LA Weekly
Despite medical marijuana being legal in California, it is still a 'cash crop' (largely because it is not legal enough) and money is still money.
If you have a stable business like a dispensary you ARE going to take in money and you are going to need to transport that money to the bank, live every other business,
That's why some dispensaries use armored car companies to get their money to and from their favorite bank (or elsewhere). But the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration says no more. The federal authority has told armored car companies they can no longer work with some, perhaps all, cannabis retailers in California and Colorado.
LEAP responded with incredulity issuing this statement:
Combined with federal restrictions and threats made to banks about doing business with marijuana providers, this ensures that businesses known to carry large amounts of cash will be transporting that cash without professional protection. You couldn't create a situation more ripe for criminal intervention if you tried. It's like the directive was written by petty thugs rather than by one of the most powerful agencies of the US government.
Despite Eric Holder's recent statements that federal drug guidelines need to be reviewed, HIS DEA is going out of it's way to make life as dangerous as possible for otherwise legal medical marijuana businesses.
It's just plain outrageous. It is ENCOURAGING violent crime and robbery.
It is a LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY encouraging MORE violent crime and robberies.
Steve DeAngelo, executive director of Harborside Health Center in Oakland:
The federal government appears willing to do anything that will turn this inherently safe plant into something dangerous, no matter the impact on public health or safety. In 2011 they closed our bank accounts, which forced us to handle and store cash on-site. Now they have denied us any secure way to transport that cash to those whom we owe money--like the City of Oakland, and the California Board of Equalization.
The DEA and other federal agencies that earn their bread and butter from marijuana remaining illegal clearly wish ill upon those who are moving forward with cannabis law reform.
They NEED for the marijuana industry to remain a black market setup so they don't get the inevitable pink slips that WILL come with full marijuana legalization.
This move is blatantly sociopathic because they want innocent people who are helping others to get robbed and hurt.
Evil.