By Christopher Cadelago
California medical marijuana patients, storefront collectives and their landlords on Monday announced a series of lawsuits seeking an immediate stop to the federal government’s statewide crackdown on medicinal cannabis.
The lawsuits were filed in three federal districts in the state — Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento — on Friday where U.S. attorneys have set various deadlines for dispensaries to shut down or risk criminal prosecution and forfeiture of their properties.
Lawyers for the coalition filed a fourth lawsuit in San Diego on Monday. One of the plaintiffs in that case is Briana Bilbray, the 25-year-old daughter of Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-San Diego, and sister of Imperial Beach City Councilman Brian Bilbray.
“Not only is the U.S. attorney infringing on my right as a California resident to obtain the medicine I need, but she is punishing me by making it more difficult to get the one thing I really need as a patient,” Briana Bilbray, a cancer survivor who has spoken out on behalf of patient cooperatives, said in a prepared statement. “It is one of the worst feelings imaginable.”
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http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/nov/07/medical-marijuana-collectives-landlords-sue-feds/