This diary is about the games the US Attys in Calif. are playing with Pres. Obama and AG Holder. You will remember that Pres. Obama promised to stop the DEA from wasting money by going after those following State Laws on Medical Marijuana. Back on March 18th Eric Holder announced the new policy on busting Patients and the dispensarys that serve them. Like almost every law now days it had some wiggle-words in it. The catch is that a grower or dispensary must be following all the State Laws to be left alone. Most assumed that meant all the MMJ/215 regs must be followed. Then they busted Emmalyns dispensary, one of the smallest and most patient oriented dispensary in SF. Even the DEA was overheard complaining about how little medicine they found. Later that day the word on the street and in the newspapers was the Ca."law" the DEA was saying they had broken was a late tax bill. Whether or not that is true we still don't know, and if it is how did the Feds know anything about that State tax account and why ?
That happen within a week of AG Holder's announcement and it shocked and outraged many in the MMJ community, many State and Local Lawmakers, and even many people just interested in justice.
The next event in this timeline was the sentencing hearing for Charles Lynch. I don't think I need to go into his case fully here, most of you know it already. At the hearing Judge Wu surprised everyone when he refused to go ahead with the sentencing until he had the new policy in his hands so he could make a informed decision. This is very important imho because Judge Wu was really tough on any use of the words "medical marijuana", refused any talk of Calif. Marijuana laws, and went after and has banned appox half the witnesses/patients of Charles. If the Atty Gen. is making a bust conditional on the breaking of a State Law is Judge Wu now going to find himself having to decide Ca. law at the same time ? Is that even legal ? We're pretty sure Charles hadn't broken any of the Ca. laws since the local Sheriff spent a yr trying to bust him for anything before giving up and calling the DEA.
Now back to the title of this diary. On April 8 U.S. Attorney Joseph Russoniello, met and debated Joe Elford of Americans for Safe Access at the Hasting School of Law. All reports say it got pretty heated during the debate and the question period. Mr. Elford described the debate for Fred Gardner, the Editor of O’Shaughnessy’s, the Journal of Cannabis in Clinical Practice.
"He revealed that after Attorney General’s announcement, the four US attorneys in the state met and they decided that nothing was going to change. That the policy would be what it has always been. He said that there would be little likelihood of a legitimate medical marijuana provider,a grower or a dispensary, being prosecuted by the federal authorities so long as people complied with the [state] attorney general's guidelines. He didn't go so far as to say they wouldn't be prosecuted, but he came close to saying that. Which is how Americans for Safe Access feel that Obama's new policy should play out.
"He had his copy of the [state] attorney general's guidelines with highlighted passages. He actually said that of the 300 dispensaries in California are profiteering dispensaries which are making a bunch of money and violate the attorney general’s guidelines... All dispensaries are fair game because they violate state law as well as federal law. That's scary.
Obama's Crossover Dribble on Marijuana Policy
From the above statement I figure the 4 US Attys in Ca. got together and said something long the lines of "fuck Holder" and maybe even the same to Pres. Obama since Russoniello is one of those Bushie appointments. Russoniello is also one of those that refuse to accept that Medical Marijuana is anything other than a "Stalking Horse" being used to legalize all pot. The other thing I read is that Russoniello and his buddys have decided all by themselves that even tho Ca. allows dispensarys and growers to recoop their expenses like rent, employees, electric bills, etc., that taking in a extra nickle or dime is grounds for Prison. Russoniello nor the DEA never checked with any Ca. dept or agency about any broken Ca. laws which means we are left to guess how they decided who broke what law that set the Holder policy in play.
We are now left to wait and see which of the Judges that have asked to see the new policy before they proceed with the trials before them, will release the written policy. Then we will be forced to wait and see if Russoniello and his cohorts have a god complex or if they back down. I'm willing to bet there are still thousands to be spent of more cases brought by the DEA and Russoniello while they play God. Charles Lynch is due back in court at the end of this month for his sentencing before Judge Wu. I'm curious to see if the Judge is as tough on the Law when it swings the other way, but we won't know which way it swings until that written policy is made public. Hopefully On March 9, 2009, when President Obama issued a memorandum to the heads of executive departments and agencies stating that, "The public must be able to trust the science and scientific process informing public policy decisions," and calling for "transparency in the preparation, identification, and use of scientific and technological information in policymaking." hopefully he meant that and it includes the making of the MMJ policy in Calif.