Uhmmm, do you guys actually believe anything that lying two-faced asshole Holder or that administration says anymore? When I see the DEA protecting the border against schwag coming into the country is the day I'll believe. Seriously though, why would anyone believe anything an officer of the court or Federal government says in this day and age?
My question is when will Wash. and Colo. MMJ businesses start seeing RICO violations? Look how the Feds just made it illegal for dispensaries to use armored cars. Businesses that promised, and are required in some cases, by their local municipality that they use armored vehicles for transporting cash. So how is that respecting state's rights? How is that progress? If anything the dumb-asses at the DEA have endangered the honest people they're supposed to protect. Holder and Co. are just talking out of the sides of their mouths. Again. They're just getting started with a bunch of new bullshit laws for the 21st century. Laws that keep them in charge too I bet.
Legal Pot Sellers Say Armored-Car Companies Halt Service
By Jennifer Oldham - 2013-08-28T06:01:00Z
Steve DeAngelo says his staff may need to carry cash in personal vehicles to pay Harborside Health Centers bills after his armored car provider told his co-founder that a federal agency ordered it to stop serving cannabis businesses.
The only way we have to pay our bills is transporting cash from point A to point B, said DeAngelo, executive director of the medicinal marijuana
collective based in Oakland,
California, with 128,000 patients.
This includes 15 percent of our $30 million-a-year gross that goes to the cities of
San Jose and Oakland and the state of California for our taxes, he said. This is a huge threat to the safety of my patients and staff, and beyond that its a huge threat to the general public.
DeAngelo isnt alone. Several large marijuana dispensaries in California and
Colorado received similar notices from their armored vehicle services, said Steve Fox, director of government relations for the Washington-based
National Cannabis Industry Association.
The U.S.
Justice Department declined to comment on the matter, Ellen Canale, a spokeswoman, said by e-mail in response to repeated requests. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration referred questions to the Justice Department, its parent agency.
The end of armored-car service to some marijuana dispensaries underscores ongoing tension between federal law, under which cannabis remains illegal, and laws in
20 states and the
District of Columbia that legalized medical marijuana consumption, plus measures in Colorado and
Washington that allow those 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of pot.
Federal Response
Attorney General Eric Holder hasnt provided a federal response to the laws in Washington and Colorado that will also allow retail sales of pot next year.
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on the conflicts between state and federal marijuana laws on Sept. 10, Chairman
Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat,
announced Aug. 26.
Federal laws bar banks from offering accounts to pot shops, forcing medical marijuana firms to pay their sales taxes and other bills in cash. Cannabis businesses also are unable to obtain credit cards.
DeAngelos car service, Dunbar Armored Inc., didnt return calls and messages for comment.
Fox, of the cannabis trade group, said that other medical marijuana dispensaries affected by the issue didnt want to come forward because of security concerns.
Unsecured Cash
In Colorado, one of our larger members told us that the DEA told their armored-car provider they couldnt provide services, he said. As you can imagine, no one who is being put in a situation where they have to have large amounts of cash unsecured is going to want their name in the paper.
The suspension of armored-car service is the latest in what marijuana advocates say is an increasing number of federal enforcement actions against cannabis firms.
Federal officials have conducted 270 raids on medical cannabis providers since the start of the Obama administration, compared to 260 during
George W. Bushs eight years in office, according to a June
report by Washington-based Americans for Safe Access, a nonprofit representing patients.
The review found that the Obama administration spent more than $289 million over four and a half years on enforcement, about $100 million more than Bush did in his eight years in office.
Safe Facility
Harborside Health Centers DeAngelo said his collective is being audited by the
Internal Revenue Service, which asked for detailed financial records.
His seven-year-old not-for-profit assured the city of Oakland in a safety plan it filed before it opened that it would use armored car services and that this is one of the reasons the city felt we would run a safe facility, he said.
Rebecca Kaplan, an at-large Oakland City Council member, said the citys confident its regulation of dispensaries keeps them safe, yet its concerned the end of armored-car service places residents in harms way.
There is no benefit to shifting medical cannabis funds out of armored cars and into public vehicles, said Kaplan, who was re-elected to a second four-year term last year.
To require medical marijuana dispensaries throughout the nation to use unguarded cash systems -- no rational person wouldnt understand they are creating an environment to support muggings, to support burglaries and to support crime, she said.
City Attorney
Kaplan said she called the city attorneys office to explore the citys legal options.
DeAngelo credits Harborsides investment in a 36-camera security system, biometric locks and a bank vault that is reinforced with 18 inches of concrete with preventing criminal incidents. Keeping cash on the premises may render that plan moot, he said.
Some businesses do not want to go public because they fear they would be targeted for violent robberies, he said. I also naturally have that concern. I think this is such an outrageous threat to public security that somebody had to be willing to stand up and talk about it.
they let people put their guard down and then pounce after its all about increased revenues , as mentioned also the IRS and DOJ will own it all. I don't trust anything to do with any bureaucrat's politicians or cops , I've never met either of any that I'd trust out of my sight.
