Feds Target Medical Marijuana Despite Increased Popular Support

Posted on Jun 15, 2012

Despite the public’s increased support for the legalization of medical marijuana, the Department of Justice has renewed its crackdown, this time targeting the landlords of dispensaries under laws allowing the feds to seize the assets of traffickers. Under civil asset forfeiture laws, the DOJ is forcing the landlords to either shut down the shops on their property or risk the seizure of the land by the federal government.

This move by the DOJ has been kept quiet in order to avoid the ire of medical marijuana supporters, whose numbers are at an all-time high. The tactic also avoids formal challenges to state laws, mainly in California but potentially in all 24 states in which medical marijuana could become legalized by the end of the year.—CN

ThinkProgress:

Despite the fact that public support for medical marijuana is currently at all-time high, and may be legal in up to 24 states and the District of Columbia by the end of this year, the Department of Justice continues to crack down on medical marijuana on the federal level.

The DOJ has been targeting the landlords of medical marijuana shops in California as an indirect way to tamp down medical marijuana use. Although medical marijuana is legally under California state law, it is still illegal under federal law.

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