The power to do this lies in our ability to inform and motivate our neighbors to join us on our quest for cannabis freedom. Nine out of ten people understand that the war on cannabis has failed and that we need a new direction.
    But every once in a while you will come upon some died-in-the-wool prohibitionist who clings to the theory that we can arrest our way out of our nation’s drug laws. These people are fucking crazy, but a part of our society that we have to live with nonetheless. Some of these folks have just drank the crazy kool-aid in one form or another. They have bought the propaganda that cannabis is illegal and that people who use all “illegal” drugs are criminals and derelicts. They have blinded themselves to the reality that our society is filled with drugs, and that our strategy to simply lock up everyone in sight who uses this drug, while celebrating people who use these other drugs, has just failed miserably. It is our duty to wake these people up to the facts….the most dangerous things about drugs is their being illegal and us making criminals out of so many good people in the name of prohibition.
    Some people may never get it, and that is okay. Many have bought into the dramatic storyline of a rehab experience, or have invested into a religious view that these certain drugs are evil, and some are just in it for the money and make their paycheck from weed being illegal. In fact, a lot of fucking people make their income off of weed and other drugs being illegal. Lawyers, prison workers, cops, doctors, rehab workers, drug testers, booze workers, bail bonders, and dozens of other groups and industries that make their coin on the backs of the drug war and taking poor people to jail for weed. It is sick really.
    There are two strategies you can take with these type of pro-prohibition cannaphobic people. One is to work to change their views. To do this you must have knowledge and evidence of why their views are immoral, unjust and out of step with the reality. You must be able to make an argument that is captivating enough to make them consider it, and you have to be convincing. More convincing than their rehab counselor, preacher, or industry trade group has ever been. But you would be surprised how many are willing to listen. If you can lay out the basic facts that we are sacrificing safe communities and wasting immeasurable resources to prop up a failed drug war, you can make the case for reform.
    The other strategy is to attack their views aggressively and call them out for the immorality of the prohibitionist position. Remind them (gently or not) that their choice to support prohibition results in thousands of deaths and a prison population that is by far the highest on earth. Their position supports organized crime and supports taking money away from schools to fund militarized police forces that chase people around for safe and enjoyable plants. You must be sure they know that by promoting drug enforcement, or the status quo, they are a part of the problem. Their views continue to create a dangerous and criminal black market where drugs are more readily available than ever, despite our incarcerating 5x the amount of people than the rest of the planet. Their position attacks the underprivileged, and tears at the moral fabric of our society. When in doubt, make them feel some shame for their position. It may not work immediately, but you
    plant a seed. People generally like to be respected, and if they have to worry that their personal position on weed may be out of step with the rest of our society, they may quietly change that position on their own time.
    The reality is that anyone who thinks the current system is working is just not living in reality. We are almost there. It is our duty to DO THE WORK; and when you are done doing the work, DO IT AGAIN. The way we win this thing is through social justice and a call for meaningful change in our nation’s policies. This is happening…more and more every day. Our conversations are working. We are winning the hearts and minds of millions of people a day, We must not stop now. We must put the pedal to the metal and get this thing done. Now get back to work….
    #SummerOfBuds
     
    Mickey Martin
    T-Comp Consulting Director
    Author of Medical Marijuana 101
    www.cannabiswarrior.com
    www.tcompconsulting.com
    s..[email protected]
    (phone#-removed)
    http://twitter.com/micKEYmarTIN
    http://twitter.com/CANNABISconsult
     
    ***The views expressed in this communication are not necessarily the views of T-Comp Consulting, Tainted Compassion, Cannabis Warrior any other group I am affiliated with.***

     

    William West <s..[email protected]> Jul 16 10:26PM -0700  

    ASA we need you! Now is the time for a National
    Movement<http://theweedlynews.com/?p=13063>
    (EDIT POST)<http://theweedlynews.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=13063&action=edit>
     
    ASA we need you! Now is the time for a National
    Movement<http://theweedlynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/InWeedWeTrust.jpg>
     
    Let me start off by saying I’m not a fan of big business, in this case MMJ
    dispensaries, taking obscene profits off of the backs of farmers who get
    the ‘wholesale screw’ when it comes to what a dispensary should and could
    pay as a fair price for all their hard work. Nor am I coming to the
    dispensary’s defense when they pile on the over the counter price to
    patients that want to ‘play by the rules’ have a card and attempt to comply
    with the laws in the state that they live in.
     
