Find Out How Obama Partnered with NORML for the 2012 Campaign and Better Yet….WHY?

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Our friends over at NORML seem to be more involved in the Obama campaign efforts than even they realized. This wouldn’t actually be a bad thing since many marijuana supporters voted for the POTUS during his initial election for presidency in 2008.

Unfortunately, a lot has changed since then as Obama and the DEA have recently become less marijuana friendly. This position has left Russ Belville and the rest of the smoke community feeling somewhat neglected and forgotten about by the Obama administration. Well, imagine their surprise when an Obama ad campaign showed up on NORML’s YouTube channel.

The general idea of lending political support behind a candidate is done in exchange for consideration of some kind once they get in office. One hand is supposed to wash the other and that’s not wrong, that’s politics. “Radical” Russ Belville reminded BAM with this response to the Obama administration ad’s placement:

You want the absolute guaranteed votes of 90% of the 25 million American adults who use cannabis annually in America?

Convince Congress to pass and then you sign Barney Frank and Ron Paul’s Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act.

I’m so glad NORML spoke out about this, the American people should be more vocal about their lack of interest in playing political games with the current administration. At this point, we’re getting squeezed by interest groups no matter if you’re a marijuana supporter or not. If we all speak up when we see political bullshit and continue to give heat to those who have made promises that they’ve forgotten about then maybe we’ll one day get the type of world we all want…..A NORML one.

Latest DOJ Brief Provides Security For State Employees Enforcing Medical Marijuana Laws

by Noah Mamber

A funny thing happened on Monday. The Department of Justice filed a brief regarding state medical marijuana laws in Arizona . . . and it was a good thing, and was met with appreciation from the medical marijuana movement! Seriously. After the disappointments of the vague, not very helpful Cole memo, and the expected but still disappointing DEA denial of marijuana’s medical value, it was great to see the Department of Justice (DoJ) doing the right thing regarding medical marijuana, even if it was only in a limited way.

As you may know, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, last seen promoting states’ rights and vowing to fight on when it comes to illegal immigration, and her Attorney General, Tom Horne, had filed a suit as plaintiffs against the federal government, requesting permission to move ahead with Arizona’s medical marijuana program implementation. This was ridiculous, since no other governor has needed federal permission to move ahead with medical marijuana implementation, even though some others have also tried to use the red herring threat of federal action to slow implementation. Apparently, the DoJ also thinks Brewer’s claims are ridiculous, and it said as much in its withering Motion to Dismiss brief, in which it took apart each of the state of Arizona’s arguments, urging the court to dismiss the case. If the court dismisses the case, Brewer’s logical course of action would be to fully implement Arizona’s medical marijuana law, including licensing more than 100 dispensaries, though given her intransigence, that course of action is sadly not a given.

Throughout its brief, the DoJ basically said that the state of Arizona has no case and that plaintiffs Gov. Brewer and AG Horne have invented a controversy where none exists. Further, the brief notes that a state is not allowed to bring a case asking two sides to fight it out, without taking a position on the law in question, belying Gov. Brewer’s claims upon the suit’s filing of being a neutral party seeking “clarity.” The American judicial process simply does not work that way. In its brief, the DoJ’s criticism of the plaintiffs’ complaint was often direct and sometimes even slightly mocking, which was definitely appreciated by this reader.

The brief attacks the premise of Arizona’s suit in several ways. It says that the suit does not raise a substantial federal question (which it must in order to be heard first in federal court) because it asks for a declaratory judgment on the validity of a state law. It is amusing to watch the federal government explain Constitutional Law 101 to Gov. Brewer, noting that, “there is no federal jurisdiction of a suit by a state to declare the validity of its regulations despite possibly conflicting federal law” (p. 6). The brief also states directly that Arizona has not asserted any “actual, concrete controversy” in its complaint. The brief criticizes the plaintiffs for not identifying a controversy between the parties in the suit and notes the plaintiffs’ failure to take a side as a fatal flaw in the lawsuit, accusing the state of Arizona of “attempt[ing] to manufacture disputes among other parties” (p. 9). The brief criticizes Arizona’s decision to create twenty fictitious defendants, ten on one side of the law and ten on the other, states its doubts about the existence of the hypothetical defendants, and notes definitively that “parties cannot have ‘adverse legal interests’ necessary to establish a live controversy, when one party (particularly the plaintiff) professes to take neither side of the dispute” (p. 10). Finally, the brief denies that Arizona even has standing to raise such a claim, as it has not suffered any “injury in fact.” Basing standing on the idea that some Arizonans disagree about federal law’s effect on Arizona’s medical marijuana law will not work, nor will an unspecific suggestion about a “supposed risk that Arizona citizens will lose revenue or property” (pp. 11-12).

