EARLIER this year the founder of Medical Marijuana of the Rockies, Jerry Olson, was selling his firm’s dope for $120 an ounce, half the average retail price for good gear. He had fallen victim to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act (RICO) and had to liquidate his inventory. The nascent firm had been targeted by an anti-drugs group, which complained that its presence on the high street in Frisco, Colorado, was putting guests off going to a nearby hotel. A RICO suit was filed against a bank, a bonding company and others that were planning to service the business. They backed away, fearing portrayal as accomplices to racketeering.
This is “clearly not what RICO was intended for”, according to Adam Wolf, Mr Olson’s lawyer. With medical marijuana legal under state law, and the federal government happy to turn a blind eye, the lawsuit is “a political crusade by those who have lost on the legislative front”, says Mr Wolf. Congress passed RICO in 1970 to go after organised-crime syndicates that were infiltrating legitimate businesses. It was named after a gangster played by Edward G. Robinson in a 1931 film, “Little...
from The Economist: Business http://ift.tt/1IPY5VX
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