Attack on Medical Marijuana Will Cost State Millions in Tax Revenue and Harm Countless Lives

Sacramento - – Assemblymember Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) issued the following statement after today's press conference where the four US Attorneys in California announced a broad crackdown on medical marijuana.

"I am bitterly disappointed in the Obama Administration for this unwarranted and destructive attack on medical marijuana and patients' rights to medicine. Today's announcement by the Department of Justice means that Obama's medical marijuana policies are worse than Bush and Clinton. It's a tragic return to failed policies that will cost the state millions in tax revenue and harm countless lives. 16 states along with the District of Columbia have passed medical marijuana laws - whatever happened to the promises he made on the campaign trail to not prosecute medical marijuana or the 2009 DOJ memo saying that states with medical marijuana laws would not be prosecuted? Change we can believe in? Instead we get more of the same."