Cannabis crackdown threatens legal trade in 'medical marijuana'

Federal prosecutors target legal marijuana trade despite Obama's liberal stance on medical use of cannabis
The Guardian (UK)
Monday, November 14, 2011

The Internal Revenue Service, America's tax collecting agency, sent a letter demanding an initial $2.5 million in back taxes and characterised the Harborside Health Center dispensary as a drug trafficking organisation. Using a provision of the tax code originally written to help seize the assets of gangsters and organised criminals, the IRS said Harborside was disqualified from claiming its ordinary business expenses – payroll, insurance, rent and so on – as deductions and needed to pay taxes on them instead. This is not just an attempt to tax; it's an attempt to tax dispensaries out of existence.