More importantly on a national level, this DoJ brief appears to affirm the following interpretation of the Ogden and Cole Memorandums, along with other relevant case law and actual enforcement: that there has been no demonstration that the federal government is interested in prosecuting state employees for implementing state medical marijuana programs and issuing dispensary licenses. The DoJ cites the lack of any “genuine threat that any state employee will face imminent prosecution under federal law” (p. 2) and notes that “plaintiffs can point to no threat of enforcement against the State’s employees” (p. 10). The brief notes that Arizona has no “concrete plan to act in violation of the Controlled Substances Act,” as it has refused to accept dispensary applications and issue licenses (an act that MPP believes, based on relevant court precedent, would clearly not be such a violation). The brief notes that Arizona was not able to produce any threat, generalized or specific, directed towards its state employees, and it points to the omission of any state employee threats in Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke’s letter on the issue (p. 14). The brief dismisses Arizona’s suggestion that Arizona state employees are subject to federal prosecution as “mere speculation” (p. 15). It sums up this argument when it says:

Plaintiffs identify no prior instances in which the federal government has sought to prosecute state employees for the conduct vaguely described in Plaintiffs’ complaint. Without evidence of such prior prosecutions, Plaintiffs cannot credibly show a genuine threat of imminent prosecution in this case. (p. 15)

This message from the DoJ is heartening, along with U.S. Attorney Burke’s clear statement that going after state employees “is not a priority for us, and will not be.” This brief also comes on the heels of the statement of former U.S. Attorney and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who said definitively about his decision to implement the state’s medical marijuana program:

I don’t believe the United States Attorney’s Office in New Jersey, given the narrow and medically based nature of our program, will expend what are significantly lessening federal law enforcement resources in the context of the federal budget, on going after dispensaries in New Jersey, our Department of Health or other state workers who are helping to implement this program.

These recent events all suggest that the Department of Justice is interpreting its guidance to mean that state employees can fully implement medical marijuana programs, like those in Arizona and Rhode Island, with no fear of prosecution. So let’s get it done, Governors Brewer and Chaffee! Time is wasting, and people are hurting and need their medicine now.

From Marijuana Policy Project

Obama Cracks Down On Medical Marijuana Laws

In many ways, things have been looking up for supporters of medical marijuana. Opinion polls now suggest that the American public is swinging behind the idea — and it’s already legal in 16 states and the District of Columbia. But the Obama administration has been taking a very different view lately.

Ed Andrieski/APRyan Cook reaches for a jar of medical marijuana at one of his clinics in Denver on June 24.

Marijuana has been cropping up all over the country, becoming legal for medical use in places like Montana and Colorado, where the drug’s so available that it became a target on Saturday Night Live this year.

On that show’s “Weekend Update,” Seth Meyers drew laughs when he said, “A doctor in Colorado has converted two trailers into mobile doctors’ offices to help dispense medical marijuana to patients in rural areas. Oh wait, you know, I’m sorry I read that wrong. Some guy in Colorado is selling weed out of a trailer. There you go.”

But John Walters, director of the Office of Drug Control Policy during the Bush administration, told NPR the widespread use of marijuana is no laughing matter.

“It’s a dangerous addictive substance and people are playing games with this and pretending because they think it’s cool sometimes to not take it seriously,” Walters said.

