Dennis RomeroApril 20, a.k.a. 420, is the stoner's holiday — almost as big as Cinco de Mayo in L.A.
But this time around, marijuana decriminalization activists want you to turn it into “a day of action,” a time to voice displeasure with the Obama administration's crackdown on dispensaries in California.
Dale Sky Jones, who runs the recently busted Oaksterdam University in Oakland, told reporters today:
It's a traditional day of celebration for the cannabis community … It's a day of protest this year … Contact the Obama administration … in protest of these midguided policies … Please let Obama know about how you feel about these midguided policies.
Oaksterdam is encouraging those who value the legality of medical marijuana in California to use its website to contact the White House on Friday.
The Drug Enforcement Administration and IRS agents raided Oaksterdam April 2 in a move many saw as symbolic: Its owner, Richard Lee, was behind California's nearly successful ballot initiative that would have legalized pot full-on, medical or not.
Lee indicated during a conference call with reporters today that the raid was about taxes:
It's ironic we're the ones who've been saying regulate and tax cannabis, and now they want to hit us with more than normal taxes … They want to have their cake and eat it to.
Credit: Dale Sky Jones / Facebook
He's stepping away from Oaksterdam, which sold medical pot and trained dispensary owners and workers in the ways of cannabis cultivation and retailing. Jones is taking over under a new corporation, she said.
Its L.A. campus was shuttered in 2010 as a result of the economy, Jones told the Weekly.
Meanwhile, Neil Franklin, director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), said of Obama:
He's out of touch with his own campaign pledges … how he got into office in the first place. Remember the fact that President Obama handily won … after pledging to back off of frederal attack … As a cop these medical decisions should be left up to doctors and their patients, not law enforcement and the DEA.
Are you in? It happens Friday.
[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]
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