Supervisors Shut Down Medical Marijuana in Unincorporated Fresno County

Regular readers of this blog might remember the June 1 SWAT raid by Fresno County law enforcement officers on five meth labs terrorist cells gang hangouts legal medical marijuana dispensaries in unincorporated corners of the county. The reason given for charging into legally sanctioned businesses with guns and seizing all the products on-site for the state was that the businesses were earning a profit. According to the Legislature's "clarification" of how these dispensaries may operate under Prop 215, medical marijuana must be distributed in California through a non-profit "collective" to be legal. The Fresno story, along with many others, has reinforced our impression that this requirement is murky enough to allow virtually unlimited harassment from motivated politicians and law enforcement officers. Well, right on cue, the Fresno Bee reports that the county's supervisors have voted unanimously in favor of shutting down all the dispensaries in unincorporated parts of Fresno County. According to new rules, anyone wanting to cultivate medical pot in the county will be pushed into a small handful of industrial areas, and will still face harassment if their organization is judged insufficiently socialist by the government.