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South Lake Tahoe pot club abruptly closes its doors


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South Lake Tahoe is down to two medical marijuana dispensaries.

City of Angels 2 closed Sunday night.

“I’m afraid of the feds,” owner Gino DiMatteo told Lake Tahoe News as he stood in front of the shop on Third Street.

City of Angels 2 pot club in South Lake Tahoe is closed. Photo/LTN

The professionally made sign plastered on the front door says the same thing. “Closed until further notice; Fear of feds; Nothing of value on premises” is what the sign says.

The word has not got out to all clients because people were approaching the business Monday night.

DiMatteo said he is not sure if this is a permanent decision.

He is upset he isn’t able to get people the medicine they need.

DiMatteo would not elaborate on what led to this decision. He said he has not received any notification from the feds; that this decision was his and that he was not raided; nor did he say his landlord told him to move out.

Landlords at the three South Tahoe dispensaries have received letters from the U.S. Attorney’s Office saying their property could be confiscated in addition to other penalties if they continue to allow medicinal marijuana to be sold.

— Kathryn Reed

 

 

 

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Comments (37)
  1. Dogula says - Posted: April 9, 2012

    LOL! Those people don’t care about anything but their own profits. The altruistic stance is a facade.
    Just legalize it. Worried about people getting their “medicine” indeed. There are SO MANY alternatives. I’ve HAD cancer. I’ve HAD chemo. I’ve HAD radiation. Marijuana did not help. The pharmaceutical meds DID. I’m certainly NOT saying marijuana doesn’t help some. But 98% of the people using it are doing so for recreation under cover of therapy.
    Just legalize it.

  2. Careaboutthecommunity says - Posted: April 9, 2012

    Totally agree with Dogula, they discredit their whole movement with this medical sham.

  3. Steve Kubby says - Posted: April 10, 2012

    My last visit to the SLT dispensaries was over a year ago. At that time I warned them this crackdown was coming and that none of them could survive a IRS 280-E audit. Regardless of how you feel about medical marijuana, everyone should be concerned about the government’s use of federal thugs, smash and grab raids and confiscation of private property without due process. America is better than that.

  4. Tahoe Mom says - Posted: April 10, 2012

    Good! I can finally drive my child to/from school without having to witness the kind that hang out there! If you are so sick that you need medical marijuana to survive, why are you well enough to hang out, BBQ, etc.?

  5. biggerpicture says - Posted: April 10, 2012

    Tahoe Mom, do you feel the same way about driving by the casinos? Or are you okay with the drugs and other addictions they serve up? (alcohol, tobacco, gaming) Or would you choose to use the “Well, at least they are legal” argument? And by the way, medicinal marijuana is legal in California, and many other states.

  6. Tahoe dude says - Posted: April 10, 2012

    I’m not sure why we even have State laws???? If the Feds can over ride all laws what is the point??? Seems like a big waste of money getting the laws passed to only have the Federal thugs say that the people of that State voting opinion doesnt really matter. Why are they not raiding the brothels in NV?

  7. dogwoman says - Posted: April 10, 2012

    Dude, the Feds have never addressed prostitution on a Constitutional level. That’s where the lines are drawn.
    The states were supposed to be autonomous on issues that the Federal Constitution didn’t specifically address. Unfortunately, we are now more like counties within a big State. A really BIG State.

  8. Tahoe Mom says - Posted: April 10, 2012

    @ biggerpicture…when driving by the casinos, you don’t see anything out of the ordinary! Medicinal marijuana is legal, but cards are given to waaaaaaaay too many people for very unnecessary reasons! Maybe that is why the Feds are now stepping in because every Tom, Dick or Harry shouldn’t have a card! Just because your back hurts doesn’t mean you need to smoke an illegal drug.

