Allvoices.com

Trying to find a friend

Eric Holder is a survivor. The United States attorney general's record during President Obama's first term was more than a bit spotty: Holder angered the left when he defended Obama's use of drones to kill suspected terrorists without court proceedings and when he said he couldn't prosecute the banks that gambled away Americans' wealth (and then received more of their money via a taxpayer bailout).

Meanwhile, the right called for his head for his role in the "Fast and the Furious" "gun-walking" scandal that put assault weapons in the hands of Mexican drug cartel gangsters.

There was talk that a second-term Obama would find a new man to be AG -- yet Holder has held on. And he will visit the University of California Berkeley tomorrow -- or, in other words, he'll visit the epicenter of the other constituency he's infuriated: medical marijuana users.

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It's still on

At least one major roadbloack in the way of medical cannabis reform in California was removed Monday when the California Supreme Court issued a long-awaited ruling -- which says that cities and towns can ban pot clubs.

For now.

At least 200 places across the state -- including San Mateo County and the East Bay's tonier cities -- have not taken kindly to the state's medical marijuana scene and have banned pot clubs from doing business within their borders. And they are within their rights to do so, the court ruled on Monday. This means the Southern California dispensary that sought to overturn a ban in Riverside will be shut down, and other cities and counties could follow suit.

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Gil Riego Jr

Medical cannabis supporters will rally in front of the San Francisco Federal Building at noon today, joining Sacramento and Los Angeles to protest the feds' nonstop stonewalling of California medical marijuana laws.

Rally organizers are urging protesters to contact California Attorney General Kamala Harris to demand that federal authorities, specifically U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag, stop "misusing federal laws" they believe are intended for crack peddlers, not for pot clubs.

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The Hemp Center

The crackdown is back.

A Richmond District medical cannabis dispensary is the latest local law-abiding marijuana provider to be put on notice by the federal Justice Department.

The Hemp Center, on Geary Boulevard near Park Presidio, has been in business for nearly 14 years and has been in its current location for 11. Its landlords recently received a letter from U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag. The letter warned of property seizures and prison sentences if the dispensary was not shut down, according to dispensary operator Kathleen Capetti.

Similar letters, which claim the clubs are too close to parks or schools, have been responsible for the closure of eight San Francisco dispensaries since Oct. 2011 -- many of them longstanding, respected operations with one other thing in common.

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We don't buy drugs off the street (anymore). But if we did, or if someone asked us where to score some sweet illicit narcotics, we suppose we might try the Haight Ashbury. If there's one thing a pack of young and dirty "travelers" have, it's hungry dogs -- as well as some molly or some nugs or something to make dubstep tolerable.

This memo appears to have leaked out, as neighborhood complaints about drug dealing in the area near the east end of Golden Gate Park has hit a fever pitch in recent years. The Bay Citizen first gave us news that the new SFPD captain in the area was a hard-line, old-school drug warrior; today the Examiner reported that cops under his watch are using a tactic that appears to be on the way out to perform over 25 percent of the city's drug stings -- and nabbing small-time pot sellers, sometimes with as little as $20 cash on hand and a few measly grams of cannabis that dispensaries would turn away.

This is a buyer's market, in which the seller must be aware -- and eventually prove his or her identity as not a narc. So does this mean the market for white dreadlock wigs is suddenly hot?

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Gil Riego Jr

Update 1:24 p.m: Supervisor London Breed talked to ABC News, saying she would like to ban the pot-smoking event at Hippie Hill because of all the "irresponsible behavior."

"Since marijuana is illegal, I don't think there's anything that can be done other than making sure there's enforcement to stop the event from happening altogether," Breed said.

Original story 11:12 a.m.: If you live in San Francisco, there are certain places in San Francisco you simply will not go. North Beach on a Saturday night, Candlestick Park when the 49ers are playing the Raiders (though that one's taken care of), and now add to the list the eastern end of Golden Gate Park on 4/20.

We've heard "horror" stories of the ravages who descended on Haight-Ashbury and Sharon Meadow where some 10,000 marijuana-minded celebrants -- 120 parking tickets, a fight documented on YouTube, and a mind-boggling, yet dubiously quantified "10,000 pounds" of trash -- have made headlines nationwide. The Chronicle's recap of the carnage of paper plates was picked up by The Drudge Report, and certain neighbors are calling on the city to do something about all these stoners!

Remember what San Francisco did to the Halloween in The Castro? Shut it down.

See Also: Cops Confiscate 2-Pound Joint

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The pot-smoking youngsters over in Santa Cruz were determined to get baked out of their minds on 4/20. To be sure, they rolled a 2-pound joint that was later confiscated by UC Santa Cruz cops -- and God only knows what they did with it.

Here's a video of the cops' "drug bust:"

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Not a priority?

For the dazed, happy 420 celibrants shambling about San Francisco on Saturday like characters in a George Romero film, all was well.

For those left to clean up after them, it was less so. Picking up tons of detritus will cost the city a pretty penny.

So it comes as a bit of a surprise that, according to frustrated cyclists who contacted SF Weekly, multiple calls to the Department of Parking and Traffic to ticket or tow cars illegally parked in John F. Kennedy Drive's bike lanes and creating a dangerous bottleneck were blown off.

Dispatchers told one cyclist that addressing this problem was "not a priority." In more than 90 minutes time following complaints phoned in by multiple callers, the cyclist reports, no city personnel came to ticket the mass of more than 100 cars clogging JFK between the mouth of Golden Gate Park and the Conservatory of Flowers.

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If you're more of a drinker than a (marijuana) smoker, then you definitely missed a good time at Hippie Hill this weekend, where all types of people, not just your regular Golden Gate Park stoners, gathered to get high.

Here's what was going on Saturday afternoon while you were sipping Bloody Marys at Zeitgeist:

Gil Riego Jr

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Health.com

Teens can still get it in some places

Real marijuana appears to have significant health benefits. Fake marijuana does not -- and in fact, the chemically sprayed herbs labeled as "K2" and "Spice" could possibly kill you.

For a long time, possibly healing real cannabis was illegal and the dangerous and worthless fake marijuana was perfectly legal. This deliciously absurd but dangerous situation was at last rectified when the Drug Enforcement Administration added three more "synthetic cannabinoids" to its list of banned substances.

Anyone wishing a final hurrah -- or a final brush with death -- should do so before May 13.

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