Harborside Health Center

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 >>

Gavin Newsom Says the Year for Marijuana Legalization in California Is 2016

As the most powerful man in the room milled aimlessly about the bar of the United Irish Cultural Center on Friday, looking for someone who recognized him as United States Congressman, all the attention was focused where it always is whenever Gavin Newsom is in the room: right on the lieutenant gover ... More >>

California Has No Clue How Much Money It's Making From Marijuana Sales

Most government agencies in California prefer to pretend that the state's medical cannabis industry doesn't exist. The state Board of Equalization is an exception -- and with good reason. State sales taxes are due on every medical marijuana transaction, and the BOE has spent time over the past few ... More >>

Willie Brown Is Happy to Take Marijuana Money

Status. Clout. Juice. Whatever it is -- the intangibles that humans need in order to govern other humans -- Willie Lewis Brown's got it.Da Mayor and current Kingmaker is also, technically, at risk of having Justice Department officials swoop down upon his residence at the St. Regis Hotel and seize s ... More >>

Marijuana Dispensary Mocks U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag With Dr. Seuss-Like Cartoon (Video)

By most measures, Harborside Health Center's fight with the federal Justice Department is going well. The nation's largest medical cannabis dispensary went untouched for nearly a year during the recent federal crackdown that began Oct. 2011. Even now, it's been nearly seven months since U.S. Attorne ... More >>

U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag Can't Deal With Marijuana Protesters, Ditches Public Event

Medical marijuana is not making U.S Attorney Melinda Haag's life easy. Among Bay Area cannabis advocates, she's become a loathed figure, scorned and mocked -- and for all we know, burned -- in unflattering effigy. All of this due to her role in the Justice Department's crackdown on state-legal medic ... More >>

Marijuana-Fighting U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag to Speak in S.F. Today, Pot Smokers Will Protest

If Melinda Haag thought being local United States prosecutor would make her famous, it's doubtful she ever imagined it'd be because of a plant. Her predecessors Joe Russoniello and Kevin Ryan made names for themselves for returning money to cocaine dealers who used frogmen to smuggle powder ashore a ... More >>

Harborside Health Center: Judge Says Pot Club Can Sell Marijuana for Now

A federal judge ruled yesterday that the landlords of Harborside Health Center cannot stop the world's largest medical marijuana dispensary from selling pot. That's not to say the pot club can't still be closed down by the feds, so stock up on your marijuana while you can. The Oakland-based disp ... More >>

Harborside Health Center Chief Asks Obama to Freeze Federal Crackdown on Pot Clubs

Last week, President Barack Obama informed and entertained pot smokers across the nation with his sorta pro-marijuana comments, claiming (once again) that his administration has bigger problems to tackle than pot. In short, he fed marijuana advocates the same line from when he was elected in 2008 ... 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 >>

Harborside Health Center: Feds Say Oakland Can't Stop Them From Shuttering Pot Club

The federal government is now arguing that the City of Oakland shouldn't be allowed to prevent the feds from closing down Harborside Health Center, the state's largest medical marijuana dispensary. As our weed readers probably recall, Oakland filed a lawsuit in October in an attempt to put an end ... More >>

Harborside Health Center: Landlord Can't Evict Medical Marijuana Dispensary

California Court Upholds State Law; Federal Court Next on Dec. 20Oakland's Harborside Health Center is in the business of selling medical marijuana. This is obvious to anyone -- and in particular the dispensary's landlord, who last week had her effort to evict the dispensary tossed by a judge.The la ... 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 >>

"Landmark" Medical Marijuana Dispensary Ruling May Hurt Feds

A court ruling in San Diego could hinder the federal Justice Department's war on California's legal cannabis industry.In what cannabis advocates called a "landmark ruling," an appeals court in San Diego tossed out a dispensary operator's drug-dealing conviction. Jovan Jackson was found guilty of mar ... More >>

Mayor Ed Lee Blocks Plan to Let Shuttered Pot Clubs Operate on City Property

The boom and bust cycles that have created jobs and driven up rent and home prices in San Francisco apply to things other than technology. A year ago, there were nearly 30 medical marijuana dispensaries in town; they were paying permit fees and taxes. Now, a year after the federal Justice Depar ... More >>

Haborside Health Center: Oakland Files Lawsuit Against Feds to Prevent Closure of Pot Club

Oakland filed a complaint in United States District Court today in an attempt to stop the feds from shutting down the state's largest medical marijuana dispensary. The feds are trying to seize the building along the Embarcadero where the Harborside Health Center is located. The pot club was operat ... 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 >>

5 Edibles for a Blissed-Out Dolores Park Picnic

As every longtime San Franciscan knows, the pattern of warm weather that occurs in early fall, known as Indian summer, is the perfect time of year for picnics in the city. This weekend promises 2012's first real taste of autumnal awesome, and for scores of city dwellers, Saturday's projected 80-degr ... More >>

Medical Marijuana Advocates to Protest at Obama HQ Tonight

Cannabis advocates have been mad as hell for almost a year now. And as the first anniversary of the war waged on state-legal medical marijuana by President Barack Obama's Justice Department approaches, they'll have you -- and him -- know that they're not going to take it anymore.Across the country, ... More >>

Nation's Biggest Marijuana Dispensary Is Wearing Out Its Welcome in San Jose

It is no secret that Harborside Health Center sells medical cannabis. Harborside sells lots and lots of it, according to United States Attorney Melinda Haag, who wants to shut down the dispensary's two locations in Oakland and San Jose, in part because of Harborside's sheer size.Concourse Business C ... More >>