But you know who is taking it seriously these days? The Obama administration, which recently lashed out against the drug in three distinct ways.

First, on Monday, the White House released its National Drug Control Strategy, reporting that use of marijuana is the highest it’s been in eight years. The policy document went out of its way to oppose marijuana legalization, arguing the drug is addictive and unsafe.

Medical Marijuana Laws: A State-By-State Comparison

Second, late last week, the Drug Enforcement Administration concluded that marijuana has no accepted medical use. So the DEA rejected a years-long effort to reclassify marijuana from a heavily restricted drug like heroin under the Controlled Substances Act to one that can be used more widely.

Finally, the Justice Department has taken a tough line on marijuana too. Federal prosecutors say they won’t go after sick people. But late last month, they warned that big medical marijuana shops aren’t exempt from federal prosecution if they distribute the drug, even in states where medical marijuana is legal.

That disappoints Ethan Nadelmann, founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, which argues for rethinking the approach to drugs.

“Unfortunately what the Obama administration seems to be doing is trying to scare precisely those state and local authorities who want to design sensible regulations to make sure all of this is properly under control,” Nadelmann said. “You know a lot of this I think is about the Justice Department sort of firing a shot against the bow, and saying don’t go too far.”

Remember that Saturday Night Live joke?

Well, newspapers in the state report that Colorado now has more than 800 medical marijuana dispensaries and more than 1,000 growers who have registered with state authorities. Medical marijuana is legal there. Lawmakers even developed a database to keep track of the businesses that grow and sell the drug.

But distributing and selling marijuana remain crimes under federal law. And U.S. prosecutors say they won’t give growers and sellers a get-out-of-jail-free card.

You know a lot of this I think is about the Justice Department sort of firing a shot against the bow, and saying don’t go too far.
- Ethan Nadelmann, Drug Policy Alliance

In a June 30 memo, Deputy Attorney General Jim Cole wrote that over the past year, several states have considered legislation to “authorize multiple large scale, privately-operated industrial marijuana cultivation centers. … 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.”

That’s fine with John Walters, who worked on the issue for President Bush.

“Many of these markets are making millions of dollars, they’re not nonprofits as they’ve been declared in other places,” Walters said. “They’re getting the marijuana from some of the same criminal mafias in Mexico that are killing people daily.”

That includes groups of criminals that ship tons of marijuana into the U.S., through secret tunnels like one authorities found last winter near San Diego. The passageway was almost a half-mile long, tricked out with electricity and special ventilation systems.

No one in the U.S. is surprised prosecutors are cracking down on those big networks. But Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance said he wonders about all the rest.

“The question’s going to be what happens with the hundreds, and it may now even be in the thousands, of dispensaries that are not operating at that large scale,” Nadelmann said.

In the past few months, the DEA has conducted smaller raids of medical marijuana shops in Seattle, West Hollywood and Helena, Montana, all places where the drug is now legal for patients.

No One is Outside of Federal Marijuana Laws, U.S. Says

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette / 2010 photo by WILLIAM ARCHIE/Detroit Free Press

Large-scale pot operators must be stopped, and even smaller-scale users and distributors are not shielded from prosecution, the U.S. says. / 2010 photo by WILLIAM ARCHIE/Detroit Free Press

A memo from the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington says state laws allowing medical marijuana opened the door to abuses and calls for legally targeting “large-scale, privately operated industrial marijuana cultivation centers” as well as distribution operations known as dispensaries.

The memo — which arrived June 29 in the e-mail inboxes of U.S. attorneys nationwide, including the Detroit office — says that no patient or other user is shielded from federal prosecution by state laws. The memo comes after Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette unleashed a salvo last week, saying there was widespread lawbreaking linked to medical marijuana in Michigan.

The federal memo has medical marijuana advocates feeling betrayed by the Obama administration, which had been linked with hopes for leniency in the war on drugs.

“The $64,000 question is, are the U.S. district attorneys in offices across the country really going to go after these dispensaries and grow operations? We’ll have to see,” said Art Cotter, chairman of the medical marijuana committee for the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan.

