Sixteen dispensaries were ordered closed on Wednesday as part of the Feds' attempt to shut down California's medical-marijuana industry. The shocking Bush-era tactics are being criticized by activists throughout the state.

The Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana, three stores in San Francisco and a dozen in San Diego were targeted this week by U.S. Attorneys, the DEA and local  authorities as well. Letters were sent to the dispensaries and owners of buildings that house the medi-pot shops stating they must vacate because of zoning issues, such as distances from schools and parks.

"With the federal budget on empty, the economy in disarray, our prisons overflowing and prohibition-related violence raging across the border, it's an outrageous misuse of federal resources to wage war on marijuana dispensaries," says California NORML coordinator Dale Gieringer. "Federal  anti-drug bureaucrats are  afraid because the dispensaries are proving that it's possible for marijuana to become a safe, legal, tax-paying industry and so expose their own last-century policies as  bankrupt and obsolete."

Republican presidential candidate Gary Johnson issued the following statement: "DOJ and the Administration have better things to do than mount an assault on medical marijuana dispensaries in California that are legal under state law. Regardless of one’s view of medical marijuana, Americans who believe in states’ rights should be extremely disturbed that the federal government is in the process of shutting down businesses, threatening criminal charges and confiscating the property of small businesses operating under good faith according to state law... It’s time for the Feds to just admit that their law is just wrong, and let the states decide for themselves how they want to handle the issue of medical marijuana."

Also see:
Did Cannabis Prohibition Kill Steve Jobs?
ASA Responds to California Critics
The Battle for Medical Marijuana
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