Feds seize bank accounts of 2 Sacramento-area medical marijuana dispensaries

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/10/01/3951917/feds-seize-bank-accounts-of-2.html

Federal authorities have seized nearly $250,000 from the accounts of two Sacramento area dispensaries in a probe into alleged concealment of medical marijuana proceeds.
U.S. Magistrate Gregory G. Hollows approved two warrants Sept. 22, allowing authorities to seize business checking accounts from operators of the One Love Wellness Center dispensary in Sacramento and Mary Jane's Wellness in Gold River.

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Yeah, I read that this morning. Whether or not they actually did this or not remains to be seen. I just hope it's not a new tactic to hassle/get rid of dispensaries

"the account seizures may signal that federal authorities are looking for illegal profiteering by dispensaries, which are required to operate as nonprofits under state law."

Not good news for most shops in Cali!
I would never own a shop knowing the Feds
could raid the place at any time and take everything, get sent to prison
with no repercussion from the accused. Way to risky and living with
paranoia is no way to live.

yeah man one slip in the books and they would FUCK you.

The pigs have been doing this for 15 years, and there are still thousands of dispensary owners taking the risk.

We are making progress.

rollitup said:

The pigs have been doing this for 15 years, and there are still thousands of dispensary owners taking the risk.

We are making progress.

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If law enforcement pushes dispensary owners too far, it will unite them. With dispensaries comes the potential of something that was never possible before. A unified well funded pro-cannabis organization. If they could get every legal dispensary in California to donate 1% of their earnings for one year that would be approximately 20million dollars (based on state wide 2010 earnings of 2 billion dollars). That kind of money concentrated on a single cause could very easily bring legalization to California for good. Prop 19 almost did it with ~2-3 million dollars. 20 million and it would be no problem.

If every dispensary in California donated 3% of their earnings for one year into a political organization, that's around 60 million dollars would be a powerful enough lobby to get legalization done nationally. All it's going to take to unify dispensaries in that manner is politicians/law enforcement to push them too far. If they do that, look out. They've awaken a sleeping giant.

That has already happened here in SD. Our City Council passed an ordinance that was supposed to regulate the dispensaries, but the politicians changed the regulations so that they would require all dispensaries to close and go through a restrictive zoning process. We got 90 dispensaries to put in 1K each, and that paid for us to collect enough signatures to force the City Council to rescind the ordinance.

You are absolutely correct, we are making progress.

rollitup said:

That has already happened here in SD. Our City Council passed an ordinance that was supposed to regulate the dispensaries, but the politicians changed the regulations so that they would require all dispensaries to close and go through a restrictive zoning process. We got 90 dispensaries to put in 1K each, and that paid for us to collect enough signatures to force the City Council to rescind the ordinance.

You are absolutely correct, we are making progress.

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San Jose is doing the same thing right now. They are going to try and shut down all ~150 dispensaries. Then allow only 10 to reopen after shutting down for a year. But the cost to go through the process to reopen is going to be ~500k. The dispensaries would no longer be allowed to take cash or debit and all products (buds, edibles, concentrates) and cultivation would have to be made onsite and vending would no longer be allowed in any way. And this is all after passing a huge tax on all mmj products last year.

So they got ~120 dispensaries all to kick in 5k a piece. They've hired Robinson Communications (a major national lobbying/ballot initiative company) to go out and fight for them. Might work.

The city of San Jose pushed the dispensaries too hard IMO and it's going to backfire.

IMO, if they ever tried to end dispensaries state wide, this would happen on a national level creating a huge lobby.

Feds will keep on raiding! They just raided 2 of the first 4 pot shops in L.A.
West Hollywood to be exact. These 2 shops were the first that opened in LA
and were supposed to be model shops but the Feds don't care. They raid and
will not stop. Did you hear about the sweep of all pot shops that the Feds are organizing
for Cali right now as we speak? It's in the news! Look it up at Google.

d.s.m. said:

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/10/01/3951917/feds-seize-bank-accounts-of-2.html

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Well, with more and more banks refusing to hold accounts for dispensaries, this trick will not be that effective as many can not get a bank to hold their account.
If all it takes is "alleged concealment of marijuana proceeds" to snatch your money, everyone is fucked. They allege and take your funds, now you have to prove your following all laws...all the while they have your money meaning you can't afford a good lawyer. Then if you win, you still have to petition to get your money back.
I am not in CA, but in my state if things were seized as being connected to a crime, and you are proved innocent, you do not automatically get your stuff back. Remember OJ was found not guilty of murder. The family sued him saying he caused the deaths and the family won.
OJ was innocent in criminal court but guilty in civil court.
The charges are criminal but the seizure is a civil matter. You have to sue to get your stuff back and a lot of people don't because they can't afford the fight, or it would cost more than what was taken.
With civil seizures, the state usually wins if your guilty or not.

This is just wrong on so many levels