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The Federal War on Medical Marijuana Becomes a War on Children
Why risk provoking the American public's outrage by escalating its war on medical marijuana patients?
9-25-`07 | AlterNet.com | by Dan Bernath

Automatic weapons. Check. Helicopters. Check. Dogs. Check. Bulletproof vests. Check.

You may not buy the government's characterization of its campaign against medical marijuana patients as a "war on drugs," but increasingly violent, militaristic tactics in recent months offer a troubling glimpse into the federal law enforcement community's mentality: To them, this is war.

Raids on medical marijuana dispensaries throughout California on July 17 by federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents, often with local law enforcement officers in tow, seemed designed to send a clear signal that the feds were deliberately escalating their war on medical marijuana patients.

The enemy, then, are people like Ronnie Naulls, a Riverside medical marijuana patient who owned two of the dispensaries raided that day.

A church-going family man who used medical marijuana to ease chronic pain from injuries sustained in a 2001 car accident, Naulls already had two successful businesses -- one as an IT consultant and another as a real estate property manager -- when he established the Healing Nations Collective to save fellow Corona patients the hours-long drive to Los Angeles for medicine.

By all accounts, Naulls ran his collectives with exemplary scrupulousness. He maintained strict dress codes and professional standards for all employees. He paid state taxes on the dispensaries -- amounting to several hundred thousand dollars a year -- even when loose tax regulations allowed other dispensary owners to slip through the cracks. Profits from the dispensaries went to local and national cancer organizations.

Nevertheless, at 5:50 a.m., July 17, Naulls' home and businesses were invaded by DEA agents armed with shotguns, automatic rifles -- even helicopters. They seized everything he owned: his businesses, his property, all of his accounts.

But that wasn't the worst of it. County child protective services came along on the raid and took Naulls' three daughters, aged 1 to 5, and charged him and his wife with child endangerment. They weren't even accused of breaking any state laws.

When Naulls spoke to his children in their foster home, the oldest said, "Daddy, we're ready to come home now. We promise to be good."

Of course they were too young to understand that they were victims of the strong-arm tactics of drug warriors whose goal was probably to make Naulls regret helping fellow patients receive their medicine in a safe, compassionate environment. Who cares if that means ruining a family financially, imprisoning the parents and traumatizing the children?

Federal drug warriors have shown no sign of letting up since then, as dispensary raids have continued steadily in California and Oregon. The DEA has even found creative ways to open new fronts in its war by threatening to go after landlords who lease property to licensed dispensaries.

But why now? Why risk provoking the American public's outrage by escalating its war on medical marijuana patients? Here's one possible explanation: They're losing, and they know it.

While federal law enforcement agencies are busy wasting time and money harassing innocent citizens like Naulls and his family, the rest of the country shows increasing impatience with the government's bullying tactics.

In fact, thanks in large part to the efforts of MPP's Granite Staters for Medical Marijuana, every single Democratic presidential candidate has come out against federal intrusion in medical marijuana states. Two Republican candidates, Texas Rep. Ron Paul and Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo, have also voiced strong support for the rights of states to establish medical marijuana laws.

These candidates understand that the vast majority of Americans oppose the federal government's war on medical marijuana patients.

Then again, if the late comedian Bill Hicks was right when he said a war means two armies fighting each other, then this was never really a war, anyway. After all, the ranks of suffering Americans, though large, are hardly an imposing threat to the well-equipped federal forces bent on their destruction.

Instead of calling it a war, perhaps there's a more accurate phrase to describe what we've witnessed from federal law enforcement this summer. How does "pogrom on medical marijuana patients" sound?

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SWP



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Victor_vicious

Where is the news coverage for this. This should have been National news. VV

eltone

I think you are so right that now, with what the DEA is doing to medical marijuana patients be it through threatening the landlords to arressting patients and dispensaries and their personnel, that this does not meet the definition of war. In 1970 when Nixon passed the "War On Drugs" our lawmakers envisioned they were fighting the importers of drugs from the Cartels and other large illegally drug importers like the Mafia. But today it is one sided and it is totally political and they are attacking private citizens who use marijuana because their state made it legal and their doctors agreed that they would venefit from its theraputic effects. For there is no reason for the possesion, sell, and smoking of marijuana to be illegal. The truth, which has been kept from the American people, is that marijuana, whether smoking it or eating it is a much safer soft, that's right SOFT, drug. It is not physically addictive. I know from personal experience. I smoked marijuana for 27 years then quit for 10 years because I was bored with it. I quit cold turkey with absolutely no withdrawal effects, it didn't even effect my sleeping. So this is proof that the government is/has lied to us. I now suffer from 2 life long neuropathic diseases GERDS & Gastroparesis, both affect my digestive system. Leaving me in a constant 24/7 state of nausea which if not controlled leads to 12-24 hour long violent vomiting. So I will do anything to stay well even if our lawmakers think it is wrong, when they are in my shoes and they can live without the best nausea medicine in history then I'll listen to them but we all know that won't happen. Marijuana is the best medicine for controlling nausea with the widest safety margin of any drug in exsistance today. Why? Because all other drugs are fatal if you take enough. Not so with marijuana. You cannot even ingest enough marijuana for it to be fatal. Peace~

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Peace Out

chadwick

Your right the DEA is out of control with their "War on Drugs", pogrom is a perfect word to describe, it ruthless attacks on inicent civilians who are doing nothing wrong except helping other people out and the ones that are the exact role modle that the American people should look up to like Ronnie Naulls are now the ones suffering from an unrestraned ruthless part of the U.S. government something has to be done about the DEA they are out of control we as Americans should have already stood up and said something must be done about them the constitution was written so we would have the ability to stop the government from becoming corrupt but on many occasions we have just sat here and let ourselfs be bullied by them, we were givin the write to bare arms so that we could ot be manipulated by the militarys power and the write to rebel against the govenment if they became corrupt and if you ask me the DEA not being stopped or even getting a slap on the wrist is a sign of how corrupt the goverment has become, not in the sence that they are cospiring to make us into slave or change the government into a monarchy but that they now belive that they can bully us into submission all those who participated in the writing of the Constitution knew that one day the U.S. would be no better than Britain was if someone got to much power that is why the government has been split ito three branches so that no one will have power over the others, but now we face a branch that has no master it does as it pleases with virtualy no recoarse and their attitude toward "stoners" is that we have become the new Jews, the new Japs, the new Niggers(no racisim intended) we are looked at like we have some kind of disease and yet we have hurt no one, the only problem we have caused is that the DEA has spent billions of dollars on us to stop us from smoking what a plant....how much sence does their "Pogrom on Drugs" make now......

The DEA has over stepped its boundaries far to many times since it was created, now is the time that we must stand and protest their grotesqu abuse of the law that they are "up-holding and protecting" something must be done to limit them we must let the new presidential canndidates no not alny that we support Legalization but also that we will no longer be bullid by the DEA.