Much has changed since I filed our lawsuit in October 2012.
At that time, the government was aggressively cracking down on medical cannabis operations, despite assurances by high level federal officials that the government would not pursue cannabis businesses that were operating under state law.
A few months before we filed our case, the feds raided and shut down Oaksterdam, one of the pioneers of the industry in Oakland.
President Obama and other officials had announced that medical marijuana was not a law enforcement priority, and that "we have bigger fish to fry."
Yet the government was still aggressively prosecuting medical cannabis dispensaries operating under California law, resulting in the closure of hundreds of dispensaries across the state, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. In one case, the U.S. Attorney threatened to seize the property of a dispensary operating in Marin County and prosecute the landlord for drug dealing. That dispensary closed.
After the government raided Oaksterdam and filed its action to seize Harborside's building, I decided that the City of Oakland must get involved in this fight. I sued to stop the seizure because the closure would harm Oakland patients and public safety, and because we had relied on the government's statements to license these dispensaries in the first place.
This was an important case for Oakland. We were not just fighting the seizure of a building, we were standing up for Oakland's right to regulate and license medical cannabis dispensaries under state law, and performing our duty to protect the health and safety of our citizens who rely on these dispensaries to alleviate pain and suffering from serious illnesses.
The federal trial court ruled against us, holding that Oakland did not have standing to sue the federal government. But there was silver lining: the Court granted our request to stay (i.e., hold in abeyance) the forfeiture proceedings against Harborside and its sister dispensary in San Jose until the City completed the appeals process.
That process concluded recently when the U.S. Supreme Court denied our petition for review. As a consequence of our lawsuit and the stay, Harborside's two dispensaries were able to continue operating for nearly four years after the government filed its forfeiture action.
Oakland owes a debt of gratitude to attorney Cedric Chao, a senior partner at DLA Piper. Cedric also believed in this fight and handled the case for Oakland at no cost. He began his work on the case while he was a partner at Morrison & Foerester, and DLA Piper took the mantle when he joined that firm.
Cedric and his team worked tirelessly with us on the U.S. District Court case and on our appeal. Together we fought all the way up to petition the U.S. Supreme Court. If Cedric had charged the City for his work, this case would have cost Oakland taxpayers and residents more than $1 million.
I want to acknowledge and thank Cedric, DLA Piper and Morrison & Foerster for their dedication, their brilliance and tireless work and service on Oakland's behalf.
From the outset of this litigation, I said that regardless of the outcome of our lawsuit, the federal government was fighting a losing battle.
In the nearly four years since the federal government filed its forfeiture action, there has been a major evolution in public opinion and a shift in the landscape of national politics on this issue. The American people are recognizing that cannabis is not only a legitimate medicine, but that federal laws outlawing marijuana have been wasteful and harmful, especially to communities of color, where people have been disproportionately arrested, prosecuted and incarcerated for possession of cannabis.
So the government's decision to end its action against Harborside is an excellent and just outcome for Harborside and for patients, and the dismissal removes the cloud over Oakland's regulatory framework for dispensaries under California law.
I hope the next step will be the end of the ineffective and costly (in both financial and human terms) prohibition against cannabis in California and our entire nation.