Feds end 4-year effort to shut down largest medical marijuana facility
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In a milestone victory for the cannabis industry, the federal government agreed to drop its four-year bid to shut down Oakland’s Harborside Health Center, the biggest medical marijuana dispensary in the country with more than 100,000 patients, city leaders said Tuesday.
The Department of Justice did not immediately comment on the deal, which Harborside said still needed to be finalized, with all of the parties in the legal fight signing off.
But Oakland officials joined the pot dispensary in an exultant news conference at City Hall, heralding a move they saw as symbolic of a federal withdrawal in the battle against an industry that is steadily marching toward acceptance — and is viewed in Oakland not as a scourge but an economic engine.
“We celebrate the release from federal prosecution,” said Mayor Libby Schaaf. “We believe in compassion, we believe in health.”
Legal experts said the reported deal was momentous. It underscores the country’s shift to a “new model” for dealing with marijuana, whether medicinal or recreational, said Robert MacCoun, a law professor and drug policy expert at Stanford University.
“The framework is moving from the war on drugs to tricky issues of regulation, taxation and who is going to be in control of this major new industry,” he said.
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