The federal war on legal medical marijuana providers is paused for now, thanks to a major legal victory in California.
Lynnette Shaw, who is one of Californias oldest dispensary operators prevailed Wednesday in her bid to overturn a nineteen year-old civil injunction barring her from the cannabis trade for life. Shaw won using the argument that Congressional law now forbids the Department of Justice from spending a single cent interfering with state-legal medical cannabis businesses.
In October, a District Judge sided with Shaw and called the governments argument "tortured." The Department of Justice moved to appeal to the decision in March. But the DOJ could see that they were losing the appeal, so on Wednesday, US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit granted the DOJs own motion to dismiss the case. Rather than continuing to pursue Shaw and potentially setting an even bigger legal precedent, the DOJ gave up the case. Shaw is now free to run a dispensary.
Licensed dispensary operators, edibles makers, and growers in the twenty- three states with medical pot laws can breathe easier today, legal experts said.
This to me, I believe, is the end of the medical marijuana war, Shaw said. We are ending that war starting now.
"Its hard to overstate the significance of this ruling," said Alex Zavell, a California medical marijuana regulatory expert and lawyer with the Oakland law firm of Robert Raich.
In 2014, the US Congress de-funded the DOJs war on medical marijuana through the Rohrabacher-Farr Amendment. The Amendment was renewed with even bigger Congressional support in 2015. The DOJ had hoped the courts would narrowly interpret the Amendment. They have not.
"[The case] means that so long as the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment remans in effect, the Department of Justice will be barred from expending funds to target medical cannabis businesses that operate in compliance with state law," said Shaw. "This is a victory for everybody."
The win is also very symbolic. Shaws injunction nineteen years ago was part of the first wave of federal intimidation of state-legal cannabis patients after California legalized medical marijuana in 1996. Since then, twenty-two other states have followed.
Shaw ran arguably the first lawful dispensary in California, with a permit from the city of Fairfax. In 2011, as part of the most recent federal crackdown, the DOJ used the old injunction to close her dispensary, the Marin Alliance of Medical Marijuana. The DOJ threatened to seize the property of Shaw's landlord.
The Obama Administration has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on similar federal interference operations in states with legal pot regimes. Governor Jerry Brown has criticized the operations of these "federal gendarmes" in California.
Shaw's legal team was led by attorney Greg Anton. Anton motioned to sue the government for monetary damages related to frivolous lawsuits, if the DOJ used the same failed argument in the Ninth Circuit that it used in District Court. As the April 19th deadline to file such an argument neared, the DOJ kept stalling, and then motioned to dismiss, said Shaw.
"All they had was the same argument, 'We dont have to obey Congress. We dont have to obey the constitution'," said Shaw.
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher also leaned on the DOJ, she said. Rohrabacher sent the Inspector General evidence that the DOJ was breaking federal law in the Shaw case.
"If they come after me, they can be arrested with a felony, from [Attorney General] Loretta Lynch on down," Shaw said.
Medical Marijuana Providers Score Major Victory in Federal Court
| Source: | East Bay Express |
| Published: | Apr 13, 2016 |
| Author: | David Downs |
| Post Date: | 2016-04-13 14:23:11 by ConservingFreedom |
| Views: | 12060 |
#27: misterwhite To: Roscoe (#26)
In some states I believe the "doctor's recommendation" for marijuana is good for life.
Me? My prescription is good for only 6 months and I have to see the doctor to get it refilled.
misterwhite posted on 2016-04-14 18:32:38 Reply Private Reply
#28: misterwhite To: ConservingFreedom (#25)
Analogy.
misterwhite posted on 2016-04-14 18:34:01 Reply Private Reply
#29: Roscoe To: misterwhite (#28)
Roscoe posted on 2016-04-14 18:43:25 Reply Private Reply
#30: Roscoe To: misterwhite (#27)
Yep. Here in California, the law does not require the quack to even list a dosage. Total scam.
Roscoe posted on 2016-04-14 18:48:06 Reply Private Reply
#31: GrandIsland To: ConservingFreedom (#0)
Kookifornia libtard bullshit.
This site and LP has always had its hippie Jane Fonda loving drug loving libtard tool bags posting their libturd kookifornia GARBAGE.
