MEDICAL POT BACKERS FILE LAWSUITS

Legal Challenges Are Aimed at Halting the Closure of Dispensaries in California

Medical marijuana advocates have filed lawsuits in California's four
federal judicial districts aimed at quickly winning court orders to
halt the U.S. attorneys from closing dispensaries.

The lawsuits are the second legal challenge to the stepped-up
enforcement efforts that the four prosecutors announced last month at
a high-profile joint news conference in Sacramento.

Matt Kumin, one of the attorneys who filed the lawsuits, said that
Tuesday the plaintiffs plan to ask the judges assigned to the cases
for temporary restraining orders halting the crackdown.

"The government has gone well down the road to allowing medical
cannabis in the United States," he said. "It can't reverse itself
now, particularly because of the promises it made to the American
people and the federal judiciary. They're stuck."

The 13-page lawsuits argue that the federal government's threats to
prosecute dispensary owners and their landlords conflict with an
agreement that led a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit by patients
with the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana in Santa Cruz. In
that case, the government said it would not use federal resources
against medical marijuana patients who complied with state law.

"You tell people, 'Hey, you can do this,' and they rely on it, and
the next thing you know, they can get arrested. It's entrapment,"
said Kumin, a San Francisco lawyer working with a team of attorneys
who specialize in medical marijuana litigation.

The lawsuits were filed Friday and Monday against U.S. Atty. Gen.
Eric Holder, Drug Enforcement Administration head Michele Leonhart
and each of the four federal prosecutors, including U.S. Atty. Andre
Birotte Jr. in Los Angeles. Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for Birotte and
the Justice Department, said he could not comment on the lawsuits.

At their news conference, the U.S. attorneys said they would target
dispensary operators and growers who were violating state law, which
prohibits for-profit sales. The prosecutors have taken different
enforcement approaches, including sending letters to dispensary
landlords threatening to seize their property. Birotte has focused
his efforts in the Central District on shutting down medical pot
shops in cities that have banned them.

In the lawsuit filed in the Central District, the plaintiffs are
Conejo Wellness Center Cooperative in Agoura Hills; the dispensary's
landlord, Executive Center of Simi Valley; and Billie Jo Maisonet,
who has a doctor's recommendation to use medical marijuana.

Joe Elford, chief counsel for Americans for Safe Access, an advocacy
group that filed a separate lawsuit last month, said he was surprised
that more lawsuits have not already been filed. "We certainly welcome
other challenges," he said. "If any of us win on any theory, we're
all better off."

Kumin said he hopes to reach a compromise with the federal government
on a California medical marijuana program it can support. He noted
that federal prosecutors have not issued similar threats in Colorado,
which has opted for heavier regulation of medical marijuana sales.

He said only a few pot collectives and landlords put up money for the
suits. Many dispensary operators are unwilling to take on the
government publicly, he said. "Everybody's gone underground."

The lawsuit charges that the heightened enforcement "will eviscerate
and likely eradicate" California's established medical marijuana
system, which relies heavily on storefront dispensaries.

"California now has an entrenched cultivation and distribution
network of medical cannabis supplying approximately 1,000,000
patients throughout state," the lawsuit says. It adds that the
network generates annual revenue estimated by advocates at between
$1.5 billion and $4.5 billion, and annual sales taxes of $50 million
to $100 million, according to state estimates.