Oakland's Plan To Cash In On Marijuana Farms Hits Federal Roadblock

nytimes.com:

OAKLAND, Calif. -- For a brief, smoky moment last fall, this economically challenged city seemed poised to become the nation's most aggressive when it comes to growing and taxing medical marijuana.

Read the whole story: nytimes.com

Comments

[themodernleader]

05:23 AM on 03/06/2011

   A wise policy would be to legalize drugs under strict decentralized state control.  Taxes would be collected, use regulated and the need for hundreds of billions of dollars to support a police state could be redirected to jobs for jobless drug trafficers and othe young people out of work and luck.  Our present policy is costly and corrupting to our enforcement efforts and society.

[dbrett480]

12:07 PM on 03/04/2011

The feds response was pretty reasonable. It seems like they tolerate the small-scale operations but not the bigger ones. So Oakland should just allow the small-scale ones.

[Bali Boy]

05:39 PM on 03/03/2011

LOL again!

The answer was, is, and will be: NO!

You're not getting it, are you. Here...if you think "taxes" are a problem? Next up to bat? FDA.

The best belly laugh in years was the: ...throw seeds in city parks, on a boat and with a goat.

Only the affects and effects of a psychotropic drug can create such illogical, ill-informed and silly percpetions.

Ah well...the more comments I read here, the more these types of articles should be posted in the Comedy section.

[persimmon8]

03:28 PM on 03/03/2011

Good move by the feds that will result at least temporarily leave the industry to the mom-pop cottage industry growers and small dispensary caregivers. The Oakland group wants big corporate profits for themselves and their stockholders....at the expense of putting thousands of N. Ca families out of business.

Richard Lee who bought the biggest leases from the city of Oakland bragged how he was going to corner 25% of the Ca. market. They are about greed and big money for a few players who can afford to buy the very expensive leases. It is good that in this difficult economy many families are profiting from this industry as this is one of the only cottage type industries not controlled by big corporate interests.

[camanokat]

05:08 PM on 03/03/2011

I completely agree. I personally know some growers in NoCal and yes, they're just trying to earn a decent living.

[camanokat]

05:08 PM on 03/03/2011

Oh, and F&F.

[fumes]

02:59 PM on 03/03/2011

what side is ''our'' government on anyway?

MMJ is a 5,000 year old panacea-tic plant..

let my people go!

[RevRayGreen]

07:30 AM on 03/03/2011

http://tiny.cc/rte8d GREEN CENTRAL STATION Show#27 Is this Heaven No this IOWA Politics on steroids 2/26/11 Sounds by Michael G/MendoCounty .

[theepro52]

12:54 AM on 03/03/2011

Overgrow the government !

[FarOutFish]

12:44 PM on 03/03/2011

And replace it with what?

[camanokat]

05:10 PM on 03/03/2011

Try google and learn more about what that means. Over GROW, not throw.

It's a movement urging people to throw cannabis seeds randomly throughout their city, such as at the cop shop or city hall, parks etc.

The idea is that there will be so much weed growing that officials could not eradicate it.

[trope]

12:42 AM on 03/03/2011

I'm so tired of feeling powerless against the forces of irrational ignorance that prevent me from freely growing hemp in my own front yard beside my tomatoes and sunflowers.

Hey, here's an idea: How about we start a nationwide movement of guerrilla growing, that is, surreptitiously planting seeds on public property? You know, when no one's looking, drop a few seeds in the flower bed at your local library, park, or courthouse. They'd eventually be ripped up by the ignorant, of course, but at least we'd be making them sweat. Also, if the movement got big enough, it would force press coverage and a national debate, a debate that we will eventually win because we have rationality on our side. Let's call it something patriotic sounding: How about... Operation America Grows!

[undrgrndgirl]

12:56 AM on 03/03/2011

i disagree with your idea to drop seeds on public property...illegal grows in state and federal open space lands is a toxic and environmentally disastrous problem that cannabis advocates should denounce and work to eliminate...now, if all those home growers would go "public", i think the ignorant might get the message...

[camanokat]

05:17 PM on 03/03/2011

Randomly planting seeds in flower beds etc. and letting nature take its course does not result in environmental degradation. It's the use of chemicals etc on for-profit grows that are a problem.

