Eric Holder

President Obama Has Outspent And Out-Arrested George W. Bush On Marijuana, Reports Say

Liberals and libertarians are sometimes uneasy bedfellows, but both have no shortage of reasons to fear, loathe and otherwise vote against mainstream Democrats, as the current imbroglio over the National Security Agency's spying program displays. Here's another one: Under the administration of Presi ... More >>

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to Visit Berkeley, Marijuana Supporters to Protest

Eric Holder is a survivor. The United States attorney general's record during President Obama's first term was more than a bit spotty: Holder angered the left when he defended Obama's use of drones to kill suspected terrorists without court proceedings and when he said he couldn't prosecute the bank ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

Gavin Newsom Changes His Mind, Now Supports Marijuana Legalization

"Late to the party" was a term not typically applied to Gavin Newsom during his eight years as San Francisco mayor City Hall. This was the man who catapulted himself to national acclaim by jumping the gun on gay marriage, after all. He's the same "idea mayor" who created the carbon fund and snagged ... More >>

Obama Says Feds Will Back Off Marijuana; Do You Believe Him?

Stop us if you've heard this one before: As the states press forward with reform on marijuana prohibition, the president of the United States -- which still outlaws marijuana and prosecutes providers -- says that marijuana enforcement is "not a priority."Yet cannabis users and providers are still lo ... More >>

Marijuana's Victory in Colorado, Washington Means California Will Follow Soon

An end to America's experiment with marijuana prohibition is in sight, after voters in Colorado and Washington approved re-legalizing the plant Tuesday. In California, where voters said "no" to adult-legal marijuana in 2010, the decisive passages of Amendment 64 in Colorado (54 percent yes to 4 ... More >>

Unlike in 2010, Attorney General Eric Holder Stays Silent on Marijuana Legalization

Scapegoats were readily available when California voters missed their chance to live in the first state in the Union to legalize marijuana for adults in 2010. While some blamed the medical marijuana supporters who opposed Proposition 19 -- which led some in some pre-election polls, at 52 percen ... More >>

In Colorado, Marijuana Candidate Gary Johnson Aims To Be Obama's Nader

During his two terms as New Mexico governor, Gary Johnson was best known for two things: vetoing nearly half of the bills that reached his desk and advocating for marijuana legalization.Now, as the Libertarian candidate for president and man of the hour for bereft, Johnson is angling to become forev ... More >>

Medical Marijuana Advocates to Protest Obama Tonight

President Barack Obama sure does love the Bay Area. Northern California has proved to be a very handy ATM for the president, who is making yet another fundraising swing through San Francisco on Monday night. And this one's special.Food legend Alice Waters and celebrity chef Tyler Florence are cookin ... More >>

Marijuana Crackdown Staged to Distract From "Fast and Furious" Scandal, Author Says

Turns out the federal Justice Department's almost-yearlong crackdown on state-legal medical cannabis has nothing to do with hard-line drug warriors, forfeiture numbers, President Barack Obama's reelection effort -- or even marijuana itself.Shutting dispensaries in California, Colorado, Montana, and ... More >>

Obama Arrives in Oakland, Protesters Waste No Time Making Him Feel Unwelcome (Update)

Update (5:10 p.m.): Some 400 protesters took over downtown Oakland, with the crowds extending for more than a city block in anticipation of the president's arrival. SF Weekly writer Chris Roberts was at the scene and tells us that protesters had giant posters emblazoned with the faces of Obama, Atto ... More >>

Obama's Oakland Visit: Marijuana Lovers Promise To Be There

President Barack Obama's reelection campaign picked office space in downtown Oakland (of which there is plenty available) to house its Bay Area headquarters. The East Bay city has put in the work, and on Monday, Oakland will receive a presidential visitor for the first time in recent memory, when Ob ... More >>

Feds Move to Close Harborside Health Center, California's Biggest Marijuana Dispensary

