Feds Give Up Biggest Anti-Pot Lawsuit
Stoners rejoice. The nation’s largest pot dispensary beat the Department of Justice.
Leon Neal/AFP/Getty
The federal government’s biggest anti-weed case just went up in smoke.
The Department of Justice is dropping its lawsuit against Harborside Health Center, the biggest marijuana dispensary in the country, the center announced Tuesday.
“The lawsuit against Harborside is being dismissed and we are at the beginning of the end of federal prohibition," Steve DeAngelo, Harborside’s executive director, told ABC News.
The case had dragged on for years. In 2012, the DOJ threatened to seize Harborside’s building in Oakland, California, on the grounds that illegal activity was taking place there. Since then, the feds have fought a civil forfeiture case against the center, and the city has fought back with a separate case against the U.S. Attorney General.
But over those four years, public opinion about marijuana has changed dramatically, and the federal case has been losing steam.
“The ground has shifted under the Department of Justice,” Oakland City Attorney Cedric Chao told ABC. “That helped contribute to the feds deciding not to proceed.”
The U.S. Attorney’s office has not commented, but their new attitude is clear. The DOJ abides, man.