Showing posts with label Marijuana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marijuana. Show all posts
Monday, April 23, 2012
Cannabis Science to Film Specialty Documentary
Political Activist Filmmaker Kevin Booth Retained by Cannabis Science to Film Specialty Documentary
DENVER, Mar 19, 2012
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/political-activist-filmmaker-kevin-booth-retained-by-cannabis-science-to-film-specialty-documentary-2012-03-19
Cannabis Science, Inc. a pioneering U.S. biotech company developing pharmaceutical cannabis (marijuana) products, is thrilled to announce that the company has retained filmmaker Kevin Booth to collaborate on a documentary researching cannabis as a medicine and the truth behind the science of marijuana.
Many people know Kevin Booth’s work with the late comedian, Bill Hicks. Kevin produced most of Bill’s CDs and videos that led to the comedian’s own HBO specials and multiple appearances on David Letterman. The story of Kevin’s seventeen-year friendship and working partnership with Bill Hicks was recently explored in a feature length BBC documentary that just ended a year long run of festivals and theatrical screenings. After Bill’s death from pancreatic cancer in 1994, Kevin’s filmmaking took on a political turn and he produced documentaries with talk show host Alex Jones about the incident in Waco, Texas, the American two-party political system, and 9/11. In 2005, Kevin traveled to the UK in order to promote his book titled “Agent of Evolution” about his friendship with Bill Hicks - published by Harper Collins.
Several of Kevin’s family members died as a result of alcohol, tobacco, and pharmaceutical use. In 2003 Kevin began investigating the drug war in the United States and produced the documentary “American Drug War: The Last White Hope.” In his investigations, he discovered the United States government considers marijuana more dangerous than crack cocaine or crystal meth. Kevin sought to separate fact from fiction by traveling across the United States, documenting the “fallout” from the War on Drugs and seeking possible solutions and alternatives that have worked elsewhere. Kevin has toured the country, showing his film and lecturing at universities in hope of sparking a meaningful debate. “American Drug War” won best feature documentary at several film festivals from coast to coast and aired continuously on the Showtime network between 2008-2010. During this same time the film was also broadcasted on major networks in Canada, Australia, Poland, Lebanon and South Africa. Kevin recently returned from filming in Juarez Mexico for the follow up to “American Drug War" and is aiming for the sequel’s release later this year.
Kevin Booth’s body of work also include “How Weed Won the West" (a light hearted and humorous look into the California Cannabis culture) “Bill Hicks - Sane Man”, multiple music videos, feature length comedy concerts of Bill Hicks, Fear Factor’s Joe Rogan and groundbreaking comic Doug Stanhope. Kevin’s production of the Hick’s CD “Rant in E Minor” was recently awarded the 11th best comedy album of all time by Spin magazine competing against Bill Cosby, Chris Rock, Lenny Bruce, Rodney Dangerfield, Eddie Murphy, Sam Kinison, Woody Allen, George Carlin and Richard Pryor just to mention a few. Kevin’s audio productions “Rant in E Minor”, “Arizona Bay” and “Marble Head Johnson” all contain music written and performed by Kevin Booth and Bill Hick who first started playing music together in a high school punk-rock band named STRESS.
Today Kevin runs Sacred Cow Productions dba SCP Enterprises and self distributes through his own sites including SacredCow.com, AmericanDrugWar.com and Amazon. Several of his titles can be found distributed through Warner Brothers and Gravitas VOD that has now broken Booth’s work into the Latin market on both Netflix and ITUNES.
As previously announced, Cannabis Science has begun pre-production of its documentary, in which prohibition of marijuana, medicinal benefits of the plant, and international medical marijuana programs will be explored. Booth’s interests and demonstrated experience will be a true asset to Cannabis Science’s endeavors. The documentary will expose audience members to the subject of medical marijuana so that they may gain a better understanding of the research, science, and planning that goes into running Cannabis Science, one of the top marijuana research companies. The documentary will teach viewers about the medicinal benefits for a wide variety of conditions and show them that prohibition is unnecessary. This is clearly a topic for which Kevin Booth will provide great assistance, and Cannabis Science is excited to begin this project.
About Cannabis Science, Inc.
Cannabis Science, Inc. is at the forefront of pharmaceutical grade medical marijuana research and development. Our formulations will address the needs of patients choosing to use concentrated cannabis extracts to treat their ailments. Eventually, all Americans will have access to a safe and effective FDA approved medicine regardless of which state they live in. To maintain that marijuana is a dangerous, addictive drug with no medical value is scientifically absurd. Cannabis medicines, with no effective lethal dose, are far safer than aspirin, acetaminophen, and most other OTC drugs that kill thousands of Americans every year.
The Company works with world authorities on phytocannabinoid science targeting critical illnesses, and adheres to scientific methodologies to develop, produce and commercialize phytocannabinoid-based pharmaceutical products. In sum, we are dedicated to the creation of cannabis-based medicines, both with and without psychoactive properties, to treat disease and the symptoms of disease, as well as for general health maintenance.
Forward Looking Statements
This Press Release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Act of 1934. A statement containing works such as "anticipate," "seek," intend," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "expect," "project," "plan," or similar phrases may be deemed "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Some or all of the events or results anticipated by these forward-looking statements may not occur. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include the future U.S. and global economies, the impact of competition, and the Company's reliance on existing regulations regarding the use and development of cannabis-based drugs. Cannabis Science, Inc. does not undertake any duty nor does it intend to update the results of these forward-looking statements.
SOURCE: Cannabis Science Inc.
Dr. Robert J. Melamede, 1-888-889-0888
President & CEO
CannabisScience.com
info@cannabisscience.com
Robert Kane, 1-561-234-6929 Investor Relations Management rkane@cannabisscience.com info@cannabisscience.com
Walmart of Weed in DC
Full Article:
http://yourlife.usatoday.com/health/health/story/2012-03-29/Walmart-of-weed-opening-store-in-Washington-DC/53861352/1
A company dubbed the "Walmart of Weed" is putting down roots in America's capital city, sprouting further debate on marijuana — medical or otherwise.
Just a few miles from the White House and federal buildings, a company that candidly caters to medical marijuana growers is opening up its first outlet on the East Coast. The opening of the weGrow store on Friday in Washington coincides with the first concrete step in implementing a city law allowing residents with certain medical conditions to purchase pot.
