Marijuana sellers misusing MySpace, Facebook, Twitter for their trade

Washington, July 7 (ANI): Some California pot sellers are misusing social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter for selling marijuana.

Los Angeles-based non-profit medical-marijuana dispensary Artists Collective advertises via tweets, which say: "Just in! Baby Crunch, Spy Diesel and Critical Mass! Buy a quarter, get a gram."

In fact, Artists Collective also promises "free delivery" and has the biggest online presence, with a snazzy Web site, Facebook and MySpace pages and the Twitter feed.

"We've been open for six months, and I've been doing this project for 18 [months], and only in the last two weeks with a Twitter account has anybody started paying attention to us," Fox News quoted Dann Halem, the director of Artists Collective, as saying.

He added: "That sends a message - an important one - and it really has been, strangely enough, the fact that we're using Twitter that has opened the door."

California's Proposition 215 and Senate Bill 420 allow for the production, growth and sale of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

The Bush administration ruled that federal drug laws superseded them, and the Supreme Court agreed, which even led to many arrests.

But, in March, the Obama administration announced that it would not seek prosecutions in situations where state and federal laws conflicted.

"The Bush administration did have a no-tolerance policy, and the federal government was doing more enforcement under the Bush administration. I have yet to see any official stance out of the new administration, so I - as many are - am waiting to hear what the new stance is," said Lt. Paul Torrent of the Los Angeles Police Department's narcotics division.

Although, the Internet delivery services can advertise their stuff publicly, they do not have the right to put it on auction like eBay.

"When a person calls us, what we do is contact their doctor and verify that they are a patient. Then they have paperwork that they need to fill out," said Halem.

He added: "We need to see their California I.D., and assuming that they jump through every hoop and everything is as it should be, then they are welcome to join our collective."

And after entering the collective, members gain the right to grow and sell their own marijuana back to the dispensary for a profit. (ANI)