    I am a fan of a dispensary making a profit, it’s what keeps the light on,
    and playing by the rules in the state they do business in. And by playing
    by the rules I mean, all dispensaries have to be sqeaky clean and lead by
    example to a minimum as follows;
     
    1) Ascertaining that all their patients have state approved cards
     
    2) That state guidelines for dispensing of the products is being followed
     
    3) That they are good members of the community. And by that I mean they are
    accessible when neighbors’ complaints are made known, they outreach to
    inform anyone who care to know more what exactly it is they do and how
    their products and services benefit those who choose to use them.
     
    4) They pay their bills.
     
    5) They pay their taxes and are transparent insofar as the law requires, as
    to what the returns show in the form net profits after expenses have been
    transparently accounted for.
     
    6) Be advocates in the effort to expand the science and understanding of
    homeopathic medicine.
     
    7) Be advocates of developing standards that apply to all MMJ products that
    will lead to better controls of product standards and quality. This
    standardization will than assist in better management of medically
    qualified prescription responses to specific conditions and dosing to treat
    those conditions.
     
    If I were to describe the poster child big business dispensary that met
    these standards it would have to be Steve D’Angelos Harborside Patients
    Group. With over 100,000 patients and $22M in reported annual gross sales
    HPG may qualify as the nation’s largest dispensary.
     
    Today HPG is in a fight for its very right to exist with the federal
    government on two fronts. The first being the IRS:
     
    The IRS has ruled that HPG, one of California’s largest medical marijuana
    dispensaries, owes $2.5 million in taxes. Such a large tax bill could
    potentially force Harborside out of business.
     
    The problem is not that HPG has been involved in any form of tax evasion or
    attempts to defraud the government. The issue is that the IRS has
    determined that an obscure provision of a 1982 federal law prevents a
    marijuana dispensary from qualifying for the standard deductions that any
    other normal business could use. From the San Francisco Chronicle:
     
    Harborside Health Center owes the Internal Revenue Service back taxes for
    2007 and 2008, based on a federal law prohibiting marijuana dispensaries –
    unlike other businesses – from deducting payroll, insurance, rent, workers’
    compensation and other operating costs from its revenues.
     
    “We think this assessment is unfair and inaccurate. We have no choice but
    to fight this,” said Harborside executive director Steve DeAngelo. “I’m
    profoundly concerned on behalf of our patients.”
     
    The issue at stake here is much bigger than the fate of HPG. If marijuana
    dispensaries’ federal tax responsibility isn’t calculated in the same way
    as a normal business, the huge added tax burden could make running such
    dispensaries extremely difficult if not impossible. Not being able to
    deduct normal expenses like payroll and rent would cause a dispensary’s
    federal tax bill to increase several fold.
     
    The precedent the IRS is trying to establishing with this HPG case could
    easily cripple or destroy the entire medical marijuana industry in this
    country. The result could be thousands of Americans all over the country
    losing their jobs in the industry and thousands of patients losing their
    safe access to the medicine they depend on.
     
    Then what sets up HPG latest imbroglio with the fed stems from the October
    2007 the DOJ notices that were sent to all California dispensaries giving
    them notice to shut down or risk civil forfeiture actions;
     
    “We want to put to rest the notion that large marijuana businesses can
    shelter themselves under state law,” said U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag, the
    top federal prosecutor in San Francisco. She joined U.S attorneys from
    Sacramento, San Diego and Los Angeles in Sacramento.
     
    Haag said the 1996 voter-approved law “has been hijacked by profiteers …
    using the cover to make enormous amounts of money.”
     
    In a separate statement, the U.S. attorney for the central district of
    California, André Birotte Jr., said: “It is important to note that
    for-profit, commercial marijuana operations are illegal not only under
    federal law, but also under California law. While California law permits
    collective cultivation of marijuana in limited circumstances, it does not
    allow commercial distribution through the store-front model we see across
    California.”
     
    True to their word; on July 10th 2012 DEA agents taped a notice of property
    forfeiture to the HPG doors.
     
