Federal Government Strikes Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Again

Obama and Holder, champions of prohibition.

Last Friday’s SF Weekly article “Cash-Only Pot: Credit Cards No Longer Accepted at Medical Marijuana Dispensaries” was a stark reminder that prohibitionists won’t go down without a fight. Stephen DeAngelo, Executive Director of Oakland’s Harborside Health Center, said “Officials from the Treasury Department flexed on credit card companies, who then informed merchant services providers that they’d be “dropped from Visa and MasterCard forever” unless they stopped processing medical marijuana payments.” Now medical marijuana patients won’t have the option of using credit cards. American Express stopped allowing medical marijuana transactions April 30, 2011.

As I mentioned a few days ago, those who want to believe words that Obama will “pivot to the drug war” in his 2nd term only need to remember his broken 2008 campaign promise to respect medical marijuana businesses complying with state law. Obama has already run more medical marijuana raids than George W Bush in his entire eight year term. Beyond the Drug Enforcement Agency, Obama has wielded the Internal Revenue Service, the US Attorneys Office and now the US Treasury in combined attacks with devastating effects. Eric Holder’s claim of not going after medical marijuana businesses complying with state law rings as hollow as ever with this new escalation from the US Treasury.

Actions speak louder than words, especially words from one who broke his prior campaign promise on medical marijuana. We must form a voting bloc, and make the POTUS candidates earn our votes. Obama will only have a chance to earn my vote if he reschedules marijuana out of Schedule I before the election, which he can do with an executive order.

Regardless of where you stand on Gary Johnson’s other platform topics, it is in every weedist’s interests to have Johnson poll at 15%+, so he can enter the national POTUS debates for the topic of federal marijuana policy reform. If Gary Johnson isn’t on the stage, ending prohibition will not be a meaningful topic of conversation, as Obama and Romney both steadfastly support the status quo.

Be heard and make an impact in November!