SF Legislators Ask Obama to Stop Medical Marijuana Crackdown

Two of San Francisco's top legislators want President Barack Obama's Justice Department to stand down from its bellicose stance against the state's legal medical marijuana industry.

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano and state Sen. Mark Leno -- two of the pot-friendliest lawmakers in Sacramento, and indeed, anywhere in the United States -- held a press conference Wednesday in which they put the federal government on notice.

"Whatever happened to the promises [Obama] 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," said Ammiano, the author of a (failed) bill that would have legalized all marijuana use in California.

Ammiano, a Democrat, said he remains an Obama supporter, but is "very, very angry" about the actions of the Justice Department, which has sent threatening letters to at least five medical marijuana dispensaries in the Bay Area.

In the letters dated last month, U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag, the top federal prosecutor in the Bay Area, gives the landlords of dispensaries 45 days to kick out their marijuana-selling tenants or have their properties seized.

In an emailed statement, the local Department of Justice said the following. "The Department of Justice, which is committed to enforcing the Controlled Substances Act, is focusing its limited resources on significant drug traffickers. Individuals involved in the commercial cultivation and distribution of marijuana, remain a core priority.  We are not directing our limited resources toward individuals with serious illnesses, or their individual caregivers, who use marijuana based on a doctor's recommendation."