Marijuana Sweep: Feds Mostly Ignore "Emerald Triangle"

Another year, another fleet of helicopters hovering overhead and federal agents tramping through the publicly owned woods in search of illegal marijuana plots and the (Mexican) people who grow them.In 2011, there was Operation Full Court Press; in 2012, we had Operation Mountain Sweep. This year, be ... More >>

Want to Open a Medical Marijuana Dispensary in S.F.? The DEA Is Onto You

We're no police theorist, but the goals of a law enforcement action are simple: to prevent, to intervene, or otherwise dissuade behavior deemed illegal.If this is the case, the federal Justice Department's crackdown on California's medical marijuana industry is only partway there; about a dozen Bay ... More >>

Harborside Health Center Patients Talk About Buying Marijuana on the Street (Video)

There isn't much agreement over who uses medical marijuana, and why. There's dispute over even the nomenclature: cannabis users refer to themselves as "patients," as do some state and local laws; some in law enforcement and in the August halls of government, officials dole out far less-accommodating ... More >>

Medical Marijuana: Feds Show Little Interest in San Jose, Where Dispensaries Are Illegal

Aside from strikes at the medical marijuana industry's most vocal, visible, and influential leaders, little rhyme or reason has accompanied the federal Justice Department's crackdown on California cannabis.U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag offered no comment or explanation as her office shut down roughly o ... More >>

Medical Marijuana Crackdown: Rep. Barbara Lee Tells Feds to Back Off

This past week has been among the darkest in recent history for the medical marijuana movement, with the federal Justice Department picking two of San Francisco's best-known and best-behaving licensed medical cannabis dispensaries for closure. This came mere weeks after United States Attorney Melind ... 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 >>

Oakland City Leaders Are Picking Marijuana Over Murders, Chronicle Columnist Says

What the hell are Oakland city leaders smoking these days? As the Chron's Chip Johnson astutely notes this week, Oakland city leaders' priorities are completely ass backwards, as evidenced by their reaction to the two biggest news stories in the last few weeks, involving pot clubs and murders.When t ... More >>

THCafe's Ganja Mango Lassi: Edibles Go Drinkable

Ah, the weather is finally changing. 'Tis the season when a foggy, cold San Francisco winter reluctantly hands over the reins to a ... well, a foggy, cold San Francisco summer. Feh. That's why it's a good thing to avoid City provinciality and head out to the sunnier East Bay climes right around th ... More >>

Tea Party Warrior: Report Medical Marijuana Clubs to the IRS and Get Rich

​For Paul Chabot, the War on Drugs is personal indeed: Before he became a Navy man, a campus cop, and a former National Drug Control Policy staffer, he was in drug rehab for alcohol and marijuana addiction himself -- at the young age of 12, according to his online bio.In his latest tactical maneuv ... More >>

Ron Paul Won't Legalize Marijuana -- Because He Can't

​As if the promise to dismantle most of the Washington-based government wasn't enough, Texas Congressman Ron Paul has also made waves in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination with his maverick stance on drug policy.During his 30 years in the House of Representatives, Paul has authored ... More >>

Weed Wars: Watch a 5-Year Old Smoke Medical Marijuana Tonight

If it makes parents tolerable ... ​A few common schools of thought persist in the medical marijuana debate -- on one end, doubters point to young men at dispensaries and say that the drug is widely abused by people who are "not that sick." On the other hand, believers say that you don't need to be ... More >>

Obama's War on Weed: President Attacks Medical Marijuana

Feds Try to Handcuff Bay Area Dispensaries

Oakland Invites New Marijuana Dispensaries to Risk Federal Prosecution

Don't Fed on Me​At times lost in the recent hubbub surrounding California's medical marijuana industry -- and the possible lack thereof in the near future -- was the city of Oakland's plans to double the amount of dispensaries allowed in the East Bay capital of cannabis.Long known as the region's ... More >>

Rolling Paper: Avoiding the Overhyped, Overpriced Strains Can Save You Money

Rolling Paper: The Right Way to Take Your Medicine

Joseph Erich Pearson, S.F. Dispensary Owner, Arrested After Blaze Burns Marijuana Grow in Rural Sonoma

Marijuna blaze​The co-founder of San Francisco's slickest medical cannabis dispensary and a member of the San Francisco Medical Cannabis Task Force has been charged with multiple felonies stemming from a Sonoma County marijuana grow, according to news reports.Joseph Erich Pearson, 34, co-founder o ... More >>

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

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 >>

Pot Baron Steve DeAngelo Calls For More Compassion in World of Corporate Marijuana

Harborside Health CenterSteve DeAngelo says greed, for lack of a better word, is not good​Steve DeAngelo cares. The owner of Oakland's Harborside Health Center -- the largest medical cannabis dispensary in the United States, with some 60,000 patients and counting -- wants to "flip the switch" ... More >>

High Times Cannabis Cub Rehash: Buy the Green Door's Candy Jack; HopeNet's Hash is Too Strong

Who wants some?​They shut down the hash bar.High Times shut down HopeNet's hash bar. SF, your hash is too much for High Times (or at least its legal handlers).

Local Pot Club Supplier Made Purported $200K a Year

Role models?​For readers thinking of a career change, here's toke for thought: If you become a supplier to local pot clubs, you can apparently make around $200,000 per year.According to a federal forfeiture complaint for more than $800,000 cash belonging to alleged pot club supplier Avery Badenhop ... More >>