  9. Chief Slowroller says - Posted: April 10, 2012

    3 dispensaries or 3000 people selling out of there home’s

    most of the country is getting loaded

    it realy is a terminal way to live

  10. JT Davis says - Posted: April 10, 2012

    With any luck Steve Kubby will leave Tahoe and find some other town to carpet bag, so he can blame all the problems of the world like the economy, the roads, crime, child hunger, health care costs or what ever else he decides to conger up about the fact that marijuana is illegal… And if we only vote with his agenda to legalize it then poof, magically all out problems are solved… I don’t think so…

  11. John says - Posted: April 10, 2012

    Chief, the problem I think many of us have is that pot is illegal under state or federal law for recreation. And so I think its reasonable to question whether there are really enough people in South Tahoe to support 3 pot dispensaries. So I get the arguements for legalizing. But it is not legal. And it is supposed to be regulated and controlled, and its not. I just hate the dishonesty of the whole thing.

  12. gym-nutt says - Posted: April 10, 2012

    INJUSTICE ANYWHERE IS A THREAT TO JUSTICE EVERYWHERE

  13. thing fish says - Posted: April 10, 2012

    The dishonesty lies in the War on Drugs John. Prohibition does not work. Use doesn’t go down, problems with addicts don’t go away, quality goes up, demand stay the same, violence increases…. Wake up people.
    Tahoemom
    “Just because your back hurts doesn’t mean you need to smoke an illegal drug.”
    Except that it is an anti-inflammatory and decreases pain. I suppose you could just give them opiates, which are highly addictive, and you would be happy because you don’t see the pill heads at BBQ’s. They don’t bother you, except in your head. That is your problem, you create it. Please tell us one real problem marijuana smokers cause.

  14. Hangs Ups From Way Back says - Posted: April 10, 2012

    Please tell us one real problem marijuana smokers cause.

    They promote Loud music ,nude beaches,peace and Love, been know to eat a whole store of Cees Candy.

    OMG, how can we live with that?

  15. John says - Posted: April 10, 2012

    thing fish, I dont doubt a word in your post. But that doesnt change the law. You cannot argue that the dispensaries are operating as was described when the ballot measure passed. We were told pot would be made available to people who truly need it. Now I really want to see some peer reviewed literature that pot is more effective than ibuprofen as an anti-inflamatory.

    The real problem pot causes is it makes people stupid, forgetful and lazy. And there is a great deal of literature on the effects of pot on motivation and on short term memory.

  16. sandsconnect says - Posted: April 10, 2012

    This:

    3 dispensaries or 3000 people
    selling out of there home’s

    Anyway send it back underground and cut out the middleman, make drug dealers rich again.

  17. Pillsnotforme says - Posted: April 10, 2012

    It’s a bummer I can’t go get my meds but some pill popin junkie can go get his.

  18. Frank says - Posted: April 10, 2012

    Finally, 1 down , 2 to go. Close all the drug shops.

  19. Janet Carter says - Posted: April 11, 2012

    Perhaps the warning letter would have been better served on our City Council? One phrase comes to mind regarding the Feds, ‘Be afraid, be very afraid’. If we had strong local government or State government not ruled by San Fran dogma, there would be no need for their interference. But, the same people who would rally around keeping the Feds out of our grows, seem to support the increased size of the IRS to dispense supervision of the Obama Health Care Plan. Where is the consistency?

  20. sandsconnect says - Posted: April 11, 2012

    Your right Frank. Your neighbor can’t wait to start selling out of his house.

  21. Freeskier says - Posted: April 11, 2012

    Sometimes I wonder if the Federal Government wants people to leave.

  22. firsthand says - Posted: April 12, 2012

    @ Tahoe mom so I guess bbqs are out of the ordinary now?! Ridiculous.

  23. firsthand says - Posted: April 12, 2012

    @ tahoe mom. It is not an illegal drug! Maybe you should read the news more.lol! And I would rather someone smoke a joint than be addicted to pain pills, which is the alternative to back injuries. Read what you write before you post it because your previous statement are quite ignorant!

  24. firsthand says - Posted: April 12, 2012

    There are different degrees to sickness, just because your sick doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a BBQ

  25. Tahoe Mom says - Posted: April 12, 2012

    @ firsthand…go smoke another and lose some more brain cells!

    Taken directly from the DEA website:

    Marijuana: The most comm. Illegal drug, marijuana or ganja is a dry, shredded mix of flowers, stems, seeds, and leaves of from the naturally grown Cannabis sativa. While extremely addictive, it also has neurotic effects that can quickly damage the brain.

