“Everything you done to me, already done to you.”

Berkeley Patients Groups closes it's doors today, because of a letter sent from the Justice Department threatening to prosecute the landlord if they did not evict them. Across the Bay, the U.S. Attorney sent 1000-foot notice letters to the landlords of prominent medical cannabis dispensing collectives that have been operating for years without complaint under established city ordinances. I've been an off and on member of BPG for ten tears. So many of my first memories are of this place when I was just getting involved in this movement. My friend Hilary McQuie said it best, "The medical cannabis movement would not be what it is w/o BPG - their support of advocacy was the lifeblood of the movement and their willingness to keep going in the face of risk was path-breaking. Hope they will re-open soon elsewhere with the same community commitment."

This is a real shame; BPG was an awesome model of what a medical cannabis dispensary should look like. Unfortunately, medical marijuana is still federally illegal, and the feds are targeting the best, brightest and most responsible actors in California to send a message to all that no one is immune from the drug war. My sympathies definitely go out to all the BPG employees now looking for work. May BPG rise from the ashes like a phoenix.

And to the Feds, just remember Newtons 3rd Law of Motion – For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, or as Ms. Celie in The Color Purple so articulately put it… “Everything you done to me, already done to you.” So watch out for that tidal wave about to come crashing down on your door step. Because there ain't no stopping this movement. We have a majority support on this issue, science is on our side, and states keep passing medical marijuana laws left and right. So go ahead and flex your might. I hope you know your not on the right side of history. You are going to lose this war on medical marijuana patients, which is what this is. When you close down a provider of safe access to medical cannabis, where do you think the patients will go? Most likely to the street, where they will be put in harms way. So you can continue your wasteful crack down, essentially stealing medicine from sick people, and money from the tax payers, which will in turn piss off more supporters and advocates. Thanks for firing them up to take action. Now watch this movement continue to spread like wildfire.

The tools necessary to keep moving forward across the nation - www.safeaccessnow.org/projects

Take Action - www.americansforsafeaccess.org/takeaction