Harborside Health

The New York Times covers the battle over Oakland's Harborside Health Center: Oakland Sues U.S. to Prevent Closing of Marijuana Dispensary.

The Department of Justice has focused its efforts on those dispensaries near schools, parks and playgrounds. Harborside’s two dispensaries have no such neighbors, but in July, United States Attorney Melinda Haag issued a forfeiture notice on the 7,000-square-foot Oakland property leased to Harborside since 2006 and on a 6,000-square-foot property occupied by the group’s San Jose dispensary.

In a statement, Ms. Haag called Harborside an example of a marijuana “superstore.” She went on to say that the larger the dispensary, “the greater the likelihood that there will be abuse of the state’s medical marijuana laws, and marijuana in the hands of individuals who do not have a demonstrated medical need.”