SUITS CHALLENGE CRACKDOWN BY FEDS ON POT SHOPS

Lawsuits were filed Friday in federal courts in Sacramento, San
Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego in a move to block efforts by
U.S. attorneys to crack down on medical marijuana dispensaries in California.

"A massive organized effort is now going to be launched to bring the
issue to federal courts across the state to get some judges to look
at this," said San Francisco lawyer Matt Kumin, one of the attorneys
representing plaintiffs in the lawsuits.

The El Camino Wellness Center, a Sacramento dispensary, is one of the
plaintiffs in the suit filed in Sacramento, said P.J. Johnston, a
spokesman for the statewide legal effort.

California's four U.S. prosecutors, declaring that the state's
medical marijuana law "has been hijacked by profiteers," last month
announced investigations and prosecutions of dispensaries, growers
and investors throughout the state's medical marijuana market.