It seems that pressure from the federal government on credit card companies has in turn led those companies, like Visa and Mastercard, to force their merchant providers to stop processing credit card payments from medical marijuana dispensaries.

As a result, many dispensaries in California have announced they have stopped taking credit cards, including the biggest dispensary in the world, Harborside Health Center. HHC’s Executive Director, Stephen DeAngelo, says it’s all part of a ”multi-agency campaign” of the federal government inflict injury on the medical marijuana industry.

DeAngelo says that some unethical merchant services providers have approached HHC, offering to process credit cards for a large fee, but ”we don’t want any part of that,” DeAngelo said.

So most dispensaries go back to a cash-only business, although some do take debit cards. One even installed a ATM in their lobby.

Federal officials continue to say that they are only targeting big marijuana providers, but how does this hurt anyone but patients? It doesn’t matter to Harborside, reduced revenues to them just means a reduction in the patients services they provide for free, because they are a non-profit, like all the dispensaries and collectives in CA.

The feds want medical marijuana gone, plain and simple. And if that doesn’t hurt patients, I don’t know what does.

- Joe Klare