Who knew the finest-dressed, best-connected man in San Francisco has a marijuana club for a client?
You learn something new every day, even about a local celebrity like former San Francisco mayor and state Assembly Speaker Willie Brown.
Brown himself dropped this news in his San Francisco Chronicle column last month. He's a "political and legal consultant" to Harborside Health Center, the Oakland medical marijuana dispensary currently in a legal battle with the federal government, SF Weekly reported.
It's not entirely sure what exactly Brown does for Harborside, which is trying to avoid having its 1840 Embarcadero property seized by the Justice Department -- something the feds can do because the dispensary, the world's largest, is breaking federal drug laws.
Asset forfeiture laws, strengthened during the "just say no" 1980s, allow the feds to seize anything and everything they suspect was purchased with cash gleaned from the sale of illegal drugs -- which, in theory, means the feds could take at least some of Willie's expensive wardrobe, the newspaper reported.
Though with Brown's connections, it's more likely that they'll take the check next time he eats at North Beach Restaurant.
And Harborside? They're at serious risk of getting shut down, after a federal judge tossed out the city of Oakland's effort to end the forfeiture proceedings.
