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Pot Advocates Fired Up Over Dispensary Crackdown Will Protest When Obama Arrives Monday
Among the Prop 8 chalk graffiti, someone added this marijuana advocacy piece last night | Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist
Pot advocates who are fired up over the recent, unexpected federal crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries are going to be protesting when Obama comes into town on Monday.
Security will prevent the protesters from shouting their demands directly at the president who will be hobnobbing and fundraising on the Westside, so they're going to protest the president on the other side of town at the federal building. Hey, it's about the symbolism man. Also, the federal building isn't terribly far from City Hall, so some of the 420-friendly occupiers might be able to take a quick jaunt to join the cause. The protest will start at high noon at 255 East Temple Street.
California Norml, which is organizing the protest, will be organizing another protest up in San Francisco on Tuesday when the president goes there, too.
Pot advocates are angry that the Department of Justice is cracking down on dispensaries in California, after being relatively lax about dispensaries for so long. "We view the crackdown as a betrayal of Obama's campaign pledge that 'I'm not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue,'" State NORML chief Dale Gieringer told LA Weekly.
The feds are trying to explain that they're only targeting dispensaries that are illegal under state law, but it's not really clear that any of the dispensaries open now meet that definition. U.S. Attorneys in the state are now saying the whole thing is their idea.
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