Posted on 02/07/2008 8:02:55 AM PST by SmithL
Medical marijuana in San Francisco may be going up in smoke.
In late December, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration sent letters to landlords of buildings that housed medical cannabis dispensaries in the city, telling them they face the loss of their property and possibly prison if the businesses stay open.
Now, less than two months later, seven of the city's 28 dispensaries have closed or are on the verge of closing, according to medical marijuana supporters and activists. They fear more will follow.
"It's like a dagger in the heart," said Wayne Justmann, a medical marijuana advocate. "We're barely holding on right now."
Dispensary owners are being guarded about the closures, as they are fearful that speaking publicly will draw attention to their individual businesses and put them at greater risk.
So far, the Mason Street Dispensary in the Tenderloin district has closed completely. One of the city's older dispensaries, 194 Church St. - which last year city supervisors tried to name as a historic site - no longer sells marijuana but is still open for people to use the space to get high.
One of the best known dispensaries, the San Francisco Patients' Cooperative on Divisadero Street, will shut its doors at the end of the month after nearly 20 years, according to the Rev. Randi Webster, one of the cooperative's founders.
The owner of the building was "severely frightened" by the DEA letter, and the cooperative founders and the landlord had agreed years ago to part ways in the event of a situation like this, Webster said.
Activists will not disclose the locations of other dispensaries that have or may soon shut their doors.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Haha!
Next they’ll be throwing cancer patients into prison just to see what happens.
Glad to hear the federal government has their priorities straight. DEA bullying continues...
Why are you on this site??
Spare us the hysterical, emotionalized lefty propaganda.
Like most utter morons who throw the word "fascism" around the way a baby throws food, you have no conception of what the word means.
I know people who survived Hitler's Germany, and who lived through the Soviet occupation of the Ukraine.
They know what fascism really is, and they would laugh bitterly at a privileged nitwit who compares enforcement of constitutionally vetted law made by a duly elected representative assembly to the hell on earth they endured.
no use for the Bill of Rights
There is no right to deal drugs in the Constitution.
Why are you on this site??
A question you might more justly ask yourself.
The best solution may be for the SF government to let the dispensaries operate out of government buildings. That way the federal agents would have to go after the city itself. Then the Mayor and others will have to stand behind their policies, and settle the matter one way or another.
There is no prohibition either...Not ALL rights are enumerated in the constitution.
“Freedom for us is a prison for the rulers of minds....”
Of course. Therefore, such matters as regulating the trafficking in medicines and purported medicines is left up to either the states or the people.
The people, through their agent the US Congress, have legislated on this matter.
Why are you on this site??
Dude - if you want to go out and get stoned - then go out and get stoned. Don't feed me the lines of this is a medical necessity and it is for the "good" of the public...
They're having a "Going Out of Business Sale". Medical marijuana for $460/ounce -- marked down from $480/ounce.
$480/ounce is "compassion"? That's caring about the sick and dying? You can get it illegally for half that price!
Look. If the medical marijuana supporters don't care about the sick and dying, why should I?
You ARE Wide Awake alright!
Hey man, Caring Costs! ... Just give them a couple Billion dollars to save the Earth and be quiet!
Gotta keep them white women from having sex with black jazz musicians, doncha know ...
It’s an interesting experiment... Combining this with the proposed cutting of funds due to Berkeley’s insult to the Marines... Let’s put a dome on the city and watch!
thank you - sir - for this posting.
No, I am saying that if you believe that a federal law against drug dealing is unconstitutional, you had better point out an explicit guarantee of the right to deal drugs in the Constitution.
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