Harborside Struggling For Survival

[LongHairBri]

For the nation’s largest medical marijuana dispensary, Harborside Health Center, these are not high times.

 

The landlords who rent storefronts to Harborside Health Center in Oakland and San Jose argued in federal court Thursday that they should be allowed to evict the pot dispensary on the grounds that the owners are violating federal law.

 

The property owners, Ana Chretien in Oakland and Concourse Business Center in San Jose, are seeking to avoid for the civil forfeiture of their buildings by the federal government. U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag began the forfeiture proceedings last summer in an effort to force Harborside to go out of business.

 

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"We have no other recourse to stop the illegal activity," Arthur Hartinger, an attorney representing Chretien told Chief Magistrate Judge Maria-Elena James in a San Francisco federal courtroom, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

 

Lawyers for Harborside and the city of Oakland, meanwhile contend that medical marijuana is both legal and widely used in California for a wide variety of health reasons.

 

"If they government had immediacy, they would have moved sooner," Oakland attorney Cedric Chao said. "There will be a public safety crisis; there will be a health crisis."

 

With more than 100,000 patients at its two locations, Harborside Health Center opened in 2006, and has been the subject of the reality television show “Weed Wars.”

 

"Harborside is in full compliance with the laws of the State of California, and the regulations of the City of Oakland—and will continue to use every legal means at our disposal to protect the rights granted to medical cannabis patients by the voters in 1996,” the dispensary’s founder and executive director, Steve DeAngelo said in a press release. “We are confident that a Bay Area jury will recognize and support Harborside's contributions to the community. We hope Magistrate Judge Maria-Elena James will deny the motion for a preliminary injunction, and allow us to present our case to a jury of our peers."

 

 

 

In the 2012 election, recreational marijuana use was legalized in Washington and Colorado, but the drug has only been officially sanctioned for medical purposes in California.

 

 

That could change, however, should Gavin Newsom, the state’s Lieutenant Governor, have his say.

 

“It’s shocking, from my perspective, the number of people that we all know who are recreational marijuana users,” Newsom told the New York Times last week. “These are incredibly upstanding citizens: Leaders in our community, and exceptional people. Increasingly, people are willing to share how they use it and not be ashamed of it.”

 

Judge James has not set a date as to when she might issue her ruling on the eviction proceedings.

 

 

http://m.nydailynews.com/1.1225733#bmb=1

[Celliach]

Couldn't happen to "nicer" guys.

[TheHarvester]

When the owner came out against "recreational" use and then retracted that and said some other things...they lost me.

[maxmax]

I would have to also say its not right but they have lots of money to defend them self so one that note they are lucky