In one of the more rare legal actions out there, the City of Oakland sued the federal government today to try and block Uncle Sam from seizing Harborside Health Center's leased property at 1840 Embarcadero.
- Medical cannabis at HHC
"This lawsuit is about protecting the rights of legitimate medical patients," City Attorney Barbara Parker stated in a press release today. The suit hopes to bar the feds from seizing the property, but it's unclear what legal ground they can stand on.
"The federal government has acted beyond its authority by initiating the forfeiture action outside of the statute of limitations," stated Cedric Chao, co-representative of Oakland, at law firm Morrison & Foerster. "Moreover, the government has indicated for many years by its words and actions that so long as dispensaries and medical patients acted consistently with state law, the dispensaries would be allowed to operate. Oakland has reasonably relied on these assurances, and the government should be prohibited from disrupting Oakland's medical cannabis program."
In an awesome twist, Parker and Chao are former Assistant U.S. Attorneys in the Northern District of California.
Harborside remains open, just FYI.
More on this as it breaks.