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DEA's Pot Raid Draws Protests
Robert D. Dávila | Sacramento Bee | 12/15/2005

Rallies in Sacramento and at least 11 other cities nationwide support medical marijuana as legal under Proposition 215 and criticize this week's federal action against San Diego area dispensaries

Medical marijuana patients and advocates demonstrated Wednesday in Sacramento and other U.S. cities to protest a major federal raid on cannabis dispensaries in the San Diego area.

About three dozen people carried signs and spoke out against the crackdown during a noon rally outside the U.S. courthouse in downtown Sacramento. Similar grass-roots events were planned at federal buildings in at least 11 other cities nationwide.

Organizers blasted the federal Drug Enforcement Administration for targeting businesses that are legal under Proposition 215, a California law that permits marijuana use for medical treatment. Demonstrators said the action would restrict access to regulated pot shops for seriously ill patients.

"Why are they going after the easy targets, people with health issues like me?" asked Thomas Coy of Sacramento, who uses marijuana to ease symptoms of AIDS. "They should go after the people who deal in the parks or on the street."

On Monday, an interagency task force of DEA agents and state and local officers served search warrants at 13 marijuana dispensaries in the San Diego area. Officials seized marijuana, psychedelic mushrooms and hashish oil, along with computers and records, DEA Special Agent Misha Piastro said.

The raids followed a six-month investigation into the dispensaries, including visits by undercover DEA agents who purchased drugs without medical necessity or other documentation, he said.

"That's drug-trafficking," Piastro said.

No business employees were arrested, although officials are still investigating seized items, Piastro said.

Agents arrested a man carrying a firearm as he arrived to sell some marijuana to a dispensary and arrested several other people on outstanding warrants, he said.

The crackdown, one of the largest at cannabis dispensaries in California, drew immediate protests from medical marijuana supporters. Americans for Safe Access, an advocacy group, organized local demonstrations nationwide, including Los Angeles, Riverside, Sacramento and San Francisco.

Legal uncertainty clouds medical marijuana in the United States. While California and 10 other states allow patients with a doctor's recommendation to cultivate, possess and use cannabis, federal law forbids marijuana even for seriously ill people.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court said in a California case that state laws do not trump the federal government's authority to prosecute pot users on federal charges. But the ruling did not specifically overturn California law, and state Attorney General Bill Lockyer has said medical marijuana is still legal under Proposition 215.

At the Sacramento rally, participants accused federal drug agents in San Diego of harassing legitimate cannabis dispensaries and consumers. About a dozen clubs and delivery services offer medical marijuana in the Sacramento area, advocates said.

"They didn't do any arrests, just took drugs and computers," said Paula "Cookey" Brown. "It just seems like a straight armed robbery."

Advocates expressed concern that the San Diego seizures would establish a pattern of state and local police working with federal drug agents to target cannabis dispensaries, despite Proposition 215. In July, federal and local authorities teamed up to seize marijuana plants at a Sacramento County dispensary, closing the shop for failure to have a proper business license and arresting the owner for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

"Any local law enforcement that has a beef and wants to get control of a dispensary can just bring in the feds, even if they're not doing anything wrong," medical marijuana advocate Ryan Landers said. "It's a huge waste of taxpayers' dollars."

Gordon Taylor, special agent in charge of the DEA office in Sacramento, said local officers on interagency task forces are deputized to make arrests under federal authority. He declined to say if the agency is investigating local dispensaries.

"Those people operating these businesses are in violation of federal law and could be subject to possible investigation and prosecution," Taylor said.
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About the writer: The Bee's Robert D. Dávila can be reached at (916) 321-1077 or bdavila@sacbee.com.

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troublemaker_42

Ok.....people who run operations like this put medical marijuana in serious danger. I mean, they can sell pot legally.....WHY put that at risk selling other "goods". Mushrooms may be fun, but they aren't legal, and shouldn't be mixed up in a med pot operation in any way. Call the DEA's actions outlandish or outrageous, but its no more outlandish then what these people are doing. They are putting all kinds of doubt upon the legitmacy of medical marijuana operating like this.

I see nothing wrong with med cards, and there being requirements to purchase medical weed. Its not as if it takes a rocket scientist to get a card in Cali anyway. California didn't "legalize weed" as some people seem to believe....they allowed for its medical use, and that, at least in Cali, encompasses a broad range that almost anyone desiring to to do so could qualify for. But yet, thats not good enough? You STILL have to push the limits of what you can and can't do?

This just makes me mad. California has a good thing going for them with prop 215.....why do some people seem to be hellbent on destroying it? Armed robbery? Rubbish......true med pot proponents should be glad operations like this one are being taken down. Its necessary if people want medical marijuana to survive. Had they been doing things "by the book" as such operation SHOULD, none of this would have happened. I was upset by the first news i heard of these raids, but had my suspicions there was more to it than meets the eyes, and I was right

TheNewGuy

When they raided the other clubs in San Diego, I don't recall reading anything about other drugs being sold, or marijuana being sold without a doctor's recommendation. From what I've read the other raids were MJ only.

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Lothar121

I was thinking the DEA was just busting bad apples, but I don't think it is that apparent. There were 13 places raided in SD. The mushrooms were at how many of these shops? They didn't say, and you can easily imagine them showing up in one shop.

The other thing that makes me doubt that the DEA is just busting bad apples is the recent bust in SF. From the Drug Policy Alliance:

HopeNet is an exemplary dispensary which adheres scrupulously to local and state law. At the invitation of city supervisors, the collective participated in drafting San Francisco's recently passed Medical Cannabis Act, the ordinance regulating medical cannabis dispensaries, after working closely with DPA staff on developing and promoting smart legislation for several years.

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troublemaker_42

Even without the mushrooms being in more than one shop....if they are selling to people without a med card, they're not only breaking federal law, but the state laws as well. Just because Cali has med pot doesn't make it Amsterdam. Theres simply not enough info to make a solid claim either way. However, if any of the shops were in violation of the law, they needed to be shut down, IMO. It puts the truely legit suppliers in danger of greater regulation, or of being shut down completely. Prop 215 is a wonderful thing, but as I pointed out earlier, it doesn't take much to get a card in Cali....these people have no need to be selling to those without documentation

 

Lothar121

I agree with you. If they are breaking state law as well, then they need to be shut down. It does make the other shops look bad. However, as I stated before, the DEA may not just be targeting shops violating state law. We'll see when more information comes out.

Cassius

I doubt the DEA is only targetting those in violation of state law. I seriously doubt it.

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killer12382

These places are going to have to be squeaky clean. No bending the rules for your friends or absolutely no other organic chemicals, although I don't really have a problem with the hash oil, does anyone else have issues with the hash oil?

killer12382

My first positive post......these protests is exactly what is needed. Take the fight to the DEA. Start giving them bad press. We need to see how much of a backbone they really have. If these protests make them start looking like the bad guys, their bosses will start reining them in, because at the end of this food chain is a gutless politician/ bureaucrat who can't take the heat....we just need to find them.

Liberty4All

How much heat is given to politicians who are against medical cannabis? What we need is a contingency of single issue voters, who will cast their vote based on a politician's stance on cannabis legalization, medical or otherwise.

The pro-choice movement had similar success as a group of single issue voters. If there is a significant population that is known to always vote for a politician who is in favor of cannabis legalization, and that will always vote against a politician who is against cannabis legalization, then politicians will start listening. Together we stand, divided we fall.