Like suppliers of picks and axes during the gold rush, weGrow sees itself providing the necessary tools to pioneers of a "green rush," which some project could reach nearly $9 billion within the next five years. Admittedly smaller than a big box store, weGrow is not unlike a typical retailer in mainstream America, with towering shelves of plant food and vitamins, ventilation and lighting systems. Along with garden products, it offers how-to classes, books and magazines on growing medical marijuana...
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Weed Wars
The cannabis battle: coming soon to your living room
Caitlin Donohue
10-19-11
http://www.sfbg.com/2011/10/19/weed-wars
"I always knew that doing this show would be a risk," says Harborside Health Center founder Steve DeAngelo in a phone interview with the Guardian. A medical marijuana dispensary could probably always be considered controversial fodder for a nighttime reality TV program, but DeAngelo's enterprise rose above standard controversy when it became the target of the IRS, the federal agency ruling that it could no longer write off common business expenses. It now owes $2 million — an amount that left the rest of the industry quaking with concerns over its future.
The perfect time for an on-air debut, right? DeAngelo thinks so.
"If the American people see how we use this medicine, how we distribute it, they're going to support it," he says. "They've only gotten a chance to see the government's side, the propaganda side."
Especially nowadays. In the past few weeks, the feds have launched a multi-lateral attack on medical cannabis dispensaries. The Treasury Department convinced banks to close dispensaries' accounts. The Department of Justice has sent out numerous cease-and-desist letters to dispensaries. The notifications insist that the trafficking illegal substances is occurring, and that it must be stopped — a turnaround from the Obama administration's earlier pledge that it would not stand in the way of a patient's access to medicine.
DeAngelo claims that Harborside is among the top 10 highest tax payers to the city of Oakland. The dispensary has gone through disputes over taxes paid before, but this latest persecution has meant a diminished sense of security for the dispensary's 120-person staff at its San Jose and Oakland locations — not to mention among patients.
"They're terrorized," says DeAngelo. "I have 60, 70, 80-year old patients who are terrified."
It's high drama stuff. Ironically, filming for Weed Wars — save a few remaining pickup shots — had already concluded by the time of the ruling. Surely Discovery Channel executives are smacking their foreheads, having shot the relatively boring chunk of 2011 at Harborside.
"It does seem like the cameras got turned off at just the wrong time," says DeAngelo.
The dispensary founder says that his people thoroughly vetted Braverman Productions prior to signing any deals — it wasn't the only offer they got to be the subject of such a show. He's confident the company will shy from the "unreal setups" so prevalent on other reality TV series. And he hopes that despite the current drama (which might make its way into the final episode of the program's season), producers will portray the dispensary in a way that's respectful and shows an accurate image of what day-to-day operations look like.
But whether or not that will be the case remains to be seen. An article written by a staff member in the September 2011 edition of the Harborside newsletter questioned the use of "weed" in the show's title (a faux pas in the medical marijuana industry). In such a volatile political environment, the temptation to sensationalize cannabis dispensaries might run pretty hot. Or on the contrary, maybe Weed Wars will make the sale of state-legal marijuana seem as normal as being a Coloradan bounty hunter or a Kardashian.
Regardless of what happens, DeAngelo's not ruing the day he decided to go into medical marijuana.
"We decided when we opened our doors that it was worth the risk. I still think it was worth that risk."
Weed Wars premieres November 27 at 10 p.m. PST on the Discovery Channel
Caitlin Donohue
10-19-11
http://www.sfbg.com/2011/10/19/weed-wars
"I always knew that doing this show would be a risk," says Harborside Health Center founder Steve DeAngelo in a phone interview with the Guardian. A medical marijuana dispensary could probably always be considered controversial fodder for a nighttime reality TV program, but DeAngelo's enterprise rose above standard controversy when it became the target of the IRS, the federal agency ruling that it could no longer write off common business expenses. It now owes $2 million — an amount that left the rest of the industry quaking with concerns over its future.
The perfect time for an on-air debut, right? DeAngelo thinks so.
"If the American people see how we use this medicine, how we distribute it, they're going to support it," he says. "They've only gotten a chance to see the government's side, the propaganda side."
Especially nowadays. In the past few weeks, the feds have launched a multi-lateral attack on medical cannabis dispensaries. The Treasury Department convinced banks to close dispensaries' accounts. The Department of Justice has sent out numerous cease-and-desist letters to dispensaries. The notifications insist that the trafficking illegal substances is occurring, and that it must be stopped — a turnaround from the Obama administration's earlier pledge that it would not stand in the way of a patient's access to medicine.
DeAngelo claims that Harborside is among the top 10 highest tax payers to the city of Oakland. The dispensary has gone through disputes over taxes paid before, but this latest persecution has meant a diminished sense of security for the dispensary's 120-person staff at its San Jose and Oakland locations — not to mention among patients.
"They're terrorized," says DeAngelo. "I have 60, 70, 80-year old patients who are terrified."
It's high drama stuff. Ironically, filming for Weed Wars — save a few remaining pickup shots — had already concluded by the time of the ruling. Surely Discovery Channel executives are smacking their foreheads, having shot the relatively boring chunk of 2011 at Harborside.
"It does seem like the cameras got turned off at just the wrong time," says DeAngelo.
The dispensary founder says that his people thoroughly vetted Braverman Productions prior to signing any deals — it wasn't the only offer they got to be the subject of such a show. He's confident the company will shy from the "unreal setups" so prevalent on other reality TV series. And he hopes that despite the current drama (which might make its way into the final episode of the program's season), producers will portray the dispensary in a way that's respectful and shows an accurate image of what day-to-day operations look like.
But whether or not that will be the case remains to be seen. An article written by a staff member in the September 2011 edition of the Harborside newsletter questioned the use of "weed" in the show's title (a faux pas in the medical marijuana industry). In such a volatile political environment, the temptation to sensationalize cannabis dispensaries might run pretty hot. Or on the contrary, maybe Weed Wars will make the sale of state-legal marijuana seem as normal as being a Coloradan bounty hunter or a Kardashian.
