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By Lester Black / March 27, 2024
https://www.sfgate.com/cannabis/article/calif-cops-forced-to-return-800k-in-cannabis-19370034.php
Michael Moussalli, the owner of Se7enLeaf, said that the cannabis raid has nearly destroyed his business.
American police have been seizing cannabis for decades, but the tables were turned last week, when law enforcement in a California city was forced to return hundreds of pounds of cannabis to a pot distributor.
Costa Mesa police officers returned the massive shipment of cannabis last week to Se7enLeaf, a cannabis distributor in the city, according to the Los Angeles Times. The authorities had accused the company of illegally operating and seized the cannabis in September of last year.
Michael Moussalli, the owner of Se7enLeaf, told SFGATE that he was happy to get his cannabis back after his attorneys explained he was operating legally, but he still blamed the city for taking it in the first place and delaying its return.
"The sad thing is once all this info was shared, there was no apologies. There was only more aggression," Moussalli said, referencing the city's attempt to further delay the return of the products. "The police were not happy that no charges were filed. The police were not happy that the product was being returned."
(Score: 0, Troll) by krishnoid on Sunday March 31 2024, @06:38PM (3 children)
Marijuana makes people *aggressive*? Wow, you learn something every day.
(Score: 5, Informative) by ElizabethGreene on Sunday March 31 2024, @07:00PM (2 children)
I may have misread the article, but I believe the implication was that law enforcement was aggressive, not the pot dealer.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by janrinok on Sunday March 31 2024, @07:13PM
Correct, that is my understanding too.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 2) by ls671 on Monday April 01 2024, @02:49AM
They obviously smoked so of it then!
Everything I write is lies, including this sentence.
(Score: 5, Informative) by khallow on Sunday March 31 2024, @06:51PM (2 children)
California law enforcement is cooperating [reason.com] with the feds to generate enormous punishments for unlicensed marijuana providers (licensing marijuana is quite onerous in California):
And this will come up again:
Highly restrictive licensing artificial restricts the supply and continued federal criminalization restricts these businesses' access to banking and credit card services, making them cash heavy. Law enforcement also bragged in the story about seizing firearms from a business that needed to defend itself. And here's a natural consequence [soylentnews.org] of that need for cash transactions.
So no surprise that law enforcement has been caught again stealing from marijuana providers licensed or not. Or that California is a leader in this particular pathology.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday April 01 2024, @02:34AM (1 child)
A memoir I read a long time ago and now forget the title of was about growing up in the barrios of Los Angeles. The author was basically a civilian, but noted that the cops had absolutely no more legitimacy in these neighborhoods than the gangs and drug dealers. Why? Well, it might have had something to do with the cops in question being the LAPD CRASH Unit [wikipedia.org], which we now know was involved in all kinds of criminal activity.
But also, civil asset forfeiture basically makes robbery by cops legal. Which is why, for instance, when cops busted into Afroman's house on false reports of narcotics and kidnapping, they wasted very little time disabling his security cameras, and money that Afroman had in cash went "missing" between the raid and the cops counting it.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 4, Informative) by khallow on Monday April 01 2024, @04:28AM
Background on Afroman, here [soylentnews.org] and here [soylentnews.org].
A common observation is that the police are simply the best equipped gang on the block. The way to keep that from happening is to require that they follow the same laws as the rest of us.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Frosty Piss on Monday April 01 2024, @01:36AM (1 child)
Of course here in Washington, there are licensing processes for both growers an retailers. But even with the oversight of the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board, there are almost more weed stores than Starbucks. I can walk out of a weed store with an ounce of excellent bud for around $70 give or take. I can have in on my person, no problem. I can wait half an hour and go back and get another ounce, though I think that exceeds the limit for personal possession. I always thought California would be on the leading edge, but no it's stuck up Washington and the hicks in Colorado.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 02 2024, @01:24PM
And there you have the problem. Cannabis grows at least as easily and cheaply as corn. It shouldn't be $70 an ounce, it should be 7 cents.
Somewhere along the line, somebody is making the other $69.93, and they are quite happy for the situation to continue as is.