L to R: Cheri Sicard, Jessica Lux, Congressional Candidate David Hernandez, Cynthia Johnston

This week’s photo (by Steve Baker) is of myself with fellow NORML Women’s Alliance LA leaders meeting California District 29 Congressional Candidate David Hernandez.  Candidate Hernandez was the ONLY congressional candidate to answer our voter ed questionnaire and we LOVED every one of his answers.  From a cannabis perspective, you can feel good about supporting David Hernandez.

This Week:  City of Oakland Sues Feds to Prevent Dispensary Closure; Activists Get Offensive Anti Marijuana Billboards Removed; 10 Years for Legally Growing Marijuana; Can a Lawsuit Shatter Federal Prohibition?; The Astronomical Financial Cost of Prohibition; Aaron Sandusky Found Guilty in Federal Court; and more.

POLITICS/LEGAL

City of Oakland Sues Feds to Prevent Dispensary Closure– Oakland filed a complaint in United States District Court today in an attempt to stop the feds from shutting down the state’s largest medical marijuana dispensary.  The feds are trying to seize the building along the Embarcadero where the Harborside Health Center is located. The pot club was operating legally under a permit issued by Oakland City officials until July, when U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California Melinda Haag filed the paperwork to seize the property, effectively closing it down. Harborside is the city’s second-largest retail payer.

10 Years for Legally Growing Marijuana — As President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign gears up for its final push, his Department of Justice (DOJ) is aggressively pursuing medical marijuana cases in direct contravention of earlier pronouncements on the issue. Federal prosecutors are taking advantage of election season politics by gambling that the White House will not stand in their way and appear to look soft on crime at this critical juncture. Their well-times aggression is just another example of gaming the system and ringing-up meaningless prosecutions which serve no purpose other than padding the resumes of federal prosecutors. It is far afield from their mission statement and self-professed duty to protect the public.

Can a Lawsuit Shatter Feral Prohibition? – For the first time in two decades federal courts will consider the science behind medical marijuana — and today there is more evidence than ever.

Activists Get Offensive Anti Marijuana Billboards Removed — Following a grassroots, online protest by volunteers with Women for Measure 80, advertising company Clear Channel Outdoor has agreed to take down a series of shameful, misleading and fear-mongering anti-marijuana billboards around Portland, OR.

The Astronomical Financial Cost of Prohibition –  A new analysis of crime data has found more than 241,000 people in Washington were arrested for marijuana possession over the past 25 years, most of them in the past 10 years.  The report, by a New York-based group of academics, conservatively estimates those arrests cost $305,714,500 in police and court during the past 25 years, and $194,026,500 in the past 10 years, a figure that excludes the cost of defense and court fines.

Melissa Etheridge Endorses Colorado’s Prop 64 – Grammy award-winning musician Melissa Etheridge has recorded a radio ad that will begin airing this week throughout Colorado, explaining why she supports Amendment 64, the state’s marijuana legalization measure.

Aaron Sandusky Found Guilty in Federal Court — Major medical marijuana trial–pitting the federal government against state law and legal cannabis providers–ends in Aaron Sandusky being found guilty on drug conspiracy charge.