Medical marijuana: Does Melinda Haag's memo foreshadow federal MMJ raids in Colorado?

It's hypocritical of Melinda Haag http://evilesq.com/lawyers/100... to declare war on "pot shops" while lawyers, California attorneys in particular, get by with laundering the proceeds of narcotics trafficking because, according to US Senators Carl Levin and Tom Coburn, of gaping holes in the law and an unwillingness by law enforcement to pursue such cases see: http://barrapartners.com/ 

So what's going on? If cannabis is legal that significantly cut down on the amount of money laundered by law firms ... and kicked back to politicians?

Note that the original interview never aired because 9News succeeded in getting Bartkowicz arrested first; it was replaced with a story about the arrest.

You mean Chris Bartkowicz, the fellon who went on tv showing off the many plants he was growing near a school?

Yeah Frank your right CTI does need to stop fear mongering. The government both state and federal are fully in support of relaxed cannabis laws and the legalization of Cannabis. The Hagg memo, the raids in Montana and raids around the country etc. are just a part of the governments huge April fools joke. I cant wait for April 1 this is going to be the greatest trick of all times.

CTI needs to stop fear mongering. The "Haag memo" is completely irrelevant here in Colorado as the US Attorney in California has absolutely no say in the enforcement priorities of the Colorado U.S. Attorney.

Clearly the feds are behaving as if the Colorado Constitution protecting Colorado mmj patients, caregivers and physicians is meaningless. It's just as if we didn't vote for anything in 2000. The DEA will be cherry picking and EVERYONE will LIVE IN FEAR of arrest.

Now we have 2 mandatory lawsuits that need to happen immediately.1. challenging all unconstitutional state statute2. the state challenging the feds (along with other mmj states would be best)

And we can't do shit without money.cannabislawsuits.com

The Ogden Memo has to be the most misunderstood document in the medical marijuana industry. On the one hand it says the DEA should allocate their resources elsewhere, but on the other hand it says the memo shall not be used as a defense in court.

The Ogden Memo was only a statement of "priorities" to give "guidance" with regards to medical patients and caregivers. The memo clearly said the feds still consider "commercial enterprises" to be a target. And priorities (unlike law) can change at any time. It was written merely to give guidance, not to be binding on the US Attorneys.

The most important part of the Ogden Memo is this: "This guidance regarding resource allocation does not ... provide a legal defense to a violation of federal law."

The US Attorney who prosecuted Chris Bartkowicz actually made Bartkowicz read that passage from the Ogden Memo on the stand at his motion's hearing. The US Attorney asked Chris (paraphrase), "Now Mr. Bartkowicz, a reasonable person could not have read that memo and thought that it was a green light to grow marijuana, could they?" The feds told him in court that the memo didn't mean anything, and Chris got 5 years because he erroneously relied on that memo.

The Haag Memo does clarify the Ogden Memo in the fact that the feds say they will be enforcing the Constrolled Substances Act "regardless of state laws." That memo was written in response to a request from the Oakland City Attorney. If the state of Colorado were to request the same information from the local US Attorney's office, they would probably get a letter back very similar to the Haag Memo. Haag wrote the memo after consultion with US AG Eric Holder and the Deputy US AG, after all, so it is unlikely their opinion on this matter would change.

Many MMC-applicants and industry groups like MMIG to this day rely on the Ogden Memo for their protection from the feds, even though the memo clearly says it "does not provide a legal defense to a violation of federal law". The Haag Memo saying that state law doesn't matter to the feds should be of concern to everyone in Colorado who supports states' rights.

This is even more a reason to legalize it the government will not stop harassing and profiting off of marijuana. Jack Herer is right, "Either you are on the U.S. government's side or you are on the Earth's side with me!"

All this and more over a frickin weed....what a sad sad commentary.

The letter from US Attorney Melinda Haag to Oakland City Attorney John Russo was wriitten in consultation with Attorney General Holder. It appertains to the licensure of growing facilities for medical cannabis. It is a statement of Federal policy throughout the United States -- you'll find nothing within which would act to qualify or restrict the application of that policy to California.

I do expect some combination of actions by the State and Federal governments to nullify the voters' decision to make access to medical cannabis part of our Constitution. HB10-1284 already allows the DOR to disclose the location of all grows to any law enforcement agency (e.g. the DEA), and the attempt this year in HB11-1043 to force caregivers to register their grows sets the stage for the DEA to know where every single legal plant other than patients' own is in Colorado. The prohibitionists want to serve up our entire community to the Federal criminal injustice system on a silver platter. Even a few raids of dispensaries putatively not in compliance with Colorado's medical cannabis laws would have a decided chilling effect on cannabis commerce, and I do believe that we should expect them. Note that Colorado has issued exactly no licenses for dispensing or growing cannabis and proposes (in HB11-1043) to prevent anyone from attempting to enter the business for yet another year.

The Haag memo must be seen for what it is: a betrayal of the medical cannabis community which helped elect him by President Obama. I sent the following letter to the President, the Senators of Colorado and California, Rep. DeGette, and Ms. Haag:

Robert ChaseColorado Coalition for Patients and CargiversDenver, CO 80218

The President1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NWWashington, DC 20500

March 19, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

Your disavowal of the principle enunciated in the Ogden memorandum has not gone unnoticed. We, the People of the United States, demand the resignations of Attorney General Holder and US Attorney Melinda Haag. The dissolution of the DEA and the repeal of the Controlled Substances Act are essential elements of our determination that America become once again "the land of the free". Our status as the leading prison-nation in the world is a completely unacceptable outrage, and drastically reducing our prison population must be America’s first priority.

Haag's memo reveals the "United States Justice Department" to be an illegitimate institution waging war against the people of the United States, and an enemy of American liberty. Real Americans will act against the criminal gang of fascists controlling the Congress, many state legislatures, the Courts, and their Schutzstaffel, the Injustice Department. No terrorist or serial murderer threatens our society more than rabid animals like Haag and the dupes who continue to prop them up.

Your failure to resist fascism renders you unfit to serve a second term. People who use cannabis read, think, and vote. I for one am done with the kind of political expediency which has allowed the Greater and Lesser Fascist Parties to control our private lives. To whatever extent you are motivated by pragmatism, please consider that my contention that millions of your core voters will simply not accept your retreat from respecting states' medical cannabis laws may be true.

Sincerely,

Robert Chase, Founder of the Colorado Coalition for Patients and Caregivers

copatientsandcaregivers@gmail.com

Looks like Hagg forgot she is below U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in the chain of command. She is still using the old playbook which says push around hippie cannabis users and use it as a stepping stone for political office.