Tweet
(photo: O'Dea)
The Obama administration’s multi-agency war against medical marijuana seems to now be expanding almost daily. The newest front in this war is threats directed at media organizations that allow medical marijuana dispensaries to advertise. From the San Francisco Chronicle:
A U.S. attorney in Southern California says she is preparing to go after newspapers, radio stations and other media outlets that advertise medical marijuana dispensaries, an escalation in the Obama administration’s newly invigorated war against the state’s pot industry.
[...]
U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy, whose district includes Imperial and San Diego counties, said marijuana advertising is the next area she’s “going to be moving onto as part of the enforcement efforts in Southern California.”
Federal law prohibits people from placing ads for illegal drugs and despite medical marijuana having been legalized at the state level it is still listed as a Schedule I substance by the federal government.
If the U.S Attorney follows through with this threat it could raise serious First Amendment issues, but the threat alone will probably cause some media companies to decide it is not worth the risk or the cost of fighting a lengthy legal battle.
This is just another front in the Obama administration multi-prong effort to cripple medical marijuana with legal actions both large and small.
66 Comments
The level of dick-a-tude is astounding.
we all know these clinics are cutting into govt share of drugs it helps ship in here. also it poses a threat to pharma share of its drugs should clinics be legalized nationally. It threatens the prison biz that needs those Pot criminals to boost its bottom line. Best to shut them down now
Who owns this guy?
Oh, wait.
Big Pharma.
How silly of me.
Evidently Barry doesn’t want a second term. He’s doing everything he can to alienate young voters.
Tell me again why I should vote for a guy who wants to put me in jail for doing something non-violent in the privacy of my own home.
With all that free time the attorney have not investigating the bank’s mortgage fraud they need something to fill their time.
So Barry and the Democrats can appeal to scared-rabbit suburban security moms (and dads) who probably won’t vote for him in the first place.
Lessee, the mighty O is siccing DOJ resources on medical marijuana dispensaries? Even if the people of a State have approved its use? But he elects not to investigate and prosecute Wall Street fraud? Or murder and torture?
This is a nightmare.
How long will it be until the mere public discussion of marijuana, and the graphic depiction of any part of the plant is strictly verboten?
Take a care, Just Say Now.
Endless war, you know?
Thank you for spreading the word, Jon.
DW
Ding!
(And what are they going to do about such interweb sites as weedmaps.com and the clinics’ websites themselves? I know, arrest Al Gore!)
Medical coke is the painkiller of choice in the WH.
November 2012: Pick your poison.
They haven’t stopped the San Diego Reader yet, but stay tuned.
are you sure you don’t mean medical koch?
Both, coming to think of it. Thanks for the reminder.
At what point can we all drop the charade that its “medical”?
Part of O’s eleventy mention reelection strategy to win state of CA. We 99%ers don’t have the brain power to unnerstan it.
About 1979.
I have to agree. They must be bored. Is this REALLY A PROBLEM???? The medical marijuana I mean. The government’s wasting time on this IS a PROBLEM.
the very same demographic that voted it in – there is zip, nada, zero electoral percentage in this – even among the vaunted independents
which leads one to conclude the only beneficiary here is PhRMa
It doesn’t really matter.
The federal government regulates drugs through the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) (21 U.S.C. § 811), which does not recognize the difference between medical and recreational use of marijuana.
Marijuana growers and dealers in California are rejoicing at all this. The Obama administration is putting the profit back in their lines of work. The only logic I can infer is that big pharma is dangling some political cash in exchange for the effort. Clearly not well thought out. (Like a lot of things coming from the WH.)
And what’s wrong with recreational pot? It’s a relatively gentle high. I think adults should have the right to use it, if they want, like alcohol. (You do something wrong, like breaking the law or comitting social suicide, then ya pay the price.) But pot? Cripes, we’ve known since the Surgeon General’s report in 1964 that cigarettes can kill you.
According to his supporters this must be part of his ‘three dimensional chess’, trying to fool the Republicans into thinking he’s one of them, so he can get more to the right of them. And magically win the election with corporate money, tea party votes and bullshit.
.
Ding.
And a damn fine job he is doing at it! As we say in the Navy, “Away, the Presidential Apathy (Lets call it for what it is, Antipathy) Building Team!”
Incidentally, I submit that 0 is also doing a helluva job alienating older voters. While I wish it were not so, my age, in all honesty, does not allow me to regain the highly coveted mantle of “Young”. But I detest 0bama more than any recent President, which was a formidable task, considering the recent run of regressives, and I’m talking to you too, Clinton! Prevarications on matters of great import are now the rule. Their contempt for us, “The People” is palpable. We of the Hoi Polloi are increasing adopting that same sentiment towards the privileged class, its sycophants, spin doctors, and the rest of its assorted minions. Rest assured that I am quite contemptuous of them all. Probably not the best mindset in these contentious times, but there you are…
Why, I can already see the headlines; “Romney elected by landslide in a huge repudiation of the Left. America IS a Center-Right Country. Liberalism is dead!!!”
In Ca even the people who don’t support MJ aren’t going to vote for Obama. Why would they? I don’t it’s anyones Number One Do or Die issue.
