DEA MOVES TO PULL POT OUT FROM UNDER SAN FRANCISCO LANDLORDS

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is pushing to close San
Francisco's cannabis clubs by turning its guns on their landlords -
warning them that renting to pot dispensaries could cost them their buildings.

The agency intends to send letters by week's end to 80 owners of
buildings housing medical marijuana clubs, similar to notices it
fired off recently to landlords in Los Angeles and Sacramento,
according law enforcement sources.

"By this notice, you have been made aware of the purposes for which
the property is being used," said a copy of the letter sent to
Sacramento landlords, signed by the special agent in charge of the
DEA's San Francisco office, Javier Pena.

"You are further advised that violations of federal laws relating to
marijuana may result in criminal prosecution, imprisonment, fines and
forfeiture of assets."

In other words - your building.

The letters set no deadlines for owners to evict the clubs.

At one time there were more than 40 cannabis clubs in San Francisco,
although only 28 have applied for licenses under a city permit
process that took effect in July.

State law, of course, has no problem with cannabis clubs as long as
they are genuinely dealing in medical marijuana, under the terms of
the 1996 ballot measure Proposition 215. The feds, however, don't
recognize medicinal uses for pot and have periodically raided clubs
in San Francisco and elsewhere.

Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who helped write San Francisco's permit
rules, said Tuesday he wouldn't be surprised if the DEA launches a
new crackdown.

"The feds do as they please ... (and) they've done it before," he
said. "I would only hope they would coordinate with local law
enforcement and that they are aware of the new regulatory system we
have in place, and are sensitive to it."

Pena would not comment, saying only that he would discuss the new
strategy at a later date.

One recipient of the DEA's watch-out letter could be suspended
Supervisor Ed Jew, who with family members owns a building on the
1500 block of Ocean Avenue that houses a pot club.

It turns out that Jew has other pot-related tenant issues as well. A
house he co-owns on the 1100 block of Ocean Avenue was raided by
police over the weekend after the person living there allegedly
turned it into a flourishing pot farm.

Police confiscated more than 200 marijuana plants and scores of grow
lights during the raid and took an unidentified man into custody.

Records on file at City Hall show that the two-story duplex was owned
exclusively by Jew until October, when he sold a partial ownership to
a relative for $155,500.

"Ed has got nothing to do with any of this," said lawyer Steve Gruel,
who is defending Jew on federal bribery, extortion and mail fraud
charges and is also trying to keep the Board of Supervisors from
giving him the permanent heave-ho from his seat.

"The police have not even spoken to him," Gruel said.

The Ocean Avenue pot club housed in the building owned by the Jew
family was raided by federal agents in June 2005, and for a time was
shut down. It now has new owners and has reopened under the name
Norcal Herbal Relief Center.

And from the sound of it, business is going strong. An employee told
us Tuesday they are open seven days a week.