On Thursday, about two dozen operators of compassion centers — where patients use the drug — met near Flint to discuss the new threats to access.

“We now we have a double threat because of this (federal memo) and our own attorney general,” Rick Thompson, editor of Oak Park-based Michigan Medical Marijuana Magazine, said from the meeting.

U.S. pushes for strict pot law enforcement

Just when medical marijuana users are protesting plans for tighter restrictions on the drug in Michigan, a memo from federal authorities in Washington is asking for tougher enforcement.

The memo, sent from the U.S. Department of Justice to U.S. attorneys and being circulated this week among Michigan’s county prosecutors and sheriffs, is exactly what many in Michigan law enforcement said they were waiting for — a green light to stamp out what they say is proliferating drug abuse and lawbreaking under the cover of medical marijuana.

According to Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, the memo shows that the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act — passed by 63% of voters in 2008 — is entirely pre-empted by federal drug law.

“We are making that case as we defend Livonia’s commonsense zoning ordinance in court,” Schuette spokeswoman Joy Yearout said.

The Livonia ordinance amounts to a total ban on medical marijuana cultivation and use in the city, lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union have said in the case.

Defense attorneys, operators of medical marijuana facilities, such as compassion clubs, and medical marijuana users decried the memo as a step backward.

“This is an attack on the patient community,” said Kristen Ford, field director for the nonprofit Americans for Safe Access, based in Washington, D.C.

Rick Thompson, editor of the Oak Park-based Michigan Medical Marijuana Magazine, said Thursday: “All of us are more concerned now with federal intrusion.”

State law no shield

The Justice Department memo says, without naming specific states, that “planned facilities have revenue projections of millions of dollars, based on the cultivation of tens of thousands of cannabis plants.”

Such large-scale operators must be stopped, and even smaller-scale users and distributors are not shielded from federal prosecution, “even where those activities purport to comply with state law,” says the memo signed by U.S. Deputy Attorney General James Cole. Some say the memo makes clear that the Obama administration, contrary to the sense of a 2009 memo, opposes giving leniency to medical marijuana users.

“There was this feeling that the local police and prosecutors were on their own” for enforcing drug laws against people claiming a medical need for pot, Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith said Thursday.

“Now, I think we’re all going to see that the abuses have to stop at all levels. When this law passed in Michigan, every person who voted for it had good intentions. But what we’ve seen is that for every one person who uses medical marijuana responsibly, someone else is abusing it and profiting from it,” Smith said.

Federal authorities are not changing their policy but instead are trying to correct a misreading of their stance, Berrien County Prosecutor Art Cotter said. Law enforcers and marijuana users alike misinterpreted an October 2009 memo from the Justice Department that “seemed to suggest, ‘Don’t go after medical marijuana patients,’ ” Cotter said. He chairs the medical marijuana committee for the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan.

“People read into that the idea that, as long as something complied with state law, the feds would not get involved. Now, this new memo is saying, no, dispensaries and large grow operations are not immune from our prosecution,” he said.

Federal prosecutors sued the Michigan Department of Community Health last year to obtain records of seven patients who are part of a criminal drug investigation. The government won its demand in early June, in spite of the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act’s promise of confidentiality to anyone who receives state approval. Last week, a Traverse City attorney representing the Michigan Association of Compassion Clubs asked for a stay in the case until an appeal can be heard.

Focus not on patients

Although precise statistics were unavailable this week, it appears that federal authorities have continued to prosecute alleged violations of federal marijuana laws on a regular basis since passage of the state’s medical marijuana law.

Some of the cases have been brought against growers who initially claimed to be operating in accordance with the state statute. But federal law enforcement officials said such a defense is irrelevant in a federal prosecution.

“We’re going to enforce federal law,” Rich Isaacson, a special agent in the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Detroit office, said Thursday. Nevertheless, the focus of federal law enforcement is on “large-scale growers,” not on medicinal users and caregivers operating within state law, Isaacson said.