The federal Justice Department's crackdown on California's medical marijuana industry escalated Monday when the government moved to shut down the state's largest cannabis dispensary.U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag filed paperwork July 6 to seize the Oakland and San Jose locations of Harborside Health Cen ... More >>

Medical Marijuana Activists Add to Attorney General Eric Holder's List of Woes

Attorney General Eric Holder is an embattled man. For refusing to release documents related to the Fast and the Furious "gun-walking" scandal, Congress on Thursday voted to hold the country's top law enforcement officer in contempt.Holder may face criminal charges after the contempt vote, the first ... More >>

NORML: Attorney General Eric Holder Lied to Congress About Marijuana Crackdown

Attorney General Eric Holder "lied" to members of Congress when he insisted that the only targets of the federal Justice Department's medical marijuana crackdown were breaking state law, cannabis advocates said today.On Thursday, Holder told the House Judiciary Committee the same mantra he and the f ... More >>

Meet the California Lawmakers Who Are Enabling the Marijuana War

Losing efforts sometimes score wins. Medical marijuana scored such a moral victory late Wednesday, when 163 members of Congress voted in favor of not allowing federal dollars to be spent on busting pot growers, distributors, and dispensaries in states with medical cannabis laws.The brainchild o ... More >>

California Congressmen Push Spending Cuts on Federal Marijuana Enforcement

Budget hawks incensed over San Francisco's supposedly profligate spending ought to spend a few minutes at Congress, observing the dollar requests submitted by federal departments.Take the $28.2 billion, 111,998-employee federal Department of Justice, for example. The country's 12,000 employees in Un ... More >>

Obama Explains Medical Marijuana Crackdown -- Sort Of

Mystery accompanied the federal Justice Department's crackdown on California's state-legal medical marijuana industry since Oct. 7, when prosecutors formally declared their war on weed. Who was behind the feds deciding it was time to shut down hundreds of California dispensaries -- rogue prosecutors ... More >>

Marijuana Legalization Efforts Fail in California, Thanks to The Feds

Few successful political movements count their finest hours a loss. Yet 2010 will remain the high water mark of the marijuana legalization movement for at least another two years -- or longer, if the federal situation worsens.Buoyed by Oaksterdam University founder Richard Lee's cash and energy, Pro ... More >>

Is Medical Marijuana a Low Priority for Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, Gov. Jerry Brown?

Blindsided as he was during a "bloodbath" of a House Judicial Committee hearing, in which U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was hung out to dry over the teeny-tiny issue of injecting American-made weaponry into the Mexican cartel wars, you could forgive the Justice Department head for mincing his wo ... More >>

S.F. Pot Clubs Threatened by Government Crackdown Won't Sue

On defense​It was only a matter of time before the state's medical marijuana collectives went to the courts -- and the time was nigh Monday for Lynette Shaw of the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana to announce at a downtown San Francisco law firm that she's suing the feds. Her deadline to close ... More >>

Obama's War on Weed: President Attacks Medical Marijuana

Sonic.net: The Li'l ISP that Stood up to the Feds

​I way overpay for my monthly Internet service. There are a bunch of reasons: Sonic.net, my ISP, has great customer service. It almost never goes down. The website is simple and user-friendly. It updates it quickly with service info. When you call them, they talk to you like you're a fellow human, ... More >>

Feds Now Fight War on Medical Marijuana with Passive Aggressive Strategies

​Hard to believe it's been only two years since Attorney General Eric Holder shocked -- and relieved -- California's medical marijuana users when he said the federal government had no interest in prosecuting state-legal cannabis activities. The Bush Era was over -- no more doors kicked in by Kevla ... More >>

Justice Department "Clarifies" Stance on Medical Marijuana: It's Illegal And They Will Arrest You

They gonna getcha​President Barack Obama's stance on medical cannabis has been a wee nebulous: as candidate, Obama said the drug war was a failure and that doctors prescribing pot as a treatment was "appropriate"; as president, Obama's Justice Department said chasing after pot growers and users wa ... More >>

Federal Backruptcy Court Declares DOMA Unconstitutional

Gay couples go broke, too. ​The latest assault on the federal law that only recognizes straight spouses comes from an institution that's not exactly known for making rousing statements about civil rights: the federal bankruptcy court.According to news reports., the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Ce ... More >>

Medical Marijuana Providers Go to Prison. Will President Obama Intervene?