[oxygen]

08:18 AM on 03/03/2011

there already was a group who planted seeds on the DEA's front lawn in Washington - effectively and forever eliminating the assertion by the DEA to others that no one, ever plants cannabis seeds on "other people's property"

[CTDFalconer]

12:14 AM on 03/03/2011

Marijuana should simply be reclassified as schedule 2 from schedule 1. That would leave legalization up to the states.

[undrgrndgirl]

12:59 AM on 03/03/2011

it should really be schedule 3...marinol was schedule 2 and has been reclassified as schedule 3 ...whole plant cannabis and its synthetic cousin should be the same...

[oxygen]

01:11 AM on 03/03/2011

too bad the doctors decided to side with the prohibitionists over this in order to shore up their monopoly on all things drug related, for now their poor judgment has forced the blossoming of the grow your own medicine movement and with a medicine that is nothing short of a miracle ... the doctors make less money overall when people use cannabis as a medicine because it treats well, many symptoms otherwise they would have to see a doctor more often about therefore most doctors loathe medical mj

[FarOutFish]

12:47 PM on 03/03/2011

The fact the DEA changed Marinol from schedule two to three says more about the Religion of Prohibition than the dangers of the drug.

[noygdb]

12:01 AM on 03/03/2011

why aren't the republiCANTS and Tbags bitterly complaining about this? remember they want less govt and they hate nanny states! come on sarah, now is the time to bark!

[Voltaire911]

12:54 AM on 03/03/2011

Why aren't Democrats complaining? Why isn't Obama telling the DEA to go after criminals?

[oxygen]

01:16 AM on 03/03/2011

they are - Hillary has been complaining to the Mexican people that they have not suffered enough yet and need to ram on with her demands for a cannabis free Mexico

[noygdb]

07:33 PM on 03/03/2011

which criminals are you refering to? the corporate banks, the wall street crooks, the republiCANT party, or do you mean those thieves named the formerpresident and theformervicepresident?? that's not the dea's job

[FarOutFish]

11:31 PM on 03/02/2011

Why is anyone surprised? The Drug Warriors are willing to destroy entire countries, Mexico and Columbia for example, to continue their War on Drugs and civil liberties, so an American city is no big deal for these zealots.

[oxygen]

11:56 PM on 03/02/2011

and these evil dictates come from none other than Hillary Clinton and her friends - while chugging vodka as a hilarious pastime

[FarOutFish]

03:40 AM on 03/03/2011

Actually the "Drug War goes back to President Nixon and his establishment of the DEA. Like all governmental organizations it will never go away. It takes a brave politician to speak the truth about the futility of the drug War. Former New Mexico Governor, Republican Gary Johnson is one of the few brave ones who speak truth to power. .

[oxygen]

11:31 PM on 03/02/2011

Paracetamol (acetaminophen) is one of the most popular and widely used drugs for the treatment of pain and fever. It occupies a unique position among analgesic drugs. Unlike NSAIDs it is almost unanimously considered to have no antiinflammatory activity and does not produce gastrointestinal damage or untoward cardiorenal effects. Unlike opiates it is almost ineffective in intense pain and has no depressant effect on respiration. Although paracetamol has been used clinically for more than a century, its mode of action has been a mystery until about one year ago, when two independent groups (Zygmunt and colleagues and Bertolini and colleagues) produced experimental data unequivocally demonstrating that the analgesic effect of paracetamol is due to the indirect activation of cannabinoid CB(1) receptors. In brain and spinal cord, paracetamol, following deacetylation to its primary amine (p-aminophenol), is conjugated with arachidonic acid to form N-arachidonoylphenolamine, a compound already known (AM404) as an endogenous cannabinoid. The involved enzyme is fatty acid amide hydrolase. N-arachidonoylphenolamine is an agonist at TRPV1 receptors and an inhibitor of cellular anandamide uptake, which leads to increased levels of endogenous cannabinoids; moreover, it inhibits cyclooxygenases in the brain, albeit at concentrations that are probably not attainable with analgesic doses of paracetamol. CB(1) receptor antagonist, at a dose level that completely prevents the analgesic activity of a selective CB(1) receptor agonist, completely prevents the analgesic activity of paracetamol. Thus, paracetamol acts as a pro-drug, the active one being a cannabinoid.