Regardless of what happens, DeAngelo's not ruing the day he decided to go into medical marijuana.
"We decided when we opened our doors that it was worth the risk. I still think it was worth that risk."
Weed Wars premieres November 27 at 10 p.m. PST on the Discovery Channel
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Cannabis and the Soma Solution, by Chris Bennett
Published by Trine Day ISBN 978-0984185801 Review by Samuel Wells
http://treatingyourself.com/images/issues/pdfs/issue30.pdf
When asked to name an author crucial to the growing mainstream understanding of the uses of cannabis and its role in history, culture, and religion, almost every educat- ed marijuana activist and patient across the world would naturally answer, “Jack Herer,” Jack’s classic collection, The Emperor Wears No Clothes, is a must-read for every- one interested in the uses of industrial hemp, the early medical explorations of therapeutic toking, and the madness of prohibition. The book has rightly been lauded as a landmark in cannabis history; many texts and tomes published in the years since its release simply do what they can to fill in the gaps in the contemporary historical narrative. Chris Bennett’s astonishing new piece of scholarship, Cannabis and the Soma Solution, absolutely deserves a place directly adjacent to the work of Jack Herer on every reader’s bookshelf. This clever and detailed dissertation is one of the most important academic works ever created in the field of marijuana anthropology.
At the heart of the matter is the true identity of the ancient magical elixir Soma (also Haoma), venerated in the Hindu Vedic scriptures as being the key to immortality. Since 1967, the predominant theory of the identity of Soma has been that of banker-mycologist Gordon Wasson, who claimed the holy beverage came from the toxic fly agaric mushroom, Amanita muscaria. Bennett seems to come from the take-no-prisoners approach to historical argument; he wastes little time in analyzing and countering a vast majority of Wasson’s argument early in his 500-page thesis. The pattern holds true for the rest of the intimidatingly well-researched and argued book. Through detailed analysis, illustrations, and careful source citation, Chris Bennett takes his reader on a whirlwind tour through human history and culture with only one goal: to prove that the oldest-known spiritual sacrament on the planet was created from cannabis.
To say that he succeeds in this goal is a vast understatement. Readers can expect to absorb volumes of facts on the smoking cups of the horse-riding, nomadic Scythians, the “magic mountain” incense braziers of the ancient Chinese physicians, and India’s notorious beverage, bhang. Even when dazzling the reader with his erudition and research, Bennett never takes his eyes off the prize; he makes sure to follow the evolution and alteration of the term Soma/Haoma as it moves from culture to culture and forward in time. He clearly demonstrates how the ingredients of Soma were hidden or falsified by jealous priests and reactionary contemporary historians. This linguistic history provides a solid foundation for the rest of Bennett’s arguments and claims, all of which are carefully and thoroughly cited. Cannabis and the Soma Solution ranges from analysis of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs to Greece, Rome, and Persia, with assurance born of the author’s certainty in his cause. Bennett’s work on the ancient Hebrew and Christian use of cannabis in potent anointing oil is enough to justify the purchase of this impressive book; although only a fraction of the larger his- torical context, the argument and proof presented to the reader is first-rate scholarship.
Every cannabis aficionado, patient, and advocate will find something of great value in Chris Bennett’s Cannabis and the Soma Solution. The great Jack Herer laid the foundation of our understanding of the foolishness of cannabis prohibition in its modern form: Chris Bennett has performed an invaluable service by proving once and for all that the oldest and greatest spiritual sacrament in human history is cannabis use.
http://treatingyourself.com/images/issues/pdfs/issue30.pdf
When asked to name an author crucial to the growing mainstream understanding of the uses of cannabis and its role in history, culture, and religion, almost every educat- ed marijuana activist and patient across the world would naturally answer, “Jack Herer,” Jack’s classic collection, The Emperor Wears No Clothes, is a must-read for every- one interested in the uses of industrial hemp, the early medical explorations of therapeutic toking, and the madness of prohibition. The book has rightly been lauded as a landmark in cannabis history; many texts and tomes published in the years since its release simply do what they can to fill in the gaps in the contemporary historical narrative. Chris Bennett’s astonishing new piece of scholarship, Cannabis and the Soma Solution, absolutely deserves a place directly adjacent to the work of Jack Herer on every reader’s bookshelf. This clever and detailed dissertation is one of the most important academic works ever created in the field of marijuana anthropology.
At the heart of the matter is the true identity of the ancient magical elixir Soma (also Haoma), venerated in the Hindu Vedic scriptures as being the key to immortality. Since 1967, the predominant theory of the identity of Soma has been that of banker-mycologist Gordon Wasson, who claimed the holy beverage came from the toxic fly agaric mushroom, Amanita muscaria. Bennett seems to come from the take-no-prisoners approach to historical argument; he wastes little time in analyzing and countering a vast majority of Wasson’s argument early in his 500-page thesis. The pattern holds true for the rest of the intimidatingly well-researched and argued book. Through detailed analysis, illustrations, and careful source citation, Chris Bennett takes his reader on a whirlwind tour through human history and culture with only one goal: to prove that the oldest-known spiritual sacrament on the planet was created from cannabis.
To say that he succeeds in this goal is a vast understatement. Readers can expect to absorb volumes of facts on the smoking cups of the horse-riding, nomadic Scythians, the “magic mountain” incense braziers of the ancient Chinese physicians, and India’s notorious beverage, bhang. Even when dazzling the reader with his erudition and research, Bennett never takes his eyes off the prize; he makes sure to follow the evolution and alteration of the term Soma/Haoma as it moves from culture to culture and forward in time. He clearly demonstrates how the ingredients of Soma were hidden or falsified by jealous priests and reactionary contemporary historians. This linguistic history provides a solid foundation for the rest of Bennett’s arguments and claims, all of which are carefully and thoroughly cited. Cannabis and the Soma Solution ranges from analysis of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs to Greece, Rome, and Persia, with assurance born of the author’s certainty in his cause. Bennett’s work on the ancient Hebrew and Christian use of cannabis in potent anointing oil is enough to justify the purchase of this impressive book; although only a fraction of the larger his- torical context, the argument and proof presented to the reader is first-rate scholarship.