“This is just another front in the Obama administration multi-prong effort to
cripple medical marijuana withestablish the Obama dictatorship throughlegalarbitrary actions both large and small.”I’m so glad that we arranged for George Bush’s 3rd term, instead of that damn liberal, Barack Obama.
Yes, not well thought out but stubbornly pursued instead of more important things, like jobs, fixing the economy, fixing the foreclosure crisis. Oh well it will make for more profits for everyone growing illegally.
It’s a weed after all, you can grow it in your back yard if it’s shielded enough from prying eyes. Or your neighbors are with the program. My view is he’s trying hard, as usual, to appeal to the right wingers to get their votes, which they will never give him. Part of his special ‘genius’. Which is really all about servicing the top 1% with slavering devotion so he can get rich and become one of them.
If he can’t carry California, then, bye-bye Mr. Centrist…
And it couldn’t happen to a better preznint…
The question is, when his numbers get past the point of no return, will the democratic “leadership” push him out, or will they just throw in the towel and do the ultimate cave to the republicans, and tank the party by running him again?
I with you all the way, nonplussed. I wake in the morning furious and go to bed furious. We are being colonized by a small elite of very wealthy, powerful people, it’s a process that has been going on since Reagan, when they realized they had to pulverize the left because we looked like we might be winning some battles. They have nothing but contempt for us. I worked for people like this, believe me, they are sociopaths. If you read through the lines when Obama speaks, he’s telling us how it us, be patient, accept the New Normal, think ‘green’ jobs, future jobs, way in the future, like in your dreams…banks are too big to fail, corporations are too big to fail, everyone is too big to fail except us. We need to buck up, and as his jobs guy the GE exec tells us, love the corporations because they are the ‘job creators’. They are job creators for China. Two thirds of GE’s jobs went to China, 80% of it’s profit comes from China. So what the Abomination is telling us that we are a colony of China and the multinational corporations, get used to it.
How long before they bring in the Pharma-sponsored Paraquat-filled drones?
Thank God we didn’t elect a Republican President in 2008. He probably would have done nothing to create well-paying American jobs or seek criminal prosecutions against Wall Street big shots. He probably would have engaged in repressive actions on lifestyle issues. He would have failed to prosecute torture and roll back illegal government wiretapping. He would have failed to reform the tax code. He would have enacted the Republican agenda. He would have…
What’s that you say?
No — that can’t be right!
It is?
Oh, dear…
I’m an OLD voter; I’ve never smoked pot (never even seen it or had the opportunity to smoke it or bake with it) . . . but he’s doin’ a heckuva job alienating me with this persecution/prosecution!
Big pharma, health insurance companies, the banks, wall street, big oil, green energy scammers, China, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, GE, multinational corporations in general, agribusiness, these are all his employers. He’s working for them, not us. They are giving him lots of money now that he passed more free trade bills. More millions of our jobs will be going overseas. Congress is busy congratulating themselves on the massive screw job they have given us once again.
Um, tanks … a lot …
What would happen to political loyalty if the Dems Ditched the Drone?
I axe ya, tanbark, and what wud the ‘bots do?
The Dims have flipped their Whigs and it’s all smooth sailin’ … downhill … from … here.
Party Hardy, Dims! The dustbin of history awaits …
DW
Yes, pharma, and the fact that the CIA makes billions in under-the-table money to fund secret operations by selling the stuff…
Just for fun I wish there were imitation MJ plants (all sizes) for sale. That would be well made “plants” that would have to be closely examined to determine that they were not real. Plant in the garden, in the woods, in pots in your front window and the rear of vacant lots that have lots of mud when raining – everywhere. How about a thousand pickup trucks driving through Los Angeles with each having 10 potted MJ plants waving in the back. After a while real plants could probably be transported without much chance of gettin stopped. That would be fun!
How many lobbyist does the Mexican drug cartel have in Washington?
There is some reason that those guns showed up in Mexico.
lol… well…. thats about to kinda happen.
Much of the christmas tree industy is just a front for pot. Pot is shipped around in the christmas trees.
Though you wouldnt know that weed comes from Arkansas and Kentucky anymore what with all the dealers selling over priced “hydro” these days.
It’s the Pharma Cartel not the Mexican Drug Cartel pulling the strings on this. The Govt did the same thing to Kava Kava many years ago. Made up a crisis and had many of the homeopathic medicines like Kava pulled from the shelves cuz they were eating into Prozac sales.
The cynic in me still insists the timing of this, with the #Occupy movement in full swing, suggests that’s what it’s all about.
“What?!?!? The DFH’s are out in the streets again??!?! We’ll show them, let’s see how they like it now it that we’ll shut down their weed suppliers.”
If it’s PHARMA. Why now??? I haven’t heard of any new blockboster drugs out or on the brink of coming out that would compete with MJ. SOMETHING is making THIS the right time. If it’s not #Occupy, what is it?
And btw, why is it the government is so determined to shut off a viable treatment for pain when they’re also hellbent on ensuring Doc’s don’t write prescriptions for pain too??? Again, I haven’t seen any letup in that area, and that certainly doesn’t benefit PHARMA. At my local VA pain meds now are so last resort only it’s almost verboten to speak of them.
