By David Downs
at SFgate.com
The three year-old federal crackdown on medical cannabis businesses in California will continue, a Dept. of Justice official told the Los Angeles Times last week.
Deputy Atty. Gen. James M. Cole told the Times: “If you don’t want us prosecuting [marijuana users] in your state, then get your regulatory act together,” he said.
Eighteen years after Californians legalized medical marijuana and called for a statewide cannabis program, legislators again failed to enact one in 2014 session. Instead, California has left issues of mmj cultivation, distribution and sales to cities, the majority of which ban dispensaries.
Americans consume thousands of metric tons of cannabis per year, despite its federal illegality. Fueled by nationwide demand, California is the largest domestic producer of cannabis, with massive, illegal farms on public and private land.
Instead of focusing on those criminals, the federal crackdown in the Bay Area has targeted the most-regulated, best-in-class medical outlets, including several licensed dispensaries in San Francisco and Berkeley Patients Group in Berkeley and Harborside Health Center in Oakland.
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