Every cannabis aficionado, patient, and advocate will find something of great value in Chris Bennett’s Cannabis and the Soma Solution. The great Jack Herer laid the foundation of our understanding of the foolishness of cannabis prohibition in its modern form: Chris Bennett has performed an invaluable service by proving once and for all that the oldest and greatest spiritual sacrament in human history is cannabis use.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
The Drug War Vs. Free Press
From SFGate.com:
A U.S. attorney in Southern California says she is preparing to go after newspapers, radio stations and other media outlets that advertise medical marijuana dispensaries, an escalation in the Obama administration's newly invigorated war against the state's pot industry.
This month, U.S. attorneys representing four districts in California announced that the government would single out landlords and property owners who rent buildings or land where dispensaries sell or cultivators grow marijuana. Media outlets could be next.
U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy, whose district includes Imperial and San Diego counties, said marijuana advertising is the next area she's "going to be moving onto as part of the enforcement efforts in Southern California."
Duffy said she could not speak for the three other U.S. attorneys in the state, but noted their efforts have been coordinated so far..
Duffy said she believes the law gives her the right to prosecute newspaper publishers or TV station owners.
"If I own a newspaper ... or I own a TV station, and I'm going to take in your money to place these ads, I'm the person who is placing these ads," Duffy said. "I am willing to read (the law) expansively, and if a court wants to more narrowly define it, that would be up to the court."
Seven states, including California, allow medical marijuana to be distributed in dispensaries, though more than 200 California cities and nearly two dozen counties have bans or moratoriums in place on storefront pot businesses.
Ngaio Bealum, publisher of West Coast Cannabis, said he receives a significant portion of his revenue from dispensary ads, though he has tough competition for ad revenue from alternative newspapers and even the Sacramento Bee, which began running print advertisements for dispensaries this year.
Bealum said it is "misguided for the Department of Justice to come after people who are following state law and doing well for the economy in a recession.
"We're just in doctors' offices and cannabis collectives, where you have to be 18 years old or where you have to be a patient," he said.
Alternative newspapers throughout the state have benefited from the increased business, even as other advertising sources have dwindled.
In April, the Sacramento News & Review published a supplement devoted exclusively to marijuana dispensaries.
The ads in the supplement, which have cost $2,000 for a full page, allowed the News & Review to hire additional reporters...
Dispensary ads next targets in federal war on pot
Michael Montgomery
Thursday, October 13, 2011
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/10/12/MN5N1LH0LN.DTL
A U.S. attorney in Southern California says she is preparing to go after newspapers, radio stations and other media outlets that advertise medical marijuana dispensaries, an escalation in the Obama administration's newly invigorated war against the state's pot industry.
This month, U.S. attorneys representing four districts in California announced that the government would single out landlords and property owners who rent buildings or land where dispensaries sell or cultivators grow marijuana. Media outlets could be next.
U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy, whose district includes Imperial and San Diego counties, said marijuana advertising is the next area she's "going to be moving onto as part of the enforcement efforts in Southern California."
Duffy said she could not speak for the three other U.S. attorneys in the state, but noted their efforts have been coordinated so far..
Duffy said she believes the law gives her the right to prosecute newspaper publishers or TV station owners.
"If I own a newspaper ... or I own a TV station, and I'm going to take in your money to place these ads, I'm the person who is placing these ads," Duffy said. "I am willing to read (the law) expansively, and if a court wants to more narrowly define it, that would be up to the court."
Seven states, including California, allow medical marijuana to be distributed in dispensaries, though more than 200 California cities and nearly two dozen counties have bans or moratoriums in place on storefront pot businesses.
Ngaio Bealum, publisher of West Coast Cannabis, said he receives a significant portion of his revenue from dispensary ads, though he has tough competition for ad revenue from alternative newspapers and even the Sacramento Bee, which began running print advertisements for dispensaries this year.
Bealum said it is "misguided for the Department of Justice to come after people who are following state law and doing well for the economy in a recession.
"We're just in doctors' offices and cannabis collectives, where you have to be 18 years old or where you have to be a patient," he said.
Alternative newspapers throughout the state have benefited from the increased business, even as other advertising sources have dwindled.
In April, the Sacramento News & Review published a supplement devoted exclusively to marijuana dispensaries.
The ads in the supplement, which have cost $2,000 for a full page, allowed the News & Review to hire additional reporters...
Dispensary ads next targets in federal war on pot
Michael Montgomery
Thursday, October 13, 2011
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/10/12/MN5N1LH0LN.DTL
Legalize It!
Gallup.com:
A record-high 50% of Americans now say the use of marijuana should be made legal, up from 46% last year. Forty-six percent say marijuana use should remain illegal.
When Gallup first asked about legalizing marijuana, in 1969, 12% of Americans favored it, while 84% were opposed. Support remained in the mid-20s in Gallup measures from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s, but has crept up since, passing 30% in 2000 and 40% in 2009 before reaching the 50% level in this year's Oct. 6-9 annual Crime survey.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, "Marijuana is the most commonly abused illicit drug in the United States." The National Survey on Drug Use and Health in 2009 found that "16.7 million Americans aged 12 or older used marijuana at least once in the month prior to being surveyed, an increase over the rates reported in all years between 2002 and 2008."
The advocacy group National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws claims that marijuana is the third-most-popular recreational drug in America, behind only alcohol and tobacco. Some states have decriminalized marijuana's use, some have made it legal for medicinal use, and some officials, including former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, have called for legalizing its use.
A Gallup survey last year found that 70% favored making it legal for doctors to prescribe marijuana in order to reduce pain and suffering...
Record-High 50% of Americans Favor Legalizing Marijuana Use
Frank Newport
October 17, 2011
http://www.gallup.com/poll/150149/Record-High-Americans-Favor-Legalizing-Marijuana.aspx
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Obama's Pot War
From HuffPo:
Three years on, not a single Wall Street banker has been prosecuted after a financial crisis rooted in rampant fraud brought the global economy to its knees. President Obama's Department of Justice has more dangerous miscreants to worry about: medical marijuana shop owners.
The DOJ has launched an assault on medical pot dispensaries, vowing to shut down establishments licensed and regulated by state and local governments, in a reversal of an earlier policy, based on an Obama campaign promise to leave the shops alone as long as they followed state law.