GrandIsland posted on 2016-04-14 18:56:00 Reply Private Reply
#32: misterwhite To: Roscoe (#30)
Total irony that California was the birthplace of the anti-smoking movement.
misterwhite posted on 2016-04-14 18:57:10 Reply Private Reply
#33: GrandIsland To: Roscoe (#30)
GrandIsland posted on 2016-04-14 18:58:48 Reply Private Reply
#34: tpaine To: GrandIsland, misterwhite, roscoe, Y'ALL (#31)
Yep, this site, freerepublic and LP has always had its hippie Jane Fonda loving drug hating libtard tool bags posting, pretending to be conservative constitutionalists, -- their libturd kookifornia GARBAGE.
Empathise on PRETENDING TO BE CONSERVATIVE...
tpaine posted on 2016-04-14 19:26:47 Reply Private Reply
#35: tpaine To: GrandIsland, A K A STONE, Y'ALL (#33)
It would be nice if Stone required formal personal interviews with any questionable so-called conservative persons prior to posting. They are vile, disgusting libtarded statists.
But we all know that this is impossible. We must suffer these fools, living in a constitutional republic.
tpaine posted on 2016-04-14 19:36:33 Reply Private Reply
#36: GrandIsland To: tpaine (#34)
Speaking of kookifornia libtard posting garbage...
Commie Sanders lover before Trump... just admit it, kookifornian.
GrandIsland posted on 2016-04-14 19:37:20 Reply Private Reply
#37: GrandIsland To: tpaine (#35)
The "conservative" platform does NOT include:
Legalized drugs
Hatred of law enforcement or authority to enforce LAWS
Elimination of search warrants and no-knock warrants with probable cause.
Shut your fat kookifornian liberal pie hole.
GrandIsland posted on 2016-04-14 19:43:48 Reply Private Reply
#38: calcon To: GrandIsland (#31)
I love it when the morons have all these cute little names for california. There's a reason why housing prices are so high here,
Everyone wants to live here, brokeass people like retired meter maids couldn't handle the rent.
calcon posted on 2016-04-14 19:46:59 Reply Private Reply
#39: calcon To: GrandIsland, tpaine (#36)
Actually I think he's the bad spelling dickhead, my mom warned me about. Like not "taking candy from" "or getting in the van" with the crazed dork.
calcon posted on 2016-04-14 19:52:53 Reply Private Reply
#40: tpaine To: GrandIsland, Y'ALL (#37)
I don't love trump, but I truly support him, unlike you and your phony conservative pals, who think he can't win against your REAL CHOICE, Hillybutt.
All drugs were legal before you clowns criminalized some a hundred years ago.
Rave on, as I support constitutional laws and their enforcement.
I'd love to shut you up, but you're too chickenshit to debate in a rational fashion, -- exactly like misterwhite and roscoe..
tpaine posted on 2016-04-14 20:06:25 Reply Private Reply
#41: tpaine To: calcon, Y'ALL (#39)
Yep, he's a crazed dork, at least.
He's claimed to be an officer of the law..
Gawd help us all.
tpaine posted on 2016-04-14 20:24:32 Reply Private Reply
#42: Deckard To: Roscoe, misterwhite (#26)
Like I said - you two idjits have ONE quote from almost 40 years ago.
And that's your "proof" that there is some huge conspiracy?
Organizers behind the medical marijuana movement did not really concern themselves with marijuana as a medicine they just saw it as a means to an end, which is the legalization of marijuana for recreational purposes.-U.S. Department of Justice, May 2014
Nah - they'd never lie about cannabis, would they?
The fact is - the government (and shills like you) have LIED about cannabis for nearly a century.
Deckard posted on 2016-04-14 20:25:55 Reply Private Reply
#43: Roscoe To: Deckard (#42)
Organizers behind the medical marijuana movement did not really concern themselves with marijuana as a medicine they just saw it as a means to an end, which is the legalization of marijuana for recreational purposes. They did not deal with ensuring that the product meets the standards of modern medicine: quality, safety and efficacy. There is no standardized composition or dosage; no appropriate prescribing information; no quality control; no accountability for the product; no safety regulation: no way to measure its effectiveness (besides anecdotal stories); and no insurance coverage. -- U.S. Department of Justice, May 2014
Roscoe posted on 2016-04-14 21:01:46 Reply Private Reply
#44: Roscoe To: GrandIsland (#37)
He's a complete waste of time. Never gets any better.
Roscoe posted on 2016-04-14 21:04:12 Reply Private Reply
#45: GrandIsland To: calcon (#39)
Because most of you are drug lovers.