In one federal prosecution begun in December, a pair of Ingham County men were each charged with the manufacture of more than 100 marijuana plants, a federal felony punishable by a minimum of five years in prison and a fine of up to $2 million. Both pleaded guilty in May in an agreement with prosecutors expected to minimize potential prison time.

The agreement makes no mention of medical marijuana.

Contact Bill Laitner: 586-826-7264 or blaitner@freepress.com

Administration Medical Marijuana Memo Causes Dismay, Anger

The medical marijuana movement is reeling after the Obama Justice Department released a memo last week declaring that it might prosecute large-scale medical marijuana cultivation operations and dispensaries even in states where they are operating in compliance with state laws. Advocates reacted with dismay and disappointment, even as they plotted strategies about what to do next.

President Obama is losing friends in the medical marijuana community. (image from whitehouse.gov)

The memo, written by US Deputy Attorney General James Cole, “clarifies” the October 2009 memo from then-Deputy Attorney General David Ogden that told federal prosecutors not to focus their resources on patients and providers in compliance with state laws. The earlier memo gave some substance to President Obama’s campaign promise not to persecute medical marijuana patients and providers in states where it is legal.

But after the 2009 memo, federal officials watched aghast as a veritable medical marijuana cultivation and dispensary boom took off in places such as Colorado and Montana, where dispensaries went from near zero to hundreds of operations, and as localities in California began considering huge commercial grows. The Justice Department responded with increased federal raids — now at twice the rate of the Bush administration, according to Americans for Safe Access, the nation’s largest medical marijuana advocacy organization — and earlier this year, sent threatening letters from US Attorneys to governors and legislators in states considering or implementing medical marijuana distribution programs.

Those letters “are entirely consistent with the October 2009 memorandum,” Cole argued in last week’s memo. “The Department of Justice is committed to the enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act in all states. Congress has determined that marijuana is a dangerous drug and that the illegal distribution and sale of marijuana is a serious crime that provides a significant source of revenue to large scale criminal enterprises, gangs, and cartels,” Cole continued.

Noting that “some of these jurisdictions have considered approving the cultivation of large quantities of marijuana, or broadening the regulation and taxation of the substance,” Cole reiterated the Ogden memo’s message that “it is likely not an efficient use of federal resources to focus enforcement efforts on individuals with cancer or other serious illnesses who use marijuana as part of a recommended treatment regimen consistent with applicable state law, or their caregivers.”

He then took care to narrowly define the term “caregiver,” which is commonly applied to people growing medical marijuana for authorized patients. “The term ‘caregiver’ as used in the memorandum meant just that: individuals providing care to individuals with cancer or other serious illnesses, not commercial operations cultivating, selling or distributing marijuana.”

Cole then went on to write that it is not the Obama administration’s position that has changed, but facts on the ground. “There has, however, been an increase in the scope of commercial cultivation, sale, distribution and use of marijuana for purported medical purposes. For example, within the past 12 months, several jurisdictions have considered or enacted legislation to authorize multiple large-scale, privately-operated industrial marijuana cultivation centers. Some of these planned facilities have revenue projections of millions of dollars based on the planned cultivation of tens of thousands of cannabis plants,” he wrote.

The 2009 memo “was never intended to shield such activities from federal enforcement action and prosecution, even where those activities purport to comply with state law,” Cole continued. “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… 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.”

It didn’t take long for the medical marijuana and drug reform movements to fire back. While some took small solace in the fact that patients are still protected from federal persecution, the dominant reaction was dismay and disgust.

Dispensaries operators might want to get rid of the neon signage and get on the down low. (image via wikimedia.org)

“It is disingenuous of the Obama Administration to say it is not attacking patients while obstructing the implementation of local and state medical marijuana laws,” said ASA executive director Steph Sherer. “The president is using intimidation tactics to stop elected officials from serving their constituents, thereby pushing patients into the illicit market.”