And while major corporations have managed to get their federal tax bills down to zero, the IRS has determined that pot clinics can't deduct salaries, rent, the cost of bud or other operating expenses on their tax returns. If a business can't deduct those expenses, its tax bill almost always winds up exceeding even its profits.
Despite a previous DOJ memo that targeting medical marijuana is an inefficient use of time and resources, this past Friday morning, four California-based U.S. Attorneys and their staffs gathered in front of Sacramento's capitol building to announce an aggressive new crackdown on medical marijuana operations throughout the state -- this one aimed at the landlords who manage buildings in which dispensaries operate.
Detailing an industry that has "swelled to include numerous drug-trafficking enterprises," the federal officials warned they would be taking action against dozens of dispensaries they accused of abusing California's medical marijuana laws.
"The California marijuana industry is not about providing medicine to the sick," said U.S. Attorney Laura E. Duffy. "It's a pervasive for-profit industry that violates federal law."
Meanwhile, medical marijuana in California is experiencing a renaissance. While the U.S. attorneys held their press conference, the West Coast Cannabis Expo had just opened its doors in San Francisco, drawing pot enthusiasts from across the state for the ultimate celebration of all things weed.
The contrast between the ominous warning in Sacramento and the joyous mood at the festival couldn't have been more stark. Glass artists showcased rows of handcrafted pipes. The Oaksterdam Bakery handed out samples of medicinal banana walnut bread. Managers at companies like Weed Maps and California Earth Supply collected resumes from job-seekers. A small line of patients waited to meet with the on-site doctor to see if they qualified for a state-sanctioned medical recommendation.
As news of the government's latest anti-marijuana efforts reached the expo, attendees remained unfazed. "I've been doing this for a long time," Dennis Rogers, the CEO of CannaKing, a roving dispensary he operates out of his van, told The Huffington Post. "We're in a state where it's legal, and you can't have federal agents everywhere. That's the bottom line."
"Everybody in this industry understands the playing field," added Alec Dixon, the director of client relations for SC Laboratories, a company that tests different strains of cannabis for potency and contamination. "All this really does is give us something to rally behind."
Medical marijuana has been legal for approved patients in California since voters passed Proposition 215 in 1996. Since then, it's grown into a flourishing above-ground industry, creating a host of "green" jobs that run the gamut from farmers and dispensary owners to public relations executives and insurance agents who specialize in pot cultivation.
But the plant remains illegal at the federal level. In the early years of the Obama administration, targeting medical marijuana operations did not appear to be high on the list of government priorities. A month after Obama's inauguration, Attorney General Eric Holder said that federal prosecutors would not enforce action against patients or providers that adhered to state law. Six months later, the new policy was officially articulated in the landmark Ogden memo: "[P]rosecution of individuals with cancer or other serious illnesses who use marijuana as part of a recommended treatment regimen consistent with applicable state law, or those caregivers in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state law who provide such individuals with marijuana, is unlikely to be an efficient use of limited federal resources."
The DOJ reversed course earlier this year, issuing a memo in June that redefined "caregiver," and the department threatened to take action against pot dispensaries even in states that had legalized medicinal pot. Since that announcement, federal officials have engaged in a slew of intimidation tactics specifically aimed at California's industry.
Last Tuesday, the IRS sent a $2.4-million tax bill to Oakland's Harborside Health Center, the nation's largest medical marijuana dispensary, citing a portion of the tax code that prohibits drug-trafficking organizations from cost deductions. "We will be taxed out of existence," said Steve De Angelo, the center's executive director.
Two days later, a handful of San Francisco-based landlords who rent space to pot clubs received letters from federal officials warning them that the government could seize their property at any time for operating too close to local schools. Similar notes were sent to other dispensaries throughout the state.
The DOJ insists the latest crackdown is somehow in accordance with Obama's policy of leaving the issue to the states. "The actions taken today in California by our U.S. Attorneys and their law enforcement partners are consistent with the Department's commitment to enforcing existing federal laws, including the Controlled Substances Act, in all states," said Deputy Attorney General James Cole in a statement...
Ryan Grim is the author of "This is Your Country on Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America," available on Amazon.
Obama's War On Weed: White House Launches Crackdown On Medical Marijuana
10/11/11
Carly Schwartz & Ryan Grim
carly@huffingtonpost.com
ryan@huffingtonpost.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/11/war-on-weed-obama-marijuana_n_1005483.html
Three years on, not a single Wall Street banker has been prosecuted after a financial crisis rooted in rampant fraud brought the global economy to its knees. President Obama's Department of Justice has more dangerous miscreants to worry about: medical marijuana shop owners.
The DOJ has launched an assault on medical pot dispensaries, vowing to shut down establishments licensed and regulated by state and local governments, in a reversal of an earlier policy, based on an Obama campaign promise to leave the shops alone as long as they followed state law.
And while major corporations have managed to get their federal tax bills down to zero, the IRS has determined that pot clinics can't deduct salaries, rent, the cost of bud or other operating expenses on their tax returns. If a business can't deduct those expenses, its tax bill almost always winds up exceeding even its profits.
Despite a previous DOJ memo that targeting medical marijuana is an inefficient use of time and resources, this past Friday morning, four California-based U.S. Attorneys and their staffs gathered in front of Sacramento's capitol building to announce an aggressive new crackdown on medical marijuana operations throughout the state -- this one aimed at the landlords who manage buildings in which dispensaries operate.
Detailing an industry that has "swelled to include numerous drug-trafficking enterprises," the federal officials warned they would be taking action against dozens of dispensaries they accused of abusing California's medical marijuana laws.
"The California marijuana industry is not about providing medicine to the sick," said U.S. Attorney Laura E. Duffy. "It's a pervasive for-profit industry that violates federal law."
Meanwhile, medical marijuana in California is experiencing a renaissance. While the U.S. attorneys held their press conference, the West Coast Cannabis Expo had just opened its doors in San Francisco, drawing pot enthusiasts from across the state for the ultimate celebration of all things weed.
The contrast between the ominous warning in Sacramento and the joyous mood at the festival couldn't have been more stark. Glass artists showcased rows of handcrafted pipes. The Oaksterdam Bakery handed out samples of medicinal banana walnut bread. Managers at companies like Weed Maps and California Earth Supply collected resumes from job-seekers. A small line of patients waited to meet with the on-site doctor to see if they qualified for a state-sanctioned medical recommendation.
