Cartels Say Thank You To OC's Medical Marijuana Crackdown!


This week has been full of crappy news for advocates of medical marijuana here in Orange County. First, there was the failed effort by U.S. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) to amend the Justice Department's spending bill by preventing funding for the federal crackdown of medical marijuana dispensaries in California and other states that allow medical pot. Rohrabacher won no less than 163 of his colleagues to vote in favor of the measure, but 262 voted to continue the crackdown, including 19 mostly Republican legislators from California.

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It's not just the feds that are pushing ahead with their misguided attempts to circumvent state law, though. Here in Orange County, the number of cities cracking down all by their lonesomes–Lake Forest, Dana Point, Costa Mesa, what's up!–is growing every week. The latest: Santa Ana. The city has had a medical pot ban for five years and has so far shut down dozens of dispensaries, but since not all cannabis clubs have fled yet, the city is ramping up the crackdown with frequent code enforcement fines.

Just about the dumbest update in this week's crackdown crap-fest comes from Long Beach, where Joe Byron and Joe Grumbine, whose Dec. 2011 conviction for selling pot–something that dozens of city-approved dispensaries are still doing–was just overturned, are back in court for trial number two, which will begin sometime this summer. It's great that the two Joes are finally getting a fair trial, but the fact they're being tried at all is still pretty stupid.
Just ask the U.S. Border Patrol, which during this past week alone has made three major marijuana busts, including two at the San Clemente immigration checkpoint, totaling more than 600 pounds of Mexican weed. Guess what? Shutting down American-operated pot dispensaries and trying to jail activists who are operating openly and attempting to follow state law is a waste of money and a miscarriage of justice. 
And for that, the Mexican cartels say, Gracias, pinches payasos!

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