Lit_Match

Police Arrest Medical Marijuana Advocates At DEA Convention
Police arrested seven medical marijuana advocates Tuesday for refusing orders to disperse while protesting outside a U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency convention in Mission Valley.

Officers took the demonstrators into custody in front of a Marriott hotel on Rio San Diego Drive shortly after noon, said Steph Sherer of Americans for Safe Access, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.

The arrestees, who were among about 60 demonstrators taking part in the rally, refused to leave until they spoke with DEA Administrator Karen Tandy.

They planned to ask Tandy "where they should get their medicine, now that the agency has shut down all medical cannabis dispensaries in the area," Sherer said.

"When she declined, San Diego police arrested the seven for trespassing and cited one," Sherer said, adding that the eighth was a man in a wheelchair.

All of them are medical marijuana patients who have been prescribed the drug for various ailments, she said.

Those arrested were taken to SDPD Eastern Division headquarters, where they were cited and released on their own recognizance.