As news of the government's latest anti-marijuana efforts reached the expo, attendees remained unfazed. "I've been doing this for a long time," Dennis Rogers, the CEO of CannaKing, a roving dispensary he operates out of his van, told The Huffington Post. "We're in a state where it's legal, and you can't have federal agents everywhere. That's the bottom line."
"Everybody in this industry understands the playing field," added Alec Dixon, the director of client relations for SC Laboratories, a company that tests different strains of cannabis for potency and contamination. "All this really does is give us something to rally behind."
Medical marijuana has been legal for approved patients in California since voters passed Proposition 215 in 1996. Since then, it's grown into a flourishing above-ground industry, creating a host of "green" jobs that run the gamut from farmers and dispensary owners to public relations executives and insurance agents who specialize in pot cultivation.
But the plant remains illegal at the federal level. In the early years of the Obama administration, targeting medical marijuana operations did not appear to be high on the list of government priorities. A month after Obama's inauguration, Attorney General Eric Holder said that federal prosecutors would not enforce action against patients or providers that adhered to state law. Six months later, the new policy was officially articulated in the landmark Ogden memo: "[P]rosecution of individuals with cancer or other serious illnesses who use marijuana as part of a recommended treatment regimen consistent with applicable state law, or those caregivers in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state law who provide such individuals with marijuana, is unlikely to be an efficient use of limited federal resources."
The DOJ reversed course earlier this year, issuing a memo in June that redefined "caregiver," and the department threatened to take action against pot dispensaries even in states that had legalized medicinal pot. Since that announcement, federal officials have engaged in a slew of intimidation tactics specifically aimed at California's industry.
Last Tuesday, the IRS sent a $2.4-million tax bill to Oakland's Harborside Health Center, the nation's largest medical marijuana dispensary, citing a portion of the tax code that prohibits drug-trafficking organizations from cost deductions. "We will be taxed out of existence," said Steve De Angelo, the center's executive director.
Two days later, a handful of San Francisco-based landlords who rent space to pot clubs received letters from federal officials warning them that the government could seize their property at any time for operating too close to local schools. Similar notes were sent to other dispensaries throughout the state.
The DOJ insists the latest crackdown is somehow in accordance with Obama's policy of leaving the issue to the states. "The actions taken today in California by our U.S. Attorneys and their law enforcement partners are consistent with the Department's commitment to enforcing existing federal laws, including the Controlled Substances Act, in all states," said Deputy Attorney General James Cole in a statement...
Ryan Grim is the author of "This is Your Country on Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America," available on Amazon.
Obama's War On Weed: White House Launches Crackdown On Medical Marijuana
10/11/11
Carly Schwartz & Ryan Grim
carly@huffingtonpost.com
ryan@huffingtonpost.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/11/war-on-weed-obama-marijuana_n_1005483.html
Tobacco: The 17th Century Drug War
Charles C. Mann is the author of a new book that has been called a "historical Freakonomics": 1493 – How Europe's Discovery of the Americas Revolutionized Trade, Ecology and Life on Earth. Here's a piece by him from the London Independent:
Nicotiana tabacum, as botanists call it, was the first global commodity craze. Fun, exotic, hallucinogenic and addictive, it was – is – a near-perfect consumer product. England fell under its spell in the 1580s, when the survivors of the nation's first, unsuccessful colonies – the Roanoke ventures of Sir Walter Raleigh – landed in Brighton with strange, fiery clay tubes at their lips. Obviously conscious of the impact of their appearance, they descended on the docks, smoking languidly, like so many Elizabethan versions of James Dean and Humphrey Bogart. By 1607, when Jamestown was founded, London's streets were jammed with more than 7,000 tobacco "houses" – café-like places where the city's growing throng of nicotine junkies could buy and consume tobacco.
None of this was exceptional. Between 1580 and 1610, Nicotiana tabacum, a species originally from the Amazon, became a fixture in every inhabited part of the earth. Almost immediately it attracted governmental ire. Bans on tobacco, some enforced by the death penalty, were enacted by France, Russia, Sweden, the Ottoman and Mughal empires, and the Japanese shogunate. The smoking weed quickly became so ubiquitous in Manchuria, according to historian Timothy Brook, that in 1635 the Khan, Hong Taiji, discovered that his soldiers "were selling their weapons to buy tobacco". Enraged, he prohibited smoking.
No anti-tobacco crusader is better known than King James I, whose Counterblaste to Tobacco, issued in 1604, proclaimed that smoking was "lothsome to the eye, hatefull to the nose, harmefull to the braine, [and] dangerous to the lungs". James sought to ban tobacco outright, but was rebuffed by a hostile Parliament. Pope Urban VIII was more successful. Infuriated by reports that priests were celebrating mass with lighted cigars, the Pope promptly – and successfully – prohibited smoking in the pulpit.
Demand continued unabated. Even as James thundered against tobacco's destructive effect on society, the weed itself was sometimes sold for its weight in silver in London. In the English colony of Bermuda, farmers routinely purchased brides for bags of tobacco (typically, the weight was about 100lb). Across the globe, gangs of young smokers in Edo (Tokyo) were so outraged by the high price of a smoke that they routinely ransacked tobacco warehouses. Customs officials in Istanbul, unable to afford a pipeful, routinely shook down visitors for smoking supplies.
Coupled with high demand, tobacco criminalisation drove up its price, which led to an explosion of tobacco bootleggery that continues to the present day. Pirates grew and sold tobacco throughout the Caribbean, especially in Venezuela. Outraging the Spanish crown, Spanish and Indian smallholders in remote colonial areas converted their wheat and maize plots to tobacco, then sold the harvest to Dutch and English pirates. So powerful did the gangs become that the Spanish ambassador to England complained that English demand was causing the collapse of law and order in tobacco country. (This is not confined to the past: cigarette smuggling remains a major industry in pirate havens from southern Italy to South-east China, but is also common in less rambunctious areas; police in suburban Maryland rolled up an alleged tobacco ring in the eastern US just last month.) Even as moralists like James thundered that tobacco was destroying the family, royal tax officials were eyeing its legalisation. Few programs generate revenue more reliably than a tax on an addictive substance.