AIDS came about by Mother Nature to curb drug users and fags. The San Andreas Fault was also Mother Natures answer to dysfunctional drug loving libtards... hope you can swim.
lol
GrandIsland posted on 2016-04-14 21:15:15 Reply Private Reply
#46: Roscoe To: misterwhite (#8)
With all the talk about medical marijuana, I have to tell you that I also use marijuana medically (laughter), he says. I have a latent glaucoma, which has never been diagnosed (more laughter). And the reason why it has never been diagnosed is because Ive been treating it (laughter)?But there is a reason why I do use it. And that is because I like to get high. (cheers, applause). Marijuana is fun. --Ed Rosenthal
I also wanta say I like Johns (Beresford) approach to things. Hes figured out that its possible for me to legalize marijuana tomorrow Rights are taken, not given. And that, what it comes to this is simply that we have to have the determination that we are going to do this and not in the by, not in the great by and by but within a finite time period. And tomorrow is none too soon The key to it is medical access. Because, once you have hundreds of thousands of people using marijuana medically under medical supervision, the whole scam is going to be bought .So that once theres medial access, if we continue to do what we have to do, and we will, then well get medical, then well get full legalization. --Richard Cowan, former director of NORML
At a 1991 N.O.R.M.L. pro-legalization conference, speaker Eric Sterling, instructing his audience on how to use medicalization to achieve legalization of marijuana, emphasizes to his audience (a quarter of of whom admit to being stone at the time): Packaging is important and messages get packaged!! --http://braha.com.br/us/quotes-from-the-drug-culture/
Roscoe posted on 2016-04-14 21:20:26 Reply Private Reply
#47: buckeroo To: GrandIsland, calcon (#45)
GI - do you ever wake up after your paranoid delusions and re-read your posts? you sound like someone that needs a straitjacket as opposed to a kup o' koffee & eclair.
buckeroo posted on 2016-04-14 21:46:12 Reply Private Reply
#48: GrandIsland To: buckeroo (#47)
As soon as kookifornia breaks off and sinks in the ocean, my statement is factual. Foad
GrandIsland posted on 2016-04-14 21:58:01 Reply Private Reply
#49: buckeroo To: GrandIsland (#48)
Isn't your post known as a delusion?
buckeroo posted on 2016-04-14 22:02:38 Reply Private Reply
#50: Fred Mertz To: buckeroo (#49)
Fred Mertz posted on 2016-04-14 22:05:36 Reply Private Reply
#51: buckeroo To: Fred Mertz (#50)
buckeroo posted on 2016-04-14 22:17:37 Reply Private Reply
#52: Hondo68 To: Fred Mertz, buckeroo (#50)
Wiki Leak of officer GI on the job.
Hondo68 posted on 2016-04-14 22:32:32 Reply Private Reply
#53: tpaine To: Roscoe, Y'ALL (#44)
Rave on, as I support constitutional laws and their enforcement.
I'd love to shut you up, but you're too chickenshit to debate in a rational fashion, -- exactly like your buddies, misterwhite and roscoe..
Poor fellaheen roscoe, can't debate, so he hates.
tpaine posted on 2016-04-14 22:38:18 Reply Private Reply
#54: calcon To: GrandIsland (#45)
MY, My, what an unloved little boy you must have been!!!!!
calcon posted on 2016-04-14 23:16:35 Reply Private Reply
#55: Deckard To: misterwhite (#22)
Who the hell are you to presume to decide what's the best medical option for a sick or dying person?
What a self-righteous, arrogant prick!
Deckard posted on 2016-04-15 05:47:10 Reply Private Reply
#56: Deckard To: GrandIsland (#48)
I've told the delirious, sterno-drinking sot not to post while he's drunk.
Deckard posted on 2016-04-15 05:50:23 Reply Private Reply
#57: GrandIsland To: Deckard (#56)
Yet you post while retarded. lol
Enjoy your new president, Donald Trump. You, Bucky and Fred can Paultard this forum up all you like... but at the end of the day... you three are a tiny minority group, and most voters don't give a F' what you think, Sonny.
GrandIsland posted on 2016-04-15 07:14:35 Reply Private Reply
#58: misterwhite To: Roscoe (#46)
misterwhite posted on 2016-04-15 08:16:25 Reply Private Reply
#59: Deckard To: misterwhite (#58)
When are you Anslinger groupies ever going to be honest?
My guess is never.
Deckard posted on 2016-04-15 08:25:52 Reply Private Reply
#60: misterwhite To: Deckard (#55)
And that right there illustrates my argument. Using the sick and dying as pawns in your quest for legalization. You're pond scum.