This pretty much sums it up​Dr. Mollie Fry and her husband, Dale Schafer, are ill. Fry is a breast-cancer survivor with severe mental-health issues, and Schafer's hemophilia means he is frequently bedridden. So he will have to be in a prison hospital beginning May 2, when the couple will begin fiv ... More >>

Obama Fundraiser To Draw Protesters Advocating Green Cards For Gay Couples

Rallying at Obama's door. ​Protesters from all walks of life -- potheads, gays, and antiwar folks -- will be greeting President Obama upon his arrival to San Francisco tomorrow afternoon. While antiwar demonstrators recruit people for their cause, multiple organizations for gay rights are gatherin ... More >>

U.S. Lawmakers Reintroduce Bill To Help Same-Sex Couples Sponsor Foreign Partners

A new push to change the law for same-sex binational couples. ​U.S. lawmakers reintroduced a bill Thursday that would allow gay Americans to sponsor their same-sex partner for a visa, just as straight married couples can. At the same time, Congress members wrote a letter to Attorney General Eric H ... More >>

Blowing Smoke: Obama Promises One Thing, Does Another on Medical Marijuana

Government lets fraudulent drug companies deal with Medicare

Marijuana Roundup: The Year In Pot

​How was your 2010? For the cannabis community, it was a wild flip of the calendar, with dispensaries opening and closing, police raiding, a medical cannabis luminary thrown in jail for meth charges -- and we vaguely remember something about a legalization ballot measure. There's still time y ... More >>

Prop. 19 Smoked -- Marijuana Supporters Promise New Legalization Effort

Wait 'til next year...​As the national media will gladly tell you, people are smoking weed in San Francisco. People -- with and without medical marijuana recommendations -- smoked weed yesterday and they'll do so today, and they were going to do so no matter what happened with Proposition 19, the ... More >>

Feds Seize Grow Equipment, Cash from Oakland Pot Factory

Pot growers, we welcome you -- and your seized assets​Backers of Proposition 19 say their legalize-and-tax-it approach to marijuana will raise money for the strapped California government. Recent comments by U.S. attorney general Eric Holder, along with an Oct. 8 federal forfeiture filing connecte ... More >>

Immigration: Defending juvie probation chief proves expensive

Chronic City: N. California's Top Federal Prosecutor -- 'Really Not A Change At All' In Medical Pot Enforcement

​Ah, "guidelines." They're a little more lax than "rules," which are a little looser than "laws." When it comes to guidelines, that's their strength -- and that's their weakness. Whereas laws and rules are "broken," guidelines can simply be "ignored."That truism is abundantly illustrated by this w ... More >>

No Justice

Despite Obama's promises of change, corporate crooks are still going unpunished for their roles in the financial collapse.

Chronic City: 'Truth In Trials' Bill Would Lift Ban On Medical Marijuana Evidence In Federal Court

​U.S. Representative Sam Farr (D-Carmel) and more than 20 bipartisan co-sponsors introduced legislation today that would allow defendants in medical marijuana cases the ability to use medical evidence at trial, a right they currently do not have. Due to the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in G ... More >>

Chronic City: Feds Lighten Up On Medical Marijuana Just As L.A. Tightens The Screws

Photo by Rotbuche, Wikimedia CommonsLet my people grow.​In a stunning bit of role reversal, law enforcement officials in dispensary-heavy Los Angeles County are gearing up for a massive mobilization against hundreds of pot shops even while the Obama administration backs away from the federal gover ... More >>

