Gee, I sure hope nobody steals all your money …
by digby
Meanwhile, when the Feds aren’t clearing out the competition on behalf of their favorite drug kingpins, they’re doing this:
Less than two weeks after Attorney General Eric Holder announced plans for sweeping drug sentencing reform to help fix a “broken system,” the Drug Enforcement Administration has ordered security and armored vehicle companies to quit serving state-legal cannabis providers, according to industry sources.
The DEA, an arm of Holder’s Department of Justice, confirmed the order to The Huffington Post, but wouldn’t elaborate.
Armored vehicles allow California’s legal medical marijuana dispensaries a secure way to transport large amounts of cash. The services are critical, since federal authorities pressured banks and credit card companies to stop servicing the pot industry in 2011.
“In 2011 they closed our bank accounts, which forced us to handle and store cash on-site,” said Steve DeAngelo, executive director of Oakland dispensary Harborside Healthcare, in a release. “Now they have denied us any secure way to transport that cash to those whom we owe money, like the City of Oakland and the California Board of Equalization.”
DeAngelo told The Huffington Post that the DEA’s order contradicts the administration’s stated policy.
“Either there is a very serious disconnect between the views of the administration and law enforcement on ground, or the administration is playing a cynical double game,” DeAngelo said.
President Obama cannot directly interfere with DEA policy. But Eric Holder certainly can. They answer to him. My personal impression is that “law enforcement on the ground” pretty much does what it wants regardless of what Washington prefers. And I’m guessing that Washington feels it has to pick its battles and lets them get away with it rather than fight on principle. But the contours of the drug war is changing and the DOJ had better get a handle on it or there’s going to be some scandals.
Far be it from me to point out that at the same time the Feds are doing sweetheart deals with certain drug dealers they’re making legal marijuana sellers operate only in cash and are making it impossible for them to guard it. What could go wrong?
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