Meanwhile folks like me (and there are millions of us) with chronic, real, daily FUCKING PAIN just have to suffer.
Assholes.
It isnt pharma. Its the Police/Justice institutions. They make a lot of money off prosecuting pot. Not to mention bs “mandatory” treatment (lol which idiot dems helped create) and drug testing labs. Back in the 80s there were some great articles about how when drug screening was being forced on us that most of the companies popping up doing it were owned by republicans who in turn were trying to mandate everyones dog give up some urine. Then there are the “treatment” facilities that also are owned by a lot of righties.
Last time I was at the courthouse I perused the docket. Had to be about 95% drug or DWI offense on the docket.
Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) For President!!!
How does the president think that idealists who bought into is hope lies during his campaign Deal with the way our country has failed and sucked into fear, (whew) actually deal with this realization. Some relax for 15 minutes. Via Whatever It Takes, This is a Blowmind for me. Just add it to the list of BS that really wants me to succumb.
But, I won’t Never give up! (SD~)
That’s become a great question again Tan . . . 6 months to a year ago I was crowing the Dims would dump Obama and run up HRC.
But so MUCH of the oligarch agenda has been actualized or put into place for actualization in Obama’s term I’m beginning to believe the oligarchs don’t mind if Romney or someone GOP wins n the DIMS have been told to ‘stand down’.
We’ll see . . . but my vote from now on goes 3rd party across the board, never again for the Oligarch Party’s . . . cuz it don’t MATTER which party wins, the game’s fully rigged from Judiciary thru Executive, Congress and military down to state, county and city levels of governance.
I’ll still vote cuz I can but the real change is coming off the streets, which I’ve always said it would have to, just like the last time WE hit the streets in our teens and early 20′s.
On We Occupy.
N pick, we GOTTA pick n sip, to stay sane.
*G*
PS…This just pisses me off. Could you tell?
It’s almost like going through puberty again, isn’t it?
Heh lemme help with your translation . . .
“Fuck you you fucking fucks!”
Oh, and Tan speaks NewYahkese at times, too . . . he’s GOOD at it!
*G*
LMAOROTF!!!!!
You need to issue spew alerts when you do that young lady!!!
lol
*waves*
Tanbark has yelled at me, and made me sad.
*DING*
The fed crackdown is cartel backed no doubt . . . it’s like Air America never stopped flying or trucking or boating or delivering.
NO!
He’s a good soul, thru n thru . . . he and I have been thru the trenches of right wing douchery on other sites in the past.
Sorry to hear of this . . . but then, I’ve gone off on folks I *heart* in here before too . . . perhaps fences can mend over time.
Doesn’t it kind of feel like it?
Only, most of our parents are dead or one foot in, not like us ha ha, but the government has taken over the Authoritator Role, don’t you think?
(Sorry for the unannounced spew. Paper towel?)
Perhaps.
I was sad, though.
I’m with you n Senator MaryMc . . . PhArma is no doubt helping to fund in some manner, but I gotta believe the evidence DOES point to major cartel backing and protection of that illegal drug money stream.
Follow the money and guns in this case . . . DOJ n Holder have been outed, sadly most of the nation still doesn’t know about it.
Only us DFH Firebagger types . . . . LeSigh.
Not the source benefit, it’s a side benefit.
The source is the money stream from the cartels, which paves the golden road way for other revenue stream generation within the system as money is laundered . . . .
Yes its a deal with feds, judiciary, public n private prison systems, n such but it’s all unable to survive without the Mexican/Central American/South American cartels HUGE supplies of cash and drugs.
N of course, heroin comes thru the AfPak/MidEast pipelines US owns and operates (along with Russia/Turk) but it comes thru Mexico in the end . . . to get here, along with all that cash.
Oh, agreed in full, ma’am . . . deju vu all over again in so many ways . . . repression, hate, violence, exposure of the evil seedy underbelly of the corporate beast . . . boiling up and now in the streets once more into the breach we go . . .
Oh well, better n it was before Occupy . . . I was ready to tuck my head in the sand and go all save my own ass again . . . still need a job, but Occupy tugs at my heart strings like no other before in a long time . . . ;-)
Nice chattin Pups time to get out n run errands and get some sun in my face a bit . . . gotta wash off this yellow cheeto stain on my fingers n burn them month old dirty jammies n such . . . ;-)
Its just more eleven dimensional political strategerie..
By cracking down Obama is actually mobilizing the reform movement to unite, get big money from Soros and the other reform funders, and sweep away this idiotic policy with a wave of state initiatives…
Genius…
“But I detest 0bama more than any recent President”
This is how it felt to be a Democrat under LBJ in 1967-68 …
A lot of conspiracy theories abounding here… nevermind disrupting OWS and collusion with Mexican Drug Cartels…
It is Big Pharma guys, FDA approval of of GWPharma Sativex will help crystalize what is going on here…
TYT nails it on this one, watch here.
If you are going to vote, then vote third party.
And then the Obama apologists wonder way people of the “professional left” persuasion want Obama to face primaries by someone like Bernie Sanders or Alan Grayson.