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fight4rights

Feds Raid Home, Growing Facility Of Pot Club Pair
Wyatt Buchanan | San Francisco Chronicle | 12/21/2005

Federal agents raided the home of a San Francisco couple who operate a South of Market medical marijuana club Tuesday, seizing 122 marijuana plants and at least $20,000 in assets, the couple said.

Agents later raided a nearby building where Steve and Catherine Smith grew marijuana for their Hope Net cooperative and club. But they ran into a crowd of protesters when they went to the club itself at 223 Ninth St.

Four Drug Enforcement Administration agents sat in vehicles in front of the club as the crowd, which eventually grew to about 60 people, surrounded them, waving signs and chanting slogans. After five hours, the agents left without raiding the club, and the crowd erupted in cheers.

A DEA spokeswoman would not say why the agents had decided not to go inside. The spokeswoman, Casey McEnry, said the agents had been sent to the club because of information gleaned from the raid of the Smiths' home on Clara Street and from a separate raid in the Sonoma County town of Penngrove.

"I can't confirm whether we will or will not take enforcement at that location in the future," McEnry said, though several medical marijuana activists speculated the government had been unable to obtain a search warrant for the club.

"I've never seen the DEA leave before. Never," said Catherine Smith. She said she felt "guardedly relieved."

No one was arrested in the raids. The Smiths said their club would be closed indefinitely. The couple kept all the club's marijuana at their home and their nearby growing facility.

In addition to marijuana plants, agents confiscated growing equipment, bulbs, utility bills, tax documents, financial records and photographs from the Smiths' home, the couple said. Steve Smith said he suspected the agents had taken some patient records as well.

"They beat on the door. They took me outside in my underwear and cuffed me and then searched the house," he said.

The Hope Net club has been open for about a year and distributes marijuana to about 100 patients for free in addition to its paying clients, Catherine Smith said.

Several medical marijuana proponents said the club had a reputation for distributing only to deserving patients and not causing problems in the neighborhood. "This is a good one," said Wayne Justmann, a longtime activist.

The raid was the first in the city since June, when federal agents seized marijuana and other items from two cannabis clubs on Ocean Avenue in the Ingleside district and a third on Judah Street in the Inner Sunset District. Nineteen people were accused of drug trafficking and money laundering.

Those raids were the first in the Bay Area since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled this summer that the federal government had the authority to prosecute people whose activities are legal under state law. The growing and use of medical marijuana were legalized by state voters in 1996, but are still prohibited under federal law.

San Francisco will put in place regulations for the city's 34 medical marijuana clubs starting Dec. 30. The new rules give the Planning Department the right to hold public hearings on the location of all clubs. Patients will be allowed to buy a maximum of one ounce of marijuana per visit to a club.

E-mail Wyatt Buchanan at wbuchanan@sfchronicle.com

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"Do SOMETHING besides argue emotions against the law, because it simply isn't a rational way to affect any type of change whatsoever. No offense intended, but your opinion on things is a moot point unless you take actions to change the law, rather than ramble about how unfair or injust it is." troublemaker_42
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TheNewGuy

Is it just me, or are these club raids becoming more frequent?

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Cassius

It seems to be that way to me as well. I'm glad -- I hope the DEA prosecutes every single medical marijuana patient in this country, all within the next few months. Then it would come to light how seriously misguided this nation's drug laws are and, hopefully, medical marijuana patients of the future will be able to acquire their medicine without obstruction.

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fight4rights

Why doesn't he know? Has he not checked?
If the DEA did take the files, do you think they would actually go through the trouble of busting patients? I think it's more likely they just took patient files to scare the people into thinking that they might do that.

Cassius

Probably not. The DEA isn't stupid -- they know they're losing this war, even if they won't admit it (which they won't -- ever). Because of that, I'm sure the DEA's only priority are growers and distributors (dealers). I doubt the DEA would bother with a possession arrest unless there was some special benefit to it.