Medical Marijuana in the Picture Again As DEA Raids Oakland Oaksterdam University

 

Here we go again with the cannabis question on legality with questions between State and Federal Laws.  This school is a training facility for the medical marijuana business. 

Several cities are looking to tax it and raise revenue but this one is a bit strange as they are addressing the folks that were behind the law getting passed in California 

Long Beach California Looking to Tax Medical Marijuana – Proposal for November Ballot

In addition workers have also joined the Teamsters union and this would mean job cuts if medical marijuana was outlawed. 

Medical Marijuana News in California–First TV Ad Airs in California And Workers At Marijuana Factory Join the Teamsters

Oaksterdam is a partner with the city of Oakland as well so again what gives here I don’t know but there protesters and some of the articles in the news stated that the agents had a difficult time looking at some of the patients there as they were genuinely sick and needed pain relief.  BD 

OAKLAND -- Federal agents are conducting a search of Oakland's Oaksterdam University, a training school for the medical marijuana industry.

Agents from the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Drug Enforcement Administration arrived with a search warrant this morning at the school, variously called the Princeton of Pot and the Harvard of Hemp.

Arlette Lee, an IRS spokeswoman, said the agents are at the school as part of an ongoing investigation.

California's four U.S. attorneys announced in the fall that they would target for prosecution medical marijuana businesses that they believed were operating as for-profit enterprises in violation of the 1996 state ballot measure that legalized medical marijuana in California.

Dan Rush, director of the Medical Cannabis and Hemp Division for the United Food and Commercial Workers, said the union represents about 100 employees working at Oaksterdam University, Lee's Oaksterdam Blue Sky marijuana dispensary and related businesses.

He said the raid threatens the livelihood of the employees who earn up to $60,000, plus health insurance and other benefits.

"Oaksterdam is a partner with the city of Oakland, and Richard Lee is permitted and compliant and we're here to stand by our members," Rush said.

http://blogs.sacbee.com/crime/archives/2012/04/federal-agents-raid-oaklands-pot-university.html