Feds Succeeding in Marin Medical Marijuana Shutdown

The federal Department of Justice's war on medical marijuana is working in Marin County.

Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana is a dispensary in Fairfax that has been in operation since 1996. The small dispensary at 6 School Street is near a park, however -- and that's why Melinda Haag, the United States Attorney for Nothern California, wants it shut down.

The property owner is in process of evicting the dispensary, but the eviction process is not going fast enough for Haag, whose office filed paperwork to seize the property outright, the Marin Independent Journal reported. To avoid the landlord losing the property, the dispensary is willing to remove all marijuana from the property and use it instead as a patient intake center.

Hearings on the eviction were held Friday in Marin County Superior Court. The property forfeiture is in federal court.

Marin Alliance founder and executive director Lynette Shaw says she'll remove all marijuana from the storefront and deliver the medical marijuana to her patients in the area in order to comply with Haag's order, she told the newspaper.

The town of Fairfax is squarely in Shaw's corner: the business is one of the top 10 entities in town in terms of tax revenue, and the Town Council passed a resolution supporting Marin Alliance's continued operation.