    The federal government is moving to shut down the nation’s largest and
    highest-profile medical marijuana dispensary operation, filing papers to
    seize properties in Oakland and San Jose where Harborside Health Center
    does business. Copies of the federal Complaint for Forfeiture were taped to
    the front doors of the two dispensaries Tuesday, alleging that they were
    “operating in violation of federal law.”
     
    Medical marijuana advocates, as well as some state and local officials,
    decried the action, saying it hurts patients in legitimate need of the drug
    and breaks repeated promises by President Obama’s Justice Department that
    it was targeting only operations near schools and parks or otherwise in
    violation of the state’s laws. The U.S. attorney for Northern California,
    Melinda Haag, said she now found “the need to consider actions regarding
    marijuana superstores such as Harborside” because they presented unique
    opportunities for abuse.
     
    A similar notice was sent to Harborside’s smaller sister dispensary in San
    Jose. The complaint is the latest shot in a campaign Haag and other U.S.
    attorneys have waged since last fall against medical marijuana operations
    in California. She says any activity that goes beyond small medical
    marijuana exchanges violates the spirit of the state law that voters passed
    in 1996 authorizing pot use for medicinal purposes.
     
    “Harborside, Haag said in a statement Wednesday, is among “superstores”
    that violate the spirit of the law. “The larger the operation, the greater
    the likelihood that there will be abuse of the state’s medical marijuana
    law, and marijuana in the hands of individuals who do not have a
    demonstrated medical need. The filing of the civil forfeiture complaints
    against the two Harborside properties is part of our measured effort to
    address the proliferation of illegal marijuana businesses in the Northern
    District of California.”
     
    The problem I have with statements such as ‘superstores that violate the
    spirit of the state law that voters passed in 1996 authorizing pot use for
    medicinal purposes’ and ‘demonstrated medical need’ leave the reader
    believing that the fed is not opposed to distribution under ambiguous
    federal determinations in that the fed’s decision to seize the HPG building
    and contents has more to do with the size of the business and their not
    ‘being in the spirit’ of state law.
     
    There is no ambiguity in the federal DOJ-DEA interpretation of the use of
    marijuana for the treatment of any medical treatment.
    http://www.justice.gov/dea/marijuana_position.pdf
     
    As a schedule 1 drug the federal position has always been at odds with any
    states law that would declare the distribution of a schedule 1 drug to be
    legal in direct violation of the controlled substance act. Period.
     
    Some will point to the DOJ Ogden memo of October 2009
    http://blogs.usdoj.gov/blog/archives/192 that gave federal prosecutors
    ‘discretionary authority over who they would prosecute under federal law as
    to how state distribution programs are allowed to exist without federal
    enforcement.
     
    As a general matter, pursuit of these priorities should not focus federal
    resources in your States on individuals whose actions are in clear and
    unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical
    use of marijuana. For example, prosecution of individuals with cancer or
    other serious illnesses who use marijuana as part of a recommended
    treatment regimen consistent with applicable state law, or those caregivers
    in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state law who provide
    such individuals with marijuana, is unlikely to be an efficient use of
    limited federal resources.-
     
    Regarded as a partial success for states who began licensing medical
    marijuana dispensaries it was poorly written in that it left the federal
    prosecutors ambiguous guidelines as to when federal enforcement would be
    initiated. This memo did help spawn an industry though.
     
    But that memo stood only so long since on June 2011 the Ogden Memo was
    overridden and ‘clarified’ in an attempt to rewrite history under this
    amended memo to federal prosecutors;
     
    The Ogden Memorandum was never intended to shield such activities from
    federal enforcement action and prosecution, even where those activities
    purport to comply with state law. Persons who are in the business of
    cultivating, selling or distributing marijuana, and those who knowingly
    facilitate such activities, are in violation of the Controlled Substances
    Act, regardless of state law. Consistent with resource constraints and the
    discretion you may exercise in your district, such persons are subject to
    federal enforcement action, including potential prosecution. State laws or
    local ordinances are not a defense to civil or criminal enforcement of
    federal law with respect to such conduct, including enforcement of the CSA.
    Those who engage in transactions involving the proceeds of such activity
    may also be in violation of federal money laundering statutes and other
    federal financial laws.
     
    http://reason.com/blog/2011/06/30/white-house-overrides-2009-mem
     
    Federal interpretation of state guidelines that would allow this ‘industry’
    to exist as a conduit to distribute a Schedule 1 drug runs contrary to the
    Controlled Substance Act.
     