Chronic City: Aptly Named 'Joint Resolution' Succeeds; California Senate Urges Change in Federal Medical Marijuana Rules

​By a 23-15 vote, the California State Senate yesterday approved a "joint resolution" urging the federal government to stop Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) raids on medical marijuana patients and providers. The Sen. Mark Leno-authored resolution additionally calls for the nation to "create a compreh ... More >>

Chronic City: Marijuana Moratorium -- How To Ignore The Voters And The Law

Dispensary moratorium: Latest political fad?​One by one, across California, the lights are winking out.In city after city, town after town, patients who had dared hope they would at last have safe access to the medicine recommended by their physicians are having those hopes dashed  by politic ... More >>

Chronic City: The 'Oaksterdam Model' For Legal Pot In California

Oaksterdam UniversityWith Oakland broke and growing broker (like many other American cities), calls for the city to get into the growing and selling of medical marijuana are being taken more seriously.The idea seems a lot less crazy when you take a look at the potential revenue to be generated, espe ... More >>

Chronic City: Dispensary Operator Charlie Lynch Gets 366 Days In Federal Prison

Reason.tvCharles Lynch In a courtroom crowded with spectators and supporters, Morro Bay medical marijuana dispensary owner Charles Lynch was sentenced today in federal court to one year and one day in prison.Lynch, 47, appeared this morning in the Los Angeles federal courtroom of U.S. District Judge ... More >>

Chronic City: Dispensary Ban -- Hey, Goleta, Nice Job Helping Patients!

The Goleta City Council has unanimously passed a "temporary" ban on medical marijuana dispensaries -- while still claiming the city is "voicing support" for medical marijuana patients.The Santa Barbara Independent reports that the council voted 5-0 in support of an ordinance banning dispensaries wit ... More >>

Chronic City: An End To The War On Drugs -- Impossible Dream? Political Ploy? Or Inevitable?

Gil KerlikowskeNew White House Drug Czar and former Seattle police chief Gil Kerlikowske didn't wait long before making big waves as the top drug enforcement officer in the country.  In his first public appearance since being confirmed on May 7, Kerlikowske, in a new interview with the Wall Str ... More >>

Supes Condemn Raid on San Francisco Pot Club, Call For DEA to Mellow Out

Fair enough, it was somewhat lost in the glare of our governor -- once caught on film wearing a shirt emblazoned with the sentence "Arnold Is Numero Uno" while smoking a joint and eating a massive piece of cake -- said he's open to debate on marijuana legalization. But, yesterday, a resolution passe ... More >>

US Attorney Spars with Hastings Law Students Over Pot Laws

The most compelling question from the Hastings panel on pot: How could two guys with such different opinions on marijuana think so similarly about fashion? Was this planned?Hastings law students with the munchies and a keen interest in how changes in federal priorities on marijuana enforce ... More >>

Vote on Ammiano's Marijuana Bill Postponed Amid Difficult Time For S.F. Pot Fans

In what is perhaps the best news of late for aficionados of marijuana legalization, a scheduled March 31 committee hearing of Assemblyman Tom Ammiano's legalization bill was postponed likely until 2010 (drag) -- which gives marijuana advocates some time to reverse what would have almost definitely b ... More >>

Marijuana Advocate 'Flabbergasted' at DEA Raid of S.F. Dispensary

BummerLast week, Attorney General Eric Holder announced a policy shift away from the Drug Enforcement Agency raiding marijuana dispensaries in states that have approved medical marijuana. So, it came as something of a shock that DEA agents today raided Emmalyn's California Cannabis Clinic at 1597 Ho ... More >>

Groovy: Marijuana Advocates Ecstatic About Attorney General's New Pot Policy -- See Boost for Ammiano Legalization Bill

Supporters of legal marijuana -- medical and otherwise -- will be racking their brains to find some way to celebrate a potentially groundbreaking drug policy change announced by Attorney General Eric Holder today.In short, the AG said Justice will only target those "who violate both federal and stat ... More >>