Well, the opening volley by the Justice Department going after the medical marijuana trade in California was met first with an over-net return in the form of a letter from a group of pot-friendly Congresspeople, and now a strong back-hand from the industry itself in the form of a lawsuit, announced today, seeking an immediate order from a federal judge to stop the crackdown on dispensaries and property owners. Like the crackdown, the lawsuit will be filed in the four federal districts of California, San Francisco (Northern), Sacramento (Eastern), Los Angeles (Central) and San Diego (Southern).

"This is a multi-pronged, organized effort to get into court and to send a message to the federal government that we need to stop the aggression and sit down and talk reasonably about these issues," said San Francisco attorney Matt Kumin, one of the attorneys who authored the lawsuit.

Details of the suit were presented in a press conference at 11 a.m. today at the Flood Building in San Francisco, and the plaintiffs include medical marijuana patients, cooperative owners, and property owners.

We'll see if this goes anywhere or does anything to halt the crackdown -- something tells us it won't, seeing as even the White House sounds like they're behind it.