In economic terms, addicts' cravings are inelastic – they are relatively insensitive to cost. If they keep getting their hit, they will happily pay the higher prices associated with government-imposed taxes, fees and levies. Within a year of his Counterblaste, the English government had instituted its first tobacco tax.
Prohibitionists might note a disturbing parallel. Everywhere in the world, the lure of tobacco money eventually overwhelmed efforts to prevent addiction. The son of Hong Taiji, the Manchu Khan who banned tobacco, finished seizing China and in 1644 became the first emperor of the Qing dynasty. He, too, fought against tobacco. But Hong Taiji's grandson, the Kangxi emperor, started smoking at the age of seven – and watched new tobacco taxes become major financial contributors to the Qing state.
One by one, other states slowly followed the Manchu lead, legalising and taxing tobacco. Marijuana is following the same path, slowly becoming tax fodder in nation after nation. Here Mughal India was perhaps the first society to reverse course (the East India Company later added opium taxes to the mix). Decades later, countries such as the Netherlands followed the Mughal path. Even in the notoriously anti-drug US, places such as California and Massachusetts, hard hit by recession, are considering marijuana's use as a taxable commodity.
Yet history should not give too much encouragement to the forces behind unfettered legalisation, either. If tobacco and other drugs are a guide, legalisation is followed, eventually, by social disapproval. Everywhere that tobacco has become a fully accepted commodity its use has – eventually, after decades – declined. The tobacco-besotted colonial US, the nation that held the world's most permissive views on tobacco during the 17th and 18th centuries, ultimately became the land where bewildered European and Asian smokers would be ejected from restaurants, cafés and bars. Even as recently as the 1980s, Britons mocked the "puritanical" anti-tobacco crusades in the US. They have fallen into line. So have the Italians, Turks and even the Chinese.
Drugs that become uncool fall into disuse, as tobacco is falling into disuse today. If history is any guide, our grandchildren's grandchildren will regard today's struggles over marijuana, cocaine and opium as bewildering fossils of an unsavvy past...
The long shadow line: History and the war on drugs
Charles C Mann
Monday, 10 October 2011
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/history/the-long-shadow-line-history-and-the-war-on-drugs-2368050.html
Nicotiana tabacum, as botanists call it, was the first global commodity craze. Fun, exotic, hallucinogenic and addictive, it was – is – a near-perfect consumer product. England fell under its spell in the 1580s, when the survivors of the nation's first, unsuccessful colonies – the Roanoke ventures of Sir Walter Raleigh – landed in Brighton with strange, fiery clay tubes at their lips. Obviously conscious of the impact of their appearance, they descended on the docks, smoking languidly, like so many Elizabethan versions of James Dean and Humphrey Bogart. By 1607, when Jamestown was founded, London's streets were jammed with more than 7,000 tobacco "houses" – café-like places where the city's growing throng of nicotine junkies could buy and consume tobacco.
None of this was exceptional. Between 1580 and 1610, Nicotiana tabacum, a species originally from the Amazon, became a fixture in every inhabited part of the earth. Almost immediately it attracted governmental ire. Bans on tobacco, some enforced by the death penalty, were enacted by France, Russia, Sweden, the Ottoman and Mughal empires, and the Japanese shogunate. The smoking weed quickly became so ubiquitous in Manchuria, according to historian Timothy Brook, that in 1635 the Khan, Hong Taiji, discovered that his soldiers "were selling their weapons to buy tobacco". Enraged, he prohibited smoking.
No anti-tobacco crusader is better known than King James I, whose Counterblaste to Tobacco, issued in 1604, proclaimed that smoking was "lothsome to the eye, hatefull to the nose, harmefull to the braine, [and] dangerous to the lungs". James sought to ban tobacco outright, but was rebuffed by a hostile Parliament. Pope Urban VIII was more successful. Infuriated by reports that priests were celebrating mass with lighted cigars, the Pope promptly – and successfully – prohibited smoking in the pulpit.
Demand continued unabated. Even as James thundered against tobacco's destructive effect on society, the weed itself was sometimes sold for its weight in silver in London. In the English colony of Bermuda, farmers routinely purchased brides for bags of tobacco (typically, the weight was about 100lb). Across the globe, gangs of young smokers in Edo (Tokyo) were so outraged by the high price of a smoke that they routinely ransacked tobacco warehouses. Customs officials in Istanbul, unable to afford a pipeful, routinely shook down visitors for smoking supplies.
Coupled with high demand, tobacco criminalisation drove up its price, which led to an explosion of tobacco bootleggery that continues to the present day. Pirates grew and sold tobacco throughout the Caribbean, especially in Venezuela. Outraging the Spanish crown, Spanish and Indian smallholders in remote colonial areas converted their wheat and maize plots to tobacco, then sold the harvest to Dutch and English pirates. So powerful did the gangs become that the Spanish ambassador to England complained that English demand was causing the collapse of law and order in tobacco country. (This is not confined to the past: cigarette smuggling remains a major industry in pirate havens from southern Italy to South-east China, but is also common in less rambunctious areas; police in suburban Maryland rolled up an alleged tobacco ring in the eastern US just last month.) Even as moralists like James thundered that tobacco was destroying the family, royal tax officials were eyeing its legalisation. Few programs generate revenue more reliably than a tax on an addictive substance.
In economic terms, addicts' cravings are inelastic – they are relatively insensitive to cost. If they keep getting their hit, they will happily pay the higher prices associated with government-imposed taxes, fees and levies. Within a year of his Counterblaste, the English government had instituted its first tobacco tax.
Prohibitionists might note a disturbing parallel. Everywhere in the world, the lure of tobacco money eventually overwhelmed efforts to prevent addiction. The son of Hong Taiji, the Manchu Khan who banned tobacco, finished seizing China and in 1644 became the first emperor of the Qing dynasty. He, too, fought against tobacco. But Hong Taiji's grandson, the Kangxi emperor, started smoking at the age of seven – and watched new tobacco taxes become major financial contributors to the Qing state.