    http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/schedules/#define
     
    and as further detailed in DEA – US Department of Justice 1308 para d(31)
     
    http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/21cfr/cfr/1308/1308_11.htm
     
    While there are numerous persuasive and logical arguments that would lend
    themselves to reclassifying cannabis under a different classification that
    has yet to be done.
     
    http://www.drugawareness.us/articles/policy.pdf
     
    All arguments to reclassify cannabis have gone largely unnoticed by the
    Federal Government. Instead selective federal enforcement of these laws is
    being utilized to shut down dispensaries in states where ‘legal’ guidelines
    have been setup under state initiatives to dispense cannabis in clear
    defiance of these federal laws and as directed under the DOJ memorandums
    directing them to do so.
     
    With the October 2007 DOJ notice to close many CA dispensary operators
    sought a low profile since California’s four U.S. attorneys began cracking
    down on the industry in October, DeAngelo has consistently railed against
    the federal intervention, advocated for better state regulations and become
    a leader in the movement. “People are not going to stop using cannabis,
    they’re just going to buy it in the illegal marketplace … on the streets,”
    he said Wednesday in an interview. “Why are federal prosecutors using their
    discretion to do something so profoundly destructive?”
     
    DeAngelo said that he would “fight the Justice Department openly and in
    public and that he would resist any effort by his landlords to evict the
    dispensaries in response to the federal complaint — which target the
    property owners, not the tenants.”
     
    While all marijuana use and sales are illegal under federal law, Atty. Gen.
    Eric H. Holder told the House Judiciary Committee that federal agents were
    ”targeting only those large-scale growers and dispensaries that have “come
    up with ways in which they are taking advantage of these state laws, and
    going beyond that which the states have authorized.”
     
    In a statement released late Wednesday, Haag suggested “superstores such as
    Harborside” fit that bill.
     
    “The larger the operation, the greater the likelihood that there will be
    abuse of the state’s medical marijuana laws, and marijuana in the hands of
    individuals who do not have a demonstrated medical need.”
     
    She noted that Harborside claims to have “over 108,000 customers.”
     
    California’s medical marijuana laws are nebulous in regard to how the drug
    is to be distributed and courts have yet to settle the matter. Still,
    marijuana activists often hail HPG as a model of professionalism and
    compliance. Its main facility in Oakland is one of four independent
    enterprises permitted and strictly regulated by the city.
     
    “If Harborside is not in compliance with state law, no one is,” said
    DeAngelo, 54.
     
    The Oakland dispensary was awarded its permit in 2006 after the city put
    out a request for proposals. DeAngelo says it does about $22 million in
    annual sales, and the San Jose shop does about $8 million. Together they
    pay about $3 million in city and state sales taxes, and employ more than
    100 people.
     
    The state Board of Equalization estimates it collects $58 million to $105
    million in annual sales tax from dispensaries.
     
    “If we continue to drive everything underground, we’re going to create an
    unsafe environment for patients who need this product … and lose revenue,”
    board member Betty Yee said.
     
    This week’s move against HPG further highlights the continuing conflict
    between local and federal officials over the drug.
     
    “The city of Oakland has developed a system to assure such distribution
    occurs according to state law in a fair and orderly process,” Nancy Nadel,
    member of the Oakland City Council and vice mayor of the city, said in a
    statement. “It is most unjust to our citizen patients and distributors who
    have followed local guidelines to be harassed and treated as criminals by
    federal officials.”
     
    Medical marijuana advocates said the Obama administration has repeatedly
    reneged on its promises that it would not meddle with the state laws.
     
    “This is the most obvious and significant step by the federal government in
    attacking completely law-abiding dispensaries,” said Kris Hermes, spokesman
    for the advocacy group Americans for Safe Access. “It becomes more
    untenable for them to say they are just going after certain facilities and
    not just undermining the state’s marijuana laws.”
     
    Hermes said the Justice Department has sent more than 200 letters to
    dispensaries and their landlords, threatening to seize their property if
    the shops do not close. It has been an effective strategy. With the
    letters, raids by the Drug Enforcement Administration and IRS audits, the
    government has forced more than 400 to close in the state, Hermes said,
    including the nearby Berkeley Patients Group, which was also seen as a
    model in the industry and closely regulated by local