Oakland can’t help defend pot dispensary

The U. S. Supreme Court refused Monday to let the city of Oakland take part in the defense of the huge Harborside medical marijuana dispensary, which the federal government is trying to shut down.

The city sought to intervene in the case, saying it would lose millions of dollars in taxes from a shutdown. City officials also said closure of Harborside would increase crime by forcing many of the dispensary’s patients to turn to street deal- ers.

The case began in July 2012, when then- U. S. Attorney Melinda Haag sued to confiscate Harborside’s property along the Oakland Estuary. The dispensary has remained open, with the case on hold, while the court decided whether the city could participate.

Federal judges agreed that Oakland has interests of its own at stake, but ruled that neither the city nor any other outsider has a right to intervene when the government seeks confiscation of private property for alleged legal vio- lations. The Supreme Court turned aside Oakland’s appeal without comment Monday.

The Harborside Health Center is the nation’s largest licensed marijuana dispensary, with about 108,000 patients.

Harborside is fighting the forfeiture suit in federal court, arguing that it violates several federal laws and the Obama administration’s stated policy of deferring to laws in nearly half the states, including California, that have legalized marijuana for medical use.

One law the dispensary cites is a budget amendment passed by Congress that prohibits the Justice Department from spending federal funds to interfere with a state’s implementation of its own medical marijuana laws. Obama administration lawyers have argued that the amendment doesn’t affect cases against individual marijuana suppliers, but U. S. District Judge Charles Breyer of San Francisco ruled in October, in a case from Marin County, that the budget language prohibits the government from shutting down dispensaries that comply with state laws.

Breyer’s ruling, if upheld on appeal, would halt federal action against Harborside and other locally licensed dispensaries.

Oakland’s court challenge, though unsuccessful, “pointed out the inconsistencies in the government’s position,” said Cedric Chao, the city’s lawyer in the case.

The case is Oakland vs. Lynch, 15- 941.