FEDS AND MEDS

Local Medical-Cannabis Community Faces Crackdowns, Talks Union

The federal government is literally going postal on the Sacramento
medical-cannabis community.

Already this past week, downtown-based U.S. Attorney Benjamin B.
Wagner has sent out "more than a dozen letters," according to a
spokesperson, to area landlords, warning that they face both seizure
of land and also federal prosecution for allowing medical-cannabis
operations on their property. This comes on the heels of last
Friday's press conference, where California's four U.S. attorneys
announced a ramped-up enforcement strategy against the state's
medical-cannabis community.

"It's a warning letter," explained Wagner spokeswoman Lauren Horwood.
"But if people don't act on the advice of the letter, then action
will be taken."

Unlike federal letters that went out in Los Angeles, where landlords
were given as few as 10 days to comply, Sacramento-area letters
included no timeline for action. "Our recommendation makes it clear
that the owners need to comply immediately," Horwood said. She added
that landlords should retain an attorney and each will be handled on
a "case-by-case" basis.

A total of 16 states in the nation permit medical cannabis, but the
feds have zeroed in on California for what they see as egregious
violations of its laws, including interstate trafficking, selling to
minors and multimillion-dollar commercial operations that violate its
Compassionate Use Act of 1996.

This isn't the first time the feds have sent letters. Courtney
Sheats, the local representative for cannabis-advocacy group
Americans for Safe Access, noted that in 2007, the federal government
warned property owners in the L.A.-area, but never followed through
with any actual enforcement.

So far, no Sacramento-area collectives have shut down due to the
federal enforcement.

"I have not heard of anybody closing," Sheats said. "And the feedback
that I'm hearing is that the collectives do want to stay open and
anticipate staying open, because our patient need is great."

But, local medical-cannabis collective owners, who spoke to SN&R on
the condition of anonymity, are at once panicking and also organizing.

One collective operator has already laid off a handful of employees.
Others have removed their online presence from Facebook, Twitter,
Yelp, WeedMaps and WeedTracker. Many have pulled their print, TV and
radio advertising as well. Celebrity Montel Williams even flew in to
Sacramento this past Tuesday to speak with patients personally at his
Midtown-based collective.

Also, Tuesday was a deadline for collectives to pay a $12,000 permit
fee to the city of Sacramento as part of its ordinance. But owners
are concerned that the city may eventually alter its ordinance in
light of the federal announcement and a recent Los Angeles Superior
Court verdict on a government's ability to regulate cannabis.

Meanwhile, Sacramento collectives are reaching out to unions-similar
to Richard Lee in Oaksterdam joining the United Food and Commercial
Workers union in May 2010. City collective owners have said they hope
to better leverage the federal government with union backing.

For certain, it's all hands on deck. In the words of the National
Association for the Reform of Marijuana Laws' Dale Gieringer: "I
think it's safe to say the medical-marijuana community is under
attack right now."