Prop. 19 backer Lee, Oaksterdam hit by federal raids

 Marijuana News
Apr 032012
 

OAKLAND – Multiple federal agencies unleashed raids Monday on the home and businesses of one of California’s most famous marijuana advocates, Richard Lee, founder of the renowned cannabis industry trade school known as Oaksterdam University. Lee, who spent $1.6 million to bankroll Proposition 19, an unsuccessful 2010 measure to legalize marijuana for recreational use, was neither arrested nor charged, Peter Hecht reports in the Sacramento Bee. But federal authorities from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Marshals Service swooped in early Monday, targeting five locations, including the school on this [...]

Oaksterdam University raided by DEA, Oakland PD

 Marijuana News
Apr 022012
 

OAKLAND — Federal agents are carrying out an investigation at Oaksterdam University in Oakland this morning, Internal Revenue Service spokeswoman Arlette Lee said. Lee said the IRS, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and the U.S. Marshals Service are working together on the operation, KGO-TV reports. She said she could not yet disclose further details. Oaksterdam University, which opened in November 2007 and bills itself as “America’s first cannabis college,” is located at 1600 Broadway in downtown Oakland. KGO coverage: KCBS podcast coverage San Francisco Chronicle coverage Oakland Tribune coverage Sacramento Bee coverage Oakland North coverage [...]

Feds, local cops raid Bakersfield cooperative

 Law Enforcement
Mar 312012
 

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration raided a medical marijuana cooperative Thursday. A search warrant was served at For the People, 509 Ming Ave., but no other details were disclosed because the case is under court seal, DEA spokeswoman Casey Rettig confirmed Friday. The shop’s owner, Leo Resendez, said the raid occurred before noon and was conducted by the DEA and local law enforcement. Resendez said the raid was conducted very respectfully and was by far the most pleasant experience he’s had with law enforcement, the Bakersfield Californian reports. “Not that I agree with what they [...]

280E Reform tax seminar comes to L.A. in May

 Events
Mar 242012
 
280E Reform tax seminar comes to L.A. in May

Has your medical cannabis business been targeted with an IRS notice or tax audit? If you haven’t been hit yet, YOU WILL! Harborside Health Center’s Stephen DeAngelo and the country’s leading tax experts on 280E — Henry Wykowski, Hank Levy and Rob Braach — will present effective strategies for dealing with IRS audits and for minimizing your 2012 tax liabilities. (Speaker bios.) Your $399 registration fee includes the seminar and your first drink at a social gathering with the presenters immediately following. Private phone consultations with medical cannabis tax experts (easily worth hundreds of dollars) [...]

Berkeley Patients Group faces move by May

 Dispensaries
Mar 162012
 

One of California’s biggest medical marijuana establishments has become the latest target in a statewide crackdown by federal prosecutors. Berkeley Patients Group, founded in 1999 by leading names in the state’s medical marijuana movement, will cease operations at its current location by May 1, according to an agreement between the dispensary’s owners and the landlord. The document was signed last month by Alameda County Superior Court Judge C. Don Clay. The decision to shutter the San Pablo Avenue outlet was triggered by a warning from Melinda Haag, the U.S. attorney for Northern California, Michael Montgomery [...]

Humboldt slaying suspect to stand trial in S.F.

 Law Enforcement
Mar 142012
 

Mikal Xylon Wilde sat in the federal courthouse in Eureka on Monday and pleaded not guilty to a six-count felony indictment charging him with murder and drug offenses stemming from a 2010 slaying on a Kneeland marijuana farm. Wilde, 29, stands accused of shooting and killing Mario Roberto Juarez-Madrid and seriously wounding Fernando Lopez, both of Santa Rosa, Guatemala, at the scene of his large-scale marijuana grow on Aug. 25, 2010. This will be the first Humboldt County murder to be prosecuted federally in decades, according to multiple law enforcement sources. The shootings allegedly occurred [...]

State’s high court takes up confusing marijuana laws

 Courts
Mar 142012
 

When it comes to rulings on medical marijuana, California courts have a case of multiple personality disorder. A flurry of recent, conflicting decisions by state appellate courts on whether cities can ban marijuana stores or be forced to allow them is setting up a landmark review by the California Supreme Court. The state’s high court recently agreed to accept four cases involving marijuana dispensaries, Peter Hecht reports in the Sacramento Bee. Two more cases may be on the way, including the appeal of a Feb. 29 ruling in Orange County that said cities can’t ban [...]

Fresno dispensaries facing deadline to close

 Dispensaries
Mar 052012
 

Jordan Vas bought a marijuana plant last month for his home in Parlier. He admits he doesn’t have a green thumb, but tending his own crop is his strategy for getting marijuana in the wake of the Fresno County ban on dispensaries. “I’ve never grown anything in my life,” said Vas, who has long bought pot at a dispensary for back pain. “But now there’s no other way.” This week marks the end of the grace period for 15 or so medical marijuana dispensaries that were given six months to shut down after Fresno County’s [...]

Feds take over murder case against Humboldt grower

 Marijuana News
Mar 022012
 

A 29-year-old Eureka man has been indicted by a federal grand jury on murder and drug charges stemming from a 2010 shooting at a Kneeland marijuana farm and now potentially faces the death penalty in the case. The U.S. Attorney’s Office announced the indictment Thursday, five months after a Humboldt County Superior Court judge ruled there was sufficient evidence to hold Mikal Xylon Wilde to stand trial on charges that he murdered Mario Roberto Juarez-Madrid at the scene of a Kneeland marijuana grow. While Wilde faced a potential sentence of 25 years to life in [...]

Fed prosecutor warns Fresno farmers on pot grows

 Marijuana News
Mar 022012
 

Federal officials warned owners of Valley farmland Thursday that if they lease land to someone growing marijuana, they could lose their property or face jail time. Sacramento-based U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner came to the Fresno County Farm Bureau to detail his office’s stepped-up prosecution of large-scale pot farms. He met with about 65 people representing Valley sheriff’s offices, federal drug agents and the agriculture community, Robert Rodriguez reports in the Fresno Bee. “We want to send a message to land owners that they have to know what is going on on their property,” said Wagner, [...]

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