“Well, this is disappointing,” said Dale Gieringer, long-time head of California NORML. “It certainly conflicts with Obama’s original implication that he would let the states take care of medical marijuana. Now, it’s the same as Bush’s policy. Even before this memo came out, people have been saying for a long time that with a raid here and a raid there, it seemed like no real change in federal policy, and now — bingo — it’s confirmed.”

The Cole memo “raises more questions than it answers,” said Bill Piper, national affairs director for the Drug Policy Alliance. “The department’s 2009 Ogden memorandum established guidance that federal resources should not be employed to target medical marijuana patients and providers who are in ‘clear and unambiguous compliance’ with state-based medical marijuana laws. Last week’s so-called clarification is in fact open to many interpretations and falls far short of the explanation of policy that state lawmakers, members of Congress and advocates sought.”

While the Cole memo clearly states that large-scale commercial grows are now targeted, even if they are in compliance with state laws, Piper noted, it “does not provide guidance on what the federal government considers to be the line between small and large-scale production.”

Piper pointed out that regardless of federal policy, states can still legalize marijuana for medicinal use. He also called out politicians who hide behind fears of the feds to stall or thwart medical marijuana programs and scoffed at the notion that state employees could be prosecuted for setting up registries or collecting medical marijuana taxes.

“State officials who await blanket federal endorsement of medical marijuana or blame the federal government for their own failure to act are compromising the health and well being of their citizens while failing to implement in good faith the laws of their state,” he said. ”With regard to concerns about prosecution of state employees, which some state policymakers have expressed, the federal government has never sought to prosecute any state employee for licensing or otherwise regulating medical marijuana providers. In fact, we know of no instance in recent times in which state officials were personally prosecuted for implementing any state law. It is something that is just not done.”

For Gieringer and other medical marijuana advocates, the Obama administration’s behavior on the issue has dried up any reservoirs of good will generated by his campaign promise and the Ogden memo. Now, the administration is in the movement’s cross hairs.

“They want to put a stop to any large scale distribution of medical marijuana, but all they’re doing is prolonging the conflict between federal law and reality,” Gieringer said. “We have to put pressure on Obama. He’s up for reelection; he owes us an explanation of his waffling on this issue, and certainly his failure to address rescheduling. The reform movement needs to press him on this and inject it into the campaign. Why has he ignored all the studies, why has he ignored the rescheduling petition, why does he persist in sending people to prison for medical marijuana crimes? If we can put him on the defensive during the campaign, we might get a concession.”

“The Obama Administration missed a huge opportunity to ease the state/federal conflict over medical marijuana and pave the way for responsible regulation in 16 states and the District of Columbia, home to 90 million Americans,” agreed Piper. “By issuing vague guidance, the Obama Administration is sowing confusion and doing voters, state policymakers, and medical marijuana patients a disservice. The administration needs to be clear in its support of responsible state and local regulations designed to make marijuana legally available to patients while enhancing public safety and health. If the federal government is unable to provide leadership in this area, then the very least it can do is get out of the way and allow citizens to determine the policies that best serve local interests.”

But the administration has given no indication it is likely to do that. Relations between the medical marijuana movement and the Obama administration are starting to feel like the Cold War.

Washington, DC

United States

- stopthedrugwar.org

How Has President Obama Dealt With His Medical Marijuana Campaign Promises?

When President Barack Obama admitted this before he even began his campaign, Americans everywhere believed this would be the turning point for marijuana legislation. To have a person in such a high-ranking position (Obama was still a Senator when he gave this “confession”) openly admit to not only experimenting with drugs, but using it “frequently” was a big leap forward for marijuana supporters. Even more surprising was the lack of backlash on the part of the public. Previous politicians, such as Supreme Court nominee Douglas Ginsburg, received incredibly scrutiny when giving similar remarks, while others, such as former President Bill Clinton provided nonsensical answers when asked if they tried (“I didn’t like it, I didn’t inhale, and never tried it again?).

Hopes for speedier marijuana legislation increased when Obama began his Presidential campaign. Numerous promises were made, from ending raids on marijuana patients and caregivers to withdrawing federal action on states’ jurisdiction on marijuana.. Recent actions have shown that he has began to rescind many of his promises.

