In the five years since California voters approved a broad legal marketplace for marijuana, thousands of greenhouses have sprouted across the state. But these, under their plastic canopies, conceal a secret.
“We basically subsidize our white market with our black market,” said the cultivator, who agreed to speak with The Associated Press only on condition of anonymity to avoid possible prosecution.
“To have this system that now appears to be failing, having people go back into the old-school way of doing things ... it does not help us get to our goal of professionalizing cannabis and normalizing cannabis,” she said.
In October, California law enforcement officials announced the destruction of over 1 million illegal plants statewide but said they were finding larger illicit growing operations. In the cannabis heartland of Humboldt County, many illegal growers are moving indoors to avoid detection. Investigators are making arrests and serving search warrants every week, but with so many underground grows “we may never eliminate the illegal cultivation,” Sheriff William Honsal said in an email to the AP.
California’s illegal market is estimated at $8 billion, said Tom Adams, chief executive officer of research firm Global Go Analytics. That’s roughly double the amount of legal sales, though some estimates are even larger.
One of the most troubling recent scenes from Sacramento came as the California state legislature reached the end of its session. A simple bill that would rein in abuses of the civil-asset forfeiture process—i.e., when police agencies take property from people, even if they’ve never been accused of a crime—came far short of passage after the law-enforcement lobby pulled out all the stops.
Police organizations argued they would lose a significant amount of funding if a law passed requiring that they secure a conviction before taking property. They often take homes, cars and cash from people after claiming the property was used in the commission of a crime.
Created in the early days of the nation’s war on drugs, asset forfeiture was designed to grab the proceeds from drug kingpins. But most of the money now is grabbed from ordinary citizens. According to a study last year, about 80 percent of the time, seized property is taken from people who have never been charged with anything. That same study, by the Drug Policy Alliance, found wanton abuses in California cities. Police are not supposed to budget forfeiture proceeds, but they increasingly depend on the revenues to fund their operations.
The study also found “multiple instances of cash grabs by law enforcement being incentivized over deterring drug sales, wherein police wait until a drug sale concludes and then seize the cash proceeds of the sale rather than the drugs, as drugs must be destroyed and are of no monetary value to law enforcement.” It also found that some Los Angeles County cities “were found to be prioritizing asset forfeiture over general public safety concerns … .” In other words, police skew their policing strategies around these lucrative takings.
California’s law actually requires, in property seizures of more than $25,000, that the police agency gain a conviction and the legal standard requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
California law-enforcement agencies don’t like that higher standard, so they circumvent the state law. They participate in something called “equitable sharing”—i.e., they invite the feds into their operation, take the property using the lower federal standard, and then split the loot.
A new national study by the Institute for Justice, a Virginia-based civil-liberties group, gave California a “C+” in its civil-forfeiture laws. That leads to an obvious question: Given the terrible problems documented in California, how bad must things be in other states? Only seven states had better protections than California and the preponderance of states received “D” grades.
Have you been charged with a drug crime or violation of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act? Remain Silent and Contact Komorn Law Immediately to protect your rights and freedom 800-656-3557.
An economic consulting firm reported on data last week showing that the approximately $4.5 billion in annual forfeitures now exceeds the $3.9 billion Americans lose in robberies each year. The clear point: Your local police or sheriff’s department is more likely to take your stuff than a robber. The Institute for Justice report found the problem getting worse. “It’s exploding, despite the fact that the issue is getting a lot of attention,” said Dick Carpenter, one of the study’s authors. According to the report, forfeiture revenues have more than doubled between 2002 to 2013. California agencies collected approximately $280 million over the 11-year study period—and an additional $696 million by partnering with federal agencies.
These are big dollars to local police departments, which explains the arm-twisting and lobbying as that reform bill made it to the Assembly floor. Critics of asset forfeiture agree that agencies will lose money, but argue that the government is supposed to promote justice. Their agencies should be funded through general tax proceeds, not by grabbing the homes and cars of people who may not have done anything wrong.
Last year in California, SB 443 would have, among other things, prohibited “state or local law enforcement agencies from transferring seized property to a federal agency seeking adoption by the federal agency of the seized property.” Expect something like it to return next year. As abuses mount, maybe legislators will be more likely to think about justice and not just money.
Komorn Law has represented numerous clients through the legal chaos of starting up a business in the Michigan Medical Marihuana Industry.
If you or someone you know is facing charges as a result of Medical Marijuana, DUI, Drugs, Forfeiture, Criminal Enterprise, etc. Please contact our office and ensure you’re defended by an experienced lawyer in the evolving laws.
Lead attorney Michael Komorn is recognized as an expert on the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act. He is the President of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Association (MMMA), a nonprofit patient advocacy group which advocates for the rights of medical marijuana patients and their caregivers.
Contact us for a free no-obligation case evaluation 800-656-3557.
In what has to be one of the most ignorant and bizarre attempts to cover up illegal actions committed by police during a raid, a lawsuit has been filed seeking to squash CCTV video – the same video showing officers stealing and eating marijuana edibles at a marijuana dispensary.
The lawsuit, which was filed by three unidentified Santa Ana police officers, seeks to prevent Internal Affairs from using the video footage as evidence against the same police that took part in the raid.
Sky High Holistic, a marijuana dispensary in Santa Ana, had been the subject of police bullying since they opened shop. To help protect them and their business from the police, they installed a state-of-the-art CCTV system. Unfortunately for Sky High, it didn’t take very long to catch the criminals in the act during another raid.
Moments after initiating the raid, the police sought out and disabled and destroyed security cameras. Fortunately for the shop owners, the inept officers missed at least two cameras that continued to record their illegal actions. The estimated damage to the store, equipment, safes, furniture, and the security system is over $100,000.
The basis for the lawsuit is that the officers involved “didn’t know they were on camera” and thus “shouldn’t be used as evidence”.
Matthew Pappas, Sky High’s attorney, said the claims are baseless, adding that the officers “knew they were on video” and that “Just because they missed one camera doesn’t make it illegal.”
How many times have you entered a business and noticed a sign stating that you are being recorded? Surveillance or security systems, commonly referred to as CCTV, are very affordable and are installed in a majority of businesses. It not only protects the businesses that use them from frivolous lawsuits, but they can also protect you against the police. Let’s hope the Courts rule against these officers. Just because they thought they had destroyed all of the cameras, that shouldn’t be a ‘legal’ defense to their illegal actions.
More detailed information with links Including LA Times accusing Mayor of taking bribes for Dispensary Lottery Here
