July 20, 2012

July 20, 2012. Oakland. President Obama is planning to make a campaign stop at ground zero in his war against medical marijuana in a few days, and advocates for its legalization for medical use plan to show up in force. They’re angry at Obama for not only flip-flopping on the issue immediately after being elected, but escalating the federal government’s attacks to a level far surpassing even President Bush. Now, they hope to make the President change his policy, or pay a political price for the betrayal.

On Monday, July 23, President Obama will be in Oakland to raise money for his re-election campaign. There, according to the marijuana advocacy group Just Say Now, “He will be greeted by a large number of protesters who support medical marijuana.”

Just Say Now will join Harborside Health Center, Americans For Safe Access and other organizations to protest what they call, “the Obama administration’s aggressive war against medical marijuana.” The grassroots organization quotes Harborside’s call for protest:

‘The federal attacks on the medical cannabis community keep coming. Recently, the Department of Justice announced their intention to confiscate two buildings operated by Harborside Health Center in Oakland, CA and in San Jose, CA. This latest attack comes on the heels of other raids, audits, and other intimidation around the state. Can you please join us on Monday, July 23, to tell President Obama to stop attacking California’s medical cannabis patients, cultivators, and providers when he visits the Fox Theater in downtown Oakland?’

Protest organizers and remind supporters, “During the 2008 campaign, then candidate Obama promised to respect the states’ medical marijuana laws. But since taking office, the Obama administration has been worse on this issue than even George W. Bush or Bill Clinton.” Among the federal agencies President Obama has unleashed against medical marijuana users and clinics include; the Internal Revenue Service, Dept. of Justice, the DEA, the BATF, and even the Dept. of Health and Human Services.

Illegal hypocrisy

The most blatant example of President Obama’s hypocrisy is the fact that he repeatedly insists that medical marijuana dispensaries must be brought to justice because it is illegal on the federal level. The fact of the matter is that the President and his Executive Branch are just as guilty because they run their own federal medical marijuana dispensary. The White House censors its existence, but according to the DEA’s own definition, it is a criminal drug ring operated under President Obama’s authority.

An investigative report by Associated Press last year revealed that the federal government, the Executive Branch to be exact, buys and sells medical marijuana to sick Americans as part of a federal program. Yet, President Obama and his federal agents insist that marijuana is illegal in every way, shape and form.

According to AP’s research, a 1976 federal court settlement legalized medical marijuana. The Federal government even created its own program for growing and distributing it. While the government stopped accepting new patients in 1992, the program continues to supply medical marijuana to the patients still alive and in the program today. A 72 year-old woman who enrolled in the federal government’s medical marijuana program in 1988 insists she couldn’t be happier and her case is proof positive that marijuana works just as well as any medicine, if not better.

When AP contacted federal officials about the blatant hypocrisy, Steve Gust of the US National Institution on Drug Abuse argued that the federal government only continues to supply marijuana “for compassionate reasons”. Ironically, that’s the exact same reason medical marijuana exemptions exist in 17 states and DC. On Monday, the President will be called on to answer for his obvious double-standard and his own marijuana dispensary.

Federal government marijuana fields

As AP investigated the federal medical marijuana program further, they uncovered a widespread web of cannabis distribution spanning a number of states. Researchers revealed that the Federal government’s marijuana fields are located on the property of the University of Mississippi. There, the Federal government’s entire marijuana crop is grown. When Federal officials decide their marijuana buds are ripe and ready for harvest, the marijuana is picked.

From Mississippi, the Federal government then traffics the marijuana shipment to a facility in North Carolina. There, the drugs are cleaned, chopped, rolled into perfect joints and prepped for distribution. The Federal government typically scores a half pound of weed for each customer, rolled into 300 joints and packed into metal tins. From the Federal government’s facility in North Carolina, the marijuana shipments are then distributed to patients once a month at different points throughout the nation.

For more information about the federal medical marijuana program, read the 2011 Whiteout Press article, ‘Feds Guilty of their own Crime on Marijuana’.

Eric Holder and the IRS

US Attorney General Eric Holder, officially accused of Contempt of Congress for one of his other scandals, is unfortunately the person assigned to investigate himself on the criminal charge. And as one might expect of a federal official accused of a felony, Holder’s office has already announced it will not investigate its boss. Case closed.

That leaves the Attorney General free to persecute Iraq and Afghan war amputees, as well as the usual assortment of cancer patients and AIDS victims, for simply trying to fill their legal medical prescription. In April, Holder and his heavily-armed assault troops stormed Oakland’s ‘Oaksterdam University’, a medical marijuana dispensary and education facility. Witnesses were outraged at the violence used by federal agents while arresting sick and crippled patients. Most outrage was focused on the violent arrest of wheel chair-bound Richard Lee, founder of Oaksterdam.

Read the Whiteout Press article, ‘Feds Raid Oaksterdam and Legal Medical Marijuana Shops’ for further information.

While President Obama had AG Holder carry out repeated assaults like the one above on clinics across California, the President also had the IRS jump into action. Harborside, one of the Oakland clinics sponsoring the organized protest Monday, was hit with a bizarre demand by the IRS for payment of $2.5 million in back taxes. It wasn’t that the clinic wasn’t paying its taxes – it was. The problem arose when the IRS inexplicably informed Harborside that they couldn’t claim any of the same standard deductions as any other business like payroll, rent and worker’s comp.

As Harborside Director Steve DeAngelo put it at the time, “This is not an effort to tax us. We’re happy to pay our taxes. This is an effort to shut us down.” For more information, read the 2011 Whiteout Press article, ‘IRS Targets Medical Marijuana Facilities’.

In response to the President’s flip-flopping on his campaign promises, and in protest of his violent and hypocritical police tactics, a number of medical marijuana advocacy groups are planning to protest his campaign event in Oakland on Monday. For details, visit Harborside Health Center or Just Say Now.

Also, read one of Whiteout Press’ most popular articles, ‘Does Marijuana Cure Cancer?’

Subscribe to Whiteout Press. It’s FREE and you can unsubscribe at any time. Simply submit your email address below.