Earlier this month, Washington Governor Christine Gregoire vetoed a bill that would have made clear the rules for medical marijuana in the state. However, Gregoire claimed that she was not motivated by the idea of preventing the expansion of medical marijuana, but rather at letter sent by Washington’s U.S. attorneys, who stated that they would prosecute not only growers and providers of marijuana, but also the people who who “knowingly facilitate” their actions. These include state employees who would license and regulate medical marijuana suppliers.

Washington state is not alone in receiving this letter. Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Montana, Rhode Island, and Vermont, all of whom have medical marijuana approved in their state, have been sent in recent months a similar message by their U.S. attorneys, again threatening federal prosecution for aids and facilitators of medical marijuana.

Despite Obama’s claim of a looser attitude of the federal government on state drug laws, the Drug Enforcement Agency’s stricter control directly contradicts what Obama had promised. One wonders whether federal arbitration will only increase as Obama soon heads into another election.

Not Much Competition Yet in D.C. Medical Marijuana Program

Photo used under a Creative Commons license with Torben Bjørn Hansen.

Those jumping into the medical marijuana business in the District include both individuals and organizations, seasoned professionals and budding entrepreneurs. But so far, there aren’t that many of them.

To date, nine letters of intent for medical marijuana dispensaries have been submitted to the D.C. Department of Health, while 11 letters have been submitted for cultivation centers – nine by individuals or groups that are also looking to run a dispensary.

The letters of intent – copies of which were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request – are the first step in gaining a license to run one of the five dispensaries and 10 cultivation centers that will grow and distribute medical marijuana to qualifying patients in the District. The letters will be followed by a lengthy and expensive application process overseen by a seven-member committee that will consider everything from security plans to ANC input before granting licenses.

The letters don’t give away much, but they provide some insight into who’s looking to get into the business of growing or dispensing medical marijuana. One potential applicant for both dispensary and cultivation center licenses touts his Bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences, his “green thumb” and a hobby in landscaping and design; another notes that she’s part of a minority, women-owned business operated by lifelong residents.

One group looking to run a cultivation center promotes their professional capabilities – they’ve got a “professional grower…with vast experience in all aspects related to the production and operation of a horticultural facility” on staff, not to mention an Advisory Board that includes a former police lieutenant; while another is a “well capitalized” investor that has run two cultivation centers in San Diego.

There’s a few recognizable names, including Montgomery Blair Sibley (who we interviewed last November); Adam Eidinger, the owner of the Capitol Hemp shops; and Stephenie Reifkind Khan, wife of Rabbi Jeffrey Khan, who was profiled by the City Paper last year. The names of the LLCs and organizations run the gamut from innocent to devious – there’s Hope Haven and Metropolitan Wellness Center, but also District of Cannabis Cultivation Center and Jahrock.

Only a few tease out the locations they’ve scoped out for their dispensaries and cultivation centers, which have to be at least 300 feet away from schools and youth centers. Two cultivation centers would be in Northeast, one north of Bladensburg Road, the other to the south. (Sibley has been eying a location along New York Avenue NE.) One dispensary could be along Pennsylvania Avenue SE within a block of Eastern Market, another somewhere in Ward 2. (We’ve also heard of groups scoping out spots in Adams Morgan, Takoma and Tenleytown.)

While interested parties have until June 17 to submit letters of intent to the Department of Health, the small number that have been handed in so far might well be a function of a program that will be restrictive, expensive and carefully monitored. Application costs for cultivation centers and dispensaries run $5,000 a pop, while annual fees stand at $5,000 for cultivation centers and $10,000 for dispensaries. Renewals will cost $3,000, and a rejected application will cost an applicant a full 50 percent of their application fee. Each cultivation center will only be allowed to grow 95 plants at a time, meaning that profit margins could well be very, very thin – if they exist at all.

City officials say that they’d like to have the medical marijuana program fully functioning by October, but some advocates say that it won’t likely happen until 2012.

http://dcist.com/2011/05/theyre_both_individuals_and_organiz.php