PMID: 17227290 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

[undrgrndgirl]

01:00 AM on 03/03/2011

thanks for the info...

[IndyFem]

12:29 PM on 03/03/2011

oxygen....in really simple terms...are you saying that we were created with receptors in our brains that respond to the benefits of cannabis? I read something about this recently and am wondering if I am correct. I regret that I can't understand the details of your post. Am I right??

[camanokat]

05:19 PM on 03/03/2011

Yes, Indy we are born with cannabis receptors.

www.greenpassion.org has some very good info.

[LI2USsomemore]

11:27 PM on 03/02/2011

Pot/delta-THC - the only drug known with no contraindications.

We can't have that now can we!

[undrgrndgirl]

01:17 AM on 03/03/2011

there probably are some contraindications...in ca they discourage docs from recommending for patients with hypertension (though there is evidence that cannabis actually lowers blood pressure), some people with mental illnesses probably shouldn't use...and some people have anxiety issues, though those can probably be managed by using the right strain...that said there is no LD50 and no one has ever died from using cannabis...

[LI2USsomemore]

10:29 AM on 03/03/2011

Well there you are, undrgrndgirl. Thanks for helping to make my point. :-)

[LI2USsomemore]

11:25 PM on 03/02/2011

Well, of course the federal government said no. There are prisons to be filled, and who better to fill them than the nonviolent pot growers/smokers. (I know, it's hyperbole, but not too far fetched.)

[Coinyer101]

11:20 PM on 03/02/2011

Do it anyway. If the Feds come down on them , Obama will lose the election in 2012. They may back down, when they realize it. Liberals and the youth will not come out for Dems in 2012 if they keep attacking this issue.

[R2D2-51]

11:44 PM on 03/02/2011

Whoever has the most to gain from a strategic marketing position will come out on top as evidenced by some recent news in Big Pharma.

They have been given a license by the DEA to manufacture and market the active ingredient in mary J-Tetrahydracanebola (THC).

Thus it should not be long in the not so distant future that allthis haggling over Mary J that has been going on around where aI live here in Del Norte County(Humboldt,CA) when our Prop. 19 narrowly went down to defeat was over the big growers around here in localpapers were taking out ads about how the big marketers would kill the small best pot producers in the region, many of which run the medical Mary J shops where you can get a license in the back, then buy it from the front counter when you leave operations.

Our inverted totalitarian state who has hijacked the democratic institutions of this nationhave been planning this one out for a while now.

But they will never take out our big cash crops here in Humboldt, Mendocino, Siskiyou, and Del Norte Counties.

We have slowly been converting to local economies andleaving the corporate fazzissts in the dust..

[oxygen]

12:27 AM on 03/03/2011

well you guys have luck too - that land and growing season .. imagine some of my ancestors who tried to farm in Maine 150 years ago

point being we love California fruits and vegetables here in New England so I am sure there will always be a market legal or not coming from your state to mine due to these conditions

who would have ever thought that when the day finally came to legalize mary j, that it would be some of the movements own best people who foolishly stood in it's way

I must congratulate you ~ I have been here for over 5 years and your "canebola" fear of all that viral thing can lead to, made me fall off my chair laughing ... awesome symbolism there

you are doing great, you are outgrowing, transforming energizing elvisian

# ^ Salvaggio, R.; Baddley, W. (Jul 2004). "Other viral bioweapons: Ebola and Marburg hemorrhagic fever". Dermatologic clinics 22 (3): 291–302, vi. doi:10.1016/j.det.2004.03.003. ISSN 0733-8635. PMID 15207310.

[Heartlight3]

11:58 PM on 03/02/2011

Right. Don't re-elect Obama. Elect someone who will crack down and incarcerate all those who grow and smoke pot. The problem is that the choice is between someone who won't permit large growing operations, but is trying to reduce prosecutions of smokers, and someone who will throw them all in jail. Unfortunately, not voting for Obama will produce the same kind of result we got by not voting for Democrats in the midterms. How is that working out?

[undrgrndgirl]

01:22 AM on 03/03/2011

obama (and holder) have NOT reduced prosecutions of smokers or growers or dispensaries...don't fool yourself.

[LI2USsomemore]

10:31 AM on 03/03/2011

Here's my number one complaint - failure to deschedule industrial hemp, several strains of which test @ trace or less THC.