One by one, other states slowly followed the Manchu lead, legalising and taxing tobacco. Marijuana is following the same path, slowly becoming tax fodder in nation after nation. Here Mughal India was perhaps the first society to reverse course (the East India Company later added opium taxes to the mix). Decades later, countries such as the Netherlands followed the Mughal path. Even in the notoriously anti-drug US, places such as California and Massachusetts, hard hit by recession, are considering marijuana's use as a taxable commodity.
Yet history should not give too much encouragement to the forces behind unfettered legalisation, either. If tobacco and other drugs are a guide, legalisation is followed, eventually, by social disapproval. Everywhere that tobacco has become a fully accepted commodity its use has – eventually, after decades – declined. The tobacco-besotted colonial US, the nation that held the world's most permissive views on tobacco during the 17th and 18th centuries, ultimately became the land where bewildered European and Asian smokers would be ejected from restaurants, cafés and bars. Even as recently as the 1980s, Britons mocked the "puritanical" anti-tobacco crusades in the US. They have fallen into line. So have the Italians, Turks and even the Chinese.
Drugs that become uncool fall into disuse, as tobacco is falling into disuse today. If history is any guide, our grandchildren's grandchildren will regard today's struggles over marijuana, cocaine and opium as bewildering fossils of an unsavvy past...
The long shadow line: History and the war on drugs
Charles C Mann
Monday, 10 October 2011
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/history/the-long-shadow-line-history-and-the-war-on-drugs-2368050.html
Dutch to reclassify high-strength cannabis
Anna Holligan 7 October 2011
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15225270
Robalini's Note: Talk about a bait and switch: the far right parties in Amsterdam - which gained political power scapegoating Muslims as a social menace - have instead gone after regulating marijuana.
The famous cannabis-selling coffee shops of the Netherlands are facing new tighter restrictions.
The Dutch government is reclassifying high-strength cannabis to put it in the same category as hard drugs.
It says the amount of the main active chemical in the drug, THC, has gone up, making it far more potent than a generation ago.
It means the coffee shops will be forced to take the popular, high-strength varieties off their shelves.
Dutch politicians say high-strength cannabis, known as "skunk", is more dangerous than it was before.
In the future, anything containing more than 15% THC will be treated the same way as hard drugs, such as cocaine and ecstasy.
The move is a big blow to the coffee shops - and means they will have to replace about 80% of their stock with weaker varieties.
Marc Josemans, who runs a cafe in Maastricht, says he believes that the new tough approach is being driven by the increasingly influential far-right in Dutch politics.
"You immediately can taste the difference. Everything which is considered unusual for them - they call it 'left hobbies' and under this name they want to ban all 'left hobbies', like using cannabis," he told the BBC.
The move means that the Netherlands' traditional tolerance of soft drugs is to become a thing of the past.
The ban on the high-strength "skunk" is expected to be introduced next year, when police will start doing random checks in the cafes.
From next year, the Dutch government also plans to ban tourists from entering coffee shops across the country.
Amsterdam and other cities are strongly opposed to such a ban.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15225270
Robalini's Note: Talk about a bait and switch: the far right parties in Amsterdam - which gained political power scapegoating Muslims as a social menace - have instead gone after regulating marijuana.
The famous cannabis-selling coffee shops of the Netherlands are facing new tighter restrictions.
The Dutch government is reclassifying high-strength cannabis to put it in the same category as hard drugs.
It says the amount of the main active chemical in the drug, THC, has gone up, making it far more potent than a generation ago.
It means the coffee shops will be forced to take the popular, high-strength varieties off their shelves.
Dutch politicians say high-strength cannabis, known as "skunk", is more dangerous than it was before.
In the future, anything containing more than 15% THC will be treated the same way as hard drugs, such as cocaine and ecstasy.
The move is a big blow to the coffee shops - and means they will have to replace about 80% of their stock with weaker varieties.
Marc Josemans, who runs a cafe in Maastricht, says he believes that the new tough approach is being driven by the increasingly influential far-right in Dutch politics.
"You immediately can taste the difference. Everything which is considered unusual for them - they call it 'left hobbies' and under this name they want to ban all 'left hobbies', like using cannabis," he told the BBC.
The move means that the Netherlands' traditional tolerance of soft drugs is to become a thing of the past.
The ban on the high-strength "skunk" is expected to be introduced next year, when police will start doing random checks in the cafes.
From next year, the Dutch government also plans to ban tourists from entering coffee shops across the country.
Amsterdam and other cities are strongly opposed to such a ban.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
ATF: No firearms for those who use marijuana legally
Eric W. Dolan
Wednesday, September 28th, 2011
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/09/28/atf-no-firearms-for-those-who-use-marijuana-legally/
Those who use marijuana legally in accordance with their state's laws cannot be sold or possess firearms, according to a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) memo issued on September 21.
The memo to gun dealers in the United States, obtained by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), stated that it was illegal under federal law to sell firearms to anyone reasonably suspected of using a controlled substance.
The use of medical marijuana has been legalized in 16 states and the District of Columbia, but marijuana is currently a Schedule I drug under the federal Control Substances Act. Schedule I is the most restrictive classification, reserved drugs with a high potential for abuse and no accepted medicinal value.
"Therefore, any person who uses or is addicted to marijuana, regardless of whether his or her State has passed legislation authorizing marijuana use of medicinal purposes, is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance, and is prohibited by Federal law from possessing firearms or ammunition," the memo said.
Wednesday, September 28th, 2011
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/09/28/atf-no-firearms-for-those-who-use-marijuana-legally/
Those who use marijuana legally in accordance with their state's laws cannot be sold or possess firearms, according to a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) memo issued on September 21.
The memo to gun dealers in the United States, obtained by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), stated that it was illegal under federal law to sell firearms to anyone reasonably suspected of using a controlled substance.
The use of medical marijuana has been legalized in 16 states and the District of Columbia, but marijuana is currently a Schedule I drug under the federal Control Substances Act. Schedule I is the most restrictive classification, reserved drugs with a high potential for abuse and no accepted medicinal value.
"Therefore, any person who uses or is addicted to marijuana, regardless of whether his or her State has passed legislation authorizing marijuana use of medicinal purposes, is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance, and is prohibited by Federal law from possessing firearms or ammunition," the memo said.
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