  26. West Shore Local says - Posted: April 12, 2012

    Unfortunately the DEA is a bureaucratic agency that is not necessarily of an unbiased opinion. The issue needs to be analyzed under such parameters (unbiased observations), but isn’t that what we want from all the Lake Tahoe bureaucrats too?

    Tahoe Mom, I can understand your distaste of certain individuals that frequent the dispensaries, but those individuals are probably in Lake Tahoe for the skiing and not the drugs. So, removing the easy access to medical cannabis isn’t going to solve your dislike of certain people in the town of South Lake Tahoe. I’d be more concerned, as a parent, about the grow operations occurring in right in our neighborhoods, and the risks that come with those activities.

  27. dogwoman says - Posted: April 12, 2012

    DEA website is mistaken on several points.
    Marijuana is NOT physically addictive.
    People do not (usually) smoke a mix of leaves, stems, flowers and seeds. At least they haven’t since the ’70’s. But I would imagine the DEA’s info is probably about that old.

  28. Mitchell Tiraterra says - Posted: April 13, 2012

    I’ve always found it fascinating why American citizens feel it is an obligation to push their moral beliefs onto their neighbors. When discussing marijuana and it’s legality we simply need to ask, “does it work?” @tahoemom I would also recommend you go to your DEA website and research the % of marijuana use among American citizens and whether or not the prohibition of it as worked. The answer it is, it hasn’t. So we as a society we accept that it is okay to pump millions of dollars into something that as no affect. And although it would take an essay to try and convince you reagan lovers that marijuana is not harmful, non-addicting, and on average 0 people die from marijuana use every year. Ooohhh and at the increase in private prisons in America over the last 30 years. Mr. Reagan had some good friends involved with the construction and profiting off these evil entities. So do you think there might of been some hidden motivation on “the war on drugs”. And anyone who says and believes the rhetoric about marijuana, make you sure you never see a doctor who went to stanford university because the head medical professor as been on documentary stating that marijuana is non-addictive, and is one of the greatest natural remedies on this earth. I believe he wrote a book in 50’s about the benefits of marijuana. So since you and the DEA know more be sure these wrongfully taught doctors….take pharmaceuticals they never release harmful drugs and care only about you not profit, or do the real American thing, drink some liquor, smoke a cigarette, buy and assault rifle and watch a porn, all have been proven to be safe and non-addicting, and they male you a motivated individual in our society!!

  29. NeighborhoodWatcher says - Posted: April 14, 2012

    Who does medical marijuana hurt, this country was founded on the ideas of John Locke, with the principal theme people should be free to do whatever they choose to do as long as it does not hurt anyone else.

    HOWEVER, this club is run by a wanna be gangster who narcs out his growers, passed an ordinance prohibiting growing in the city (after bribing local city boardmembers), runs heroin and crystal meth (ie in planes to Alaska) and purposely spread aphids in his clones all to shut down his competition so VERY HAPPY this crook got shut down.

  30. Haha says - Posted: April 29, 2012

    Haaaa! We’ve got this guy wearing a wire to get one of the San Jose club owners busted!!! My friends got pulled in his driveway. This guys not scared of the Feds he’s working for them!!!!

  31. geno says - Posted: May 28, 2012

    thats for sure geno does work for the feds so watch out people. dont trut his snitch.

  32. Murph says - Posted: July 23, 2012

    Federal election year, when will it end you ask, after the election. Then all of the politicians can go back to making money, and the medical clubs can re-open.

  33. Beware says - Posted: July 25, 2012

    Geno is a crook and a con artist. He is a liar and a thief. This town needs to come together and boycott Push Fitness when he becomes owner to get this scumbag out of town. He rips off the little people and claims how broke he is. He parades around town in one of his ten luxury cars and also owns two homes here. This guy is the scum of the earth.

  34. watch out for GENO says - Posted: August 20, 2012

    GENO WORKS WITH THE FEDS DO NOT TURST THAT MAN. HE WILL ONLY CAUSE U JAIL TIME AND HE WILL GET HIS ONE DAY. I SURE HOPE SO