Obama Administration Steps Up Anti-Marijuana Battle

[The Straight Story]

Obama Administration Steps Up Anti-Marijuana Battle

Through the IRS and the Department of Justice, the Obama administration is signaling a much tougher position towards medical marijuana dispensaries.

In Northern California, the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana has been told by IRS officials that it cannot deduct any of its business expenses from its taxes—resulting in the dispensary owing millions of dollars to the federal government.

The basis for the position stems from a section of the federal tax code that forbids the deduction of any business cost related to trafficking in controlled substances.

Steve DeAngelo, director of Oakland’s Harborside Health Center, one of the nation’s largest dispensaries, warned that if the IRS adopts this position towards all medical marijuana businesses, “Every dispensary in the nation, past, present and future is dead.”

http://www.allgov.com/Controversies/ViewNews/Obama_Administration_Steps_Up_Anti_Marijuana_Battle_110315

[endless october]

1. what a complete waste of time and money.

Legalize it nationwide.

[anarch]

24. I don't think you understand what's at stake here

I mean, we're talking about pharmaceutical industry PROFITS! Prison industry/drug war PROFITS! Do you have any idea of the damage that would happen to these industries if we were to legalize pot? We must protect these revenue sources from this evil plant that grows out of the ground.

[EstimatedProphet]

2. Christ. What the hell for?

[Champion Jack]

3. What Bullshit

[madokie]

4. My question is who is behind that website?

Sounds like a hit piece on Obama more that anything else to me.

[Auggie]

5. +1

[The Straight Story]

6. At the bottom of the article are the sources:

IRS Tells Fairfax Medical Marijuana Dispensary It Owes Millions In Unpaid Taxes (by Richard Halstead, Marin Independent Journal)
Oakland’s Plan to Cash in on Marijuana Farms Hits Federal Roadblock (by Malia Wollan, New York Times)
Feds Warn Oakland Against Medicinal Pot Farms (by Sean Maher, Oakland Tribune)

--So not sure what the website and who is behind has to do with anything, either something is true or it is not.

[KurtNYC]

7. yes, my first thought was "WHAT anti-marijuana battle" ?

This seems to be about tax codes.

[Fumesucker]

12. It was the IRS that got Al Capone you might recall.. n/t

[Le Taz Hot]

18. It's a way of whittleing the existing

MM laws by reducing access to dispensaries. LEGAL dispensaries are less likely to open up if they feel they're going to be harassed by one thing or another. He's using the same playbook that the anti-choicers use in the south -- ensure there's only one place you can get an abortion in the enter state (Mississippi) will reduce access to services, particularly for the poor. See? This president has learned so much from the Republicans and just think, he has 2 more years to continue the Bush legacy. :puke:

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[QC]

9. Hopetastic! n/t

[Hugabear]

10. Same website also advocates eliminating all taxes

Sorry, but going to have to un-rec this one for quoting and linking to a libertarian site

[The Straight Story]

11. Well, they are not libertarian, and second they sourced NYT/etc-but hey, if bias makes things untrue

Then I can really bury my head in the sand :)

[Hubert Flottz]

13. Meanwhile Bush, Wall Street and BP can do whatever they want

without a care in the world about anyone EVER, "Going After Them"

[grahamhgreen]

14. Bye bye Barak

[Shagbark Hickory]

15. Unreputable source. I've come to expect better from The Straight Story. thumbs -1 down.

You're slippin

[Bluenorthwest]

22. Facts are facts

http://www.marinij.com/business/ci_17576520

[stillwaiting]

16. Puh-thet-ic! nt

[Le Taz Hot]

17. I'm going from extreme dislike of this president

to hatred and I don't say that very often. Lets the banksters and the B.F.E.E. get away with people's life savings, literally, steal the treasure out of the treasury and what's important? Medical marijuana. If this guy isn't playing to the mother fucking bible-thumping, incest-laden tea bagger types I don't know who the hell he's playing for.

This man has NOTHING to offer. NOTHING.

[kath]

28. Sadly, I'm in that same place.

Can't stand to hear him speak or watch him on TV, and I'm even getting to where I turn my head away from photos of him when they show up in avatars here. When I think of how happy I was on Election Day and on Inauguration Day... oy.

I was just thinking the other day that I'm actually starting to hate the man. It seems like he's getting worse - the outrages and disappointments come almost daily lately.

[TK421]

29. It is a rather silly thing to be concerned with, given the state of our economy

the jobless, civil unrest regarding what is happening in Wisconsin ( and slowly, around the rest of the country ). Really..let's not focus on shit that actually makes a difference; I hear you loud and clear, my friend.

[joeybee12]

19. Thank God they're not targeting the banksters which would wreck our fragile recovery! nt

[dkofos]

20. I guess it's back to the street corner.

[Bragi]

21. I used to think Clinton was the best Republican prez ever

No more do I think that, and Obama has at least two more years to go.

[Blue Owl]

23. Meanwhile, the GOP is banning Democratic senators from voting in Wisconsin

But hey, let's go bust some dope-smokers instead.

[Octafish]

25. Gotta show the Republicans who's tough on peaceful free-thinkers.

Which must be why the reactionary greedheads so fear the weed.

[Rex]

26. I wonder if Anonymous has any dirt on the govt assholes

who apparently have nothing better to do but go after hippies. I know he hates the DFH, but does Obama have to make it a point to lose voters at every turn?

[meow mix]

27. sorry bill maher, backstabbers are worse than frontstabbers

pathetic, cant believe i voted for him

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

30. Is this a new "surge"? Is he going to put Petraeus in charge of another lost war?

[pokerfan]

31. Disgusting

"The War on Drugs, unlike any war in American history, is unlike any modern civilized war of the past two centuries. In this War on Drugs they are not stopping the battle and allowing the Red Cross on the field. In fact, they are shooting directly at the sick and at those who are trying to help them. And they are shooting to kill. A friend of mine named Todd McCormick was arrested for growing marijuana in his own home after Proposition 215 passed in California that allowed for cultivation. He was treated for cancer nine times before he was 10. The DEA came in, destroyed his plants, and wants to put him in prison for a ten-year mandatory minimum, possibly life, plus a $4 million fine. That's shooting to kill." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_McWilliams">Peter McWilliams)

[NC_Nurse]

32. I have had it with this admin. They suck. nt

[Pushed To The Left]

33. The "War on Drugs" is a war against people.

And it needs to come to an end, just like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan!

[jtuck004]

34. 27 million people underemployed, 40 million on food stamps,

millions more at risk of foreclosure.

Higher priorities than this.

[GReedDiamond]

35. OP recced, Obama's "War on Drugs" unrecced...

...this shit has gotta stop someday, WTF is wrong with these guys?