Show me the studies (not anecdotal stories) where smoked marijuana provides relief where an FDA- approved medicine cannot. Don't bother looking. You can't.
misterwhite posted on 2016-04-15 08:28:59 Reply Private Reply
#61: Roscoe To: misterwhite (#60)
He lied, then he doubled down when exposed. Totally predictable.
Roscoe posted on 2016-04-15 09:00:36 Reply Private Reply
#62: Roscoe To: Deckard (#42)
Five sources on the thread so far. Versus NOTHING.
Roscoe posted on 2016-04-15 09:02:46 Reply Private Reply
#63: misterwhite To: Deckard (#59)
I'm not surprised. It wasn't meant to. It was meant to illustrate the "medical" marijuana scam, whereby proponents use the sick and dying as pawns in their scheme to legalize pot.
misterwhite posted on 2016-04-15 10:06:42 Reply Private Reply
#64: ConservingFreedom To: misterwhite (#28)
ConservingFreedom posted on 2016-04-15 12:54:37 Reply Private Reply
#65: ConservingFreedom To: GrandIsland (#31)
What factual claims are you disputing? Any of the following?
'In October, a District Judge sided with Shaw and called the governments argument "tortured."'
'In 2014, the US Congress de-funded the DOJs war on medical marijuana through the Rohrabacher-Farr Amendment. The Amendment was renewed with even bigger Congressional support in 2015.'
ConservingFreedom posted on 2016-04-15 13:50:05 Reply Private Reply
#66: misterwhite To: ConservingFreedom (#64)
Every doper who signed up for medical marijuana will make that claim. They're not calling for the legalization of "medical" marijuana so they can take a pill.
misterwhite posted on 2016-04-15 14:00:05 Reply Private Reply
#67: Deckard To: misterwhite (#60)
Actually it illustrates my point. You would deny a sick patient who has exhausted all other optinons to make THEIR OWN decisions as to what is the best course of treatment for themselves, or in the case of parents, what medicine works best for their child.
You're a fascist who believes that the government owns our bodies.
I've posted numerous stories where cannabis has been used with success when your pharma drugs don't
But you have such a fetish for authority, you won't accept the documented facts simply because the FDA tells you so.
Show me the studies (not anecdotal stories) where smoked marijuana provides relief where an FDA- approved medicine cannot.
And now we see your real agenda.
paulsen, you are a shill (or a lawyer) for Big Pharma.
And you still can't seem to comprehend the fact that smoking marijuana is not the only way to ingest cannabis.
Fucking assclown.
There's no other explanation for your refusal to admit that cannabis has helped tens of thousands of sick and dying people.
Deckard posted on 2016-04-15 14:08:00 Reply Private Reply
#68: ConservingFreedom To: misterwhite (#66)
Quote one.
ConservingFreedom posted on 2016-04-15 14:10:37 Reply Private Reply
#69: misterwhite To: Deckard (#67)
Hey! We can bring back the elixirs, too. Cures baldness, acne and cancer!
We have a process for medicine in the U.S. It's called thr FDA. Get marijuana approved and I'll support it.
"I've posted numerous stories where cannabis has been used with success"
Yep. Stories is what they are. What they're not is scientific evidence.
misterwhite posted on 2016-04-15 14:24:01 Reply Private Reply
#70: misterwhite To: ConservingFreedom (#68)
What would that prove, other than you know how to waste my time?
misterwhite posted on 2016-04-15 14:38:19 Reply Private Reply
#71: Roscoe To: misterwhite (#69)
What?! Perpetual motion machine stories aren't science?
Roscoe posted on 2016-04-15 15:26:50 Reply Private Reply
#72: ConservingFreedom To: misterwhite (#70)
That you're not pulling your "facts" out of your ass.
ConservingFreedom posted on 2016-04-15 15:43:57 Reply Private Reply
#73: Roscoe To: ConservingFreedom (#72)
Did you wash your hand after pulling that "fact" out of your ass?
Roscoe posted on 2016-04-15 15:46:43 Reply Private Reply
#74: ConservingFreedom To: Roscoe (#73)
ConservingFreedom posted on 2016-04-15 15:49:28 Reply Private Reply
#75: misterwhite To: ConservingFreedom (#72)
By quoting one doper?
misterwhite posted on 2016-04-15 16:51:57 Reply Private Reply
#76: ConservingFreedom To: misterwhite (#75)
Quote as many as you think suffices to establish your claim that 'Every doper who signed up for medical marijuana will make that claim [that marijuana will get its user "the same result" medically as an extraction of standardized composition].' So far your claim has precisely nada for supporting evidence.
ConservingFreedom posted on 2016-04-15 17:11:15 Reply Private Reply