Marijuana club faces property seizure

Mon Jun 17, 8:11 PM ET

Vince Catrone, Gay.com / PlanetOut.com Network

SUMMARY: The Department of Justice ( news - web sites) is working to seize the real estate assets of a gay-run pot club in West Hollywood, Calif.



The Department of Justice has continued its campaign against medical marijuana clubs in California with an announcement that it is working to seize the real estate assets of a gay-run pot club in West Hollywood, Calif.

On May 31, the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center (LACRC) received a letter from the Department of Justice (DOJ) noting that under federal anti-drug laws, the agency would seize the center's building, which is partially owned by Wells Fargo Bank and the City of West Hollywood.

Supporters of the club have responded by staging a "protest fast" to raise awareness about their cause. (The action differs from a hunger strike in that participants are not starving themselves until their demands are met.)

In California, medical marijuana has been legal since a citizen's referendum was passed by voters in 1996. According to Scott Imler, LACRC's president, the asset forfeiture laws were designed by the government not to close pot clubs, but to shut down crack houses. Imler claims LACRC operated within the boundaries of the law, and operated with the cooperation of the city government, local law enforcement agencies and even U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) employees based in Southern California.

"Usually under asset forfeiture, lien holders are considered innocent owners," he explained. "But there are no innocent owners. Both the bank and the city knew what we were doing. Both stand to lose their (financial) shares."

The LACRC has not operated since October, when a DOJ raid effectively shut down the Center when it confiscated $55,000 in assets, computer equipment, and marijuana from the LACRC's garden. Imler noted that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which polices West Hollywood, refused to take part in the raid.

The LACRC served 960 club members, 80 percent of whom suffered from AIDS ( news - web sites). The majority of the staff were openly gay.

Unlike three pot clubs in Northern California (which were served with permanent injunctions against selling pot by a U.S. District Judge on Thursday), the DOJ has yet to prove that any criminal activity took place at the LACRC. Imler blames the recent crackdown on the Bush administration's hostile view to medical marijuana, and the LACRC's investigations specifically to homophobia.

"I think this administration has particular ire against California," Imler said. "We never hid anything. We refused to sneak around in the shadows."

The Marijuana Policy Project's Bruce Mirken also had harsh words for the DOJ. "What the Feds are doing is appalling," he said. "The evidence continues to mount that the administration is out of touch with the Republic."



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