U.S. ATTORNEYS SEEK TO CLOSE POT COLLECTIVES IN CALIFORNIA

SACRAMENTO -- Federal prosecutors said Friday their plan to close
medical marijuana collectives in California by going after the
landlords is no idle threat.

The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California said letters
were sent out Thursday to dozens of property owners in his district -
which covers Butte, Glenn and 32 more counties - and other areas of
the state warning them their property could be seized if they rent
space to storefront dispensaries.

The letters demand they shut down the operation within 45 days, even
if they are operating under California's 15-year-old medical marijuana
law.

"There is no ambiguity about this; federal law takes precedent," said
U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner.

The four U.S. attorneys for California held a press conference Friday
in Sacramento. Wagner said illegal major commercial marijuana grows
are no longer confined to the rugged mountain areas of California, and
have spread to large rural plots of land in areas like the San Joaquin
Valley.

He said those grows are causing pot dispensaries to proliferate in
California cities, many of them located near schools, parks and
playgrounds.

"The illegal marijuana industry in California is a big money
business," he said.

The prosecutors intend to enforce federal law by targeting commercial
marijuana operations with criminal and civil enforcement, Wagner said.

While asserting the latest enforcement effort doesn't mean federal
authorities will be going after small backyard medical marijuana
growers, Wagner admitted he couldn't assure legitimate Proposition 215
patients would still have access to their medicine.

"I'm not in a position to overrule federal law," Wagner
said.

He said his office isn't getting extra prosecutors to enforce the
crackdown, which will concentrate on the largest growers and
dispensaries in the state.

Authorities said there is no standard, however, for what they consider
a large operation.

More letters were scheduled to be mailed out Friday, the attorneys
said, but they warned that landlords and collective operators should
"take no comfort" if they don't receive one.

Andrew Merkel is the vice president of North Valley Holistic Health on
Highway 32 just outside the Chico city limits, one of the few
dispensaries operating in Butte County.

Merkel said he hasn't heard from his landlord yet whether he received
a letter from the U.S. Attorney's Office. If his landlord received a
letter, he would "hold out," he said. "I would wait for them to try to
evict me and go through the whole process," he said.

The U.S. attorneys noted the distribution of pot for medicinal
purposes has strayed far from the original intention of making it
available as medicine to those who really need it.

Melinda Haag, U.S. Attorney for San Francisco, said marijuana
dispensaries in some areas have become like armed fortresses. "It's
obvious that Californians are intimidated by the prospect of armed
marijuana traffickers in their communities," she said. "California law
has been hijacked."

Although Californians voted in favor of medical marijuana in 1996, its
use is illegal under federal law. Federal law also does not recognize
the need to use medical marijuana as a defense in criminal cases.

Merkel thinks shutting dispensaries will hurt patients who cannot grow
for themselves.

"It's harder than just being able to grow a plant," Merkel said. "It's
actually difficult to cultivate medical marijuana correctly for their
ailments."

He thinks this is an issue of rights as U.S. citizens and whether
people are willing to give them up because the government says so.

"What if they came in and said, 'You're a woman. You can't vote.' How
would you feel about that?" Merkel said.

Wagner said he does not think marijuana advocates run operations out
of ignorance.

"A lot of people just don't think we can get to them," Wagner said.