October 31, 2012
Attorney General Melinda Haag
Northern District of California
450 Golden Gate Ave
Box 36055
San Francisco, CA 94102
Dear Ms. Haag,
I am writing to express my concern with the actions taken by your office to close
Harborside Health Center, one of Oakland’s four licensed and regulated medical
cannabis dispensaries, as well as other well regulated medical cannabis dispensaries in the
Bay Area.
In the course of my activities as the State Director of the Drug Policy Alliance, I have
become familiar with Harborside and other dispensaries that have well-earned
reputations for legitimacy and professionalism. I am convinced that Harborside and
others like them are fully compliant with all state laws and local regulations, and beyond
that have provided an important service to patients seeking a truly therapeutic approach
to medical cannabis.
While I appreciate it is your duty to enforce existing federal law, I think it would be
more appropriate to focus enforcement efforts on those dispensaries actually in
violation of state law. Such an approach would be consistent with Attorney General
Holder’s repeated statements that only those medical cannabis organizations that are out
of compliance with state law would be targeted for enforcement actions. It would also
be more effective in preventing diversion to out of state markets, and ending criminal
involvement in medical cannabis distribution.
Please consider the real damage you are doing to the patients who rely on Harborside
and others like them; to the City of Oakland and other municipalities who have worked
hard to develop strong medical cannabis regulations; and to your own reputation as you
pursue this damaging action against a respected community institution.
Please freeze all further actions against medical cannabis organizations until the
cases can be reviewed to determine compliance with state law.
For further information, please call me or my policy manager, Amanda Reiman at (510)
730-2811.
Sincerely,
Lynne Lyman
California State Director
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