Massive DEA Raids in San Diego! Protest

[DdC]

Massive DEA Raids in San Diego! Protest TODAY



The Drug Enforcement Administration raided at least 13 medical marijuana dispensaries Monday throughout San Diego, seizing patient records, computers, files, and medical marijuana.

In response to the federal government’s failure to respect the state laws that permit the use of medical marijuana for the seriously ill, patients and supporters will engage in protest and a press event at 12 noon at the San Diego Federal Building, 880 Front Street.

WHO: Americans for Safe Access
WHAT: Protest against DEA Raids on Medical Marijuana Caregivers
WHEN: Tuesday, Dec. 13 at noon
WHERE: The federal building in San Diego is located at 880 Front Street.

Dozens of additional protests are planned around the country on Wednesday, Dec. 14 in front of federal buildings. Since federal raids on dispensaries started in 2001, thousands of people nationwide have participated in protests at DEA offices in over 50 cities.

A national coalition of 12,000 patients, doctors and advocates, Americans for Safe Access is the largest organization working solely on medical marijuana. To learn more, see www.safeaccessnow.org

For more information, contact Hilary McQuie at 510-333-8554.
Americans for Safe Access
510-251-1856

NORML: Protest At Department of Justice Tomorrow
December 13, 2005

The following is a message from our friend Eric Sterling at the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation about a protest being organized for tomorrow in Washington, DC in response to this week's federal raids on medical marijuana buyers cooperatives in San Diego. We hope you will make an effort to show up.
- NORML

Friends,
US drug agents simultaneously raided thirteen medical marijuana dispensaries in San Diego, CA on Monday, Dec. 12. San Diego is the seventh largest city in the country, and the second largest city in CA with 1.3 million people. They seized patient files, computers, and marijuana destined for patients.
http://mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1949/a06.html

This is the latest and largest set of raids by the Federal government designed to block operation of California's nine-year old medical marijuana law, and to frustrate the medical treatment of thousands of desperately ill people.

We must not sit by and let persecution of patients and providers become "business as usual."

Please join us for a short but important protest at the entrance to the U.S. Department of Justice at NOON, December 14, 2005 at 10th St. and Pennsylvania Ave. NW. We will wind up by 12:20 p.m., so don't be late.

We will have signs, and a bull horn. Please bring your outrage, your friends and co-workers. Our goal is to have 50 people at the protest!

These raids were staged the same day that DEA's Administrative Law Judge began hearings to force DEA to allow the University of Massachusetts at Amherst to start growing research-quality marijuana to enable impartial research into the medical benefit of marijuana in the U.S. Right now DEA and NIDA use their monopoly on the supply of research quality medical marijuana, due to their control of the University of Mississippi marijuana farm, to distort the nation's research agenda, and block studies designed to find potential medical benefits.
http://mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1945/a07.html

We will be joining hundreds of Americans across the nation protesting the Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration's raids at other noon-time rallies.
Please make every effort to come.
Eric

rally in opposition

On Monday December 12th, federal agents raided thirteen medical cannabis dispensaries in San Diego with the help of the local police and sheriff. Today, hundreds of patients and advocates are rallying in San Diego to tell the DEA to stop harassing patients and caregivers!

We are asking all medical cannabis supporters to rally in opposition to these raids at noon on Wednesday, December 14th in front of your local federal building. So far, organizers in a dozen cities have stepped forward to plan rallies. Please join them tomorrow in solidarity with medical marijuana patients and advocates nationwide!

Please contact Rebecca immediately at rebecca@safeaccessnow.org if you plan to organize a rally in another city so we can post the information on our website.

Confirmed Cities for Emergency Response Actions

Chicago, IL: contact Matt matt@ssdp.org
Dallas, TX: contact Meghan arg_me_mateys@yahoo.com
Denver, CO: contact Brian brianvicente@sensiblecolorado.org
Grand Junction, CO: contact Rex towerpaint@abctower.com
Los Angeles, CA: contact Amanda amanda@safeaccessnow.org
Providence, RI: contact Nathaniel nathaniel_lepp@brown.edu
Riverside, CA: contact Lanny lannyswerdlow@earthlink.net (tentative)
Sacramento, CA: contact Aundre aundre@safeaccessnow.org
San Francisco, CA: contact Sarah sarahsmile@37.com
Tuscon, AZ: contact Mary mmackenzie2@juno.com
Washington, DC: contact Eric esterling@cjpf.org
Wichita, KS: contact C.A. criley2@cox.net

These demonstrations are a vital part of our grassroots opposition to the federal crackdown. Please make plans to attend and encourage others to do so. Please check our web site later today for locations of federal buildings and information on additional rallies.

Our web site is http://www.safeaccessnow.org
You can reach the ASA office directly at (510) 251-1856.
Thank you for your active support and participation.

Rebecca Saltzman Field Coordinator Americans for Safe Access
p (510) 251-1856 f (510) 251-2036 http://www.safeaccessnow.org

U.S. Drug Agents Raid 13 Medical Marijuana Sites By Jeff McDonald
Source: SignOnSanDiego.com San Diego, CA December 12, 2005  
Federal agents fanned out across San Diego County on Monday, executing simultaneous search warrants on 13 medical marijuana dispensaries that have been selling pot to sick and dying patients. No one was arrested on suspicion of drug-dealing, officials said, but agents seized dozens of pounds of high-grade marijuana along with equipment, computers, patient files and other materials inside the storefront offices.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21376.shtml



Warrant Served After Drug Bought Without Paperwork By Jeff McDonald
Source: SignOnSanDiego.com December 13, 2005 San Diego, CA 
Federal agents fanned out across San Diego County yesterday, executing simultaneous search warrants on 13 medical marijuana dispensaries. A task force headed by the San Diego office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration seized approximately 50 pounds of high-grade marijuana along with equipment, computers, patient records and other materials.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21378.shtml

Authorities Raid 13 Area Marijuana Dispensaries
ssheriff


Authorities in San Diego raided 13 marijuana dispensaries on Monday
in what is being described as an investigation into federal drug trafficking.



Misha Piastro, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration, said that agents served 14 warrants on Monday at the 13 dispensaries in San Diego, San Marcos and one private residence.





According to Piastro, federal agents worked with state and local counterparts
to make seizures of marijuana and potentially other drugs.





He said that several arrests were made for outstanding warrants
that were not the subject of the ongoing investigation.



Prohibition vs. Democracy: The County of San Diego By Kenneth Michael White
Source: Village News December 01, 2005 Calif.
The County of San Diego recently announced that it would not implement a California law that requires counties to create a medical marijuana identification program. First county supervisors said medical marijuana patients would have to sue them to get identification cards, but then the county changed its position after the local newspaper suggested the county should sue the state for declaratory judgment, which is what they decided to do. As we wait for this litigation to start, now is a good time to consider the merits and demerits of the position of the County of San Diego regarding medical marijuana.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21349.shtml

County To Sue over Prop. 215 in Federal Court By Daniel Strumpf
Source: San Diego City Beat December 07, 2005 California

County To Sue To Overturn Medical Marijuana Law By Gig Conaughton
Source: North County Times December 07, 2005 San Diego, CA 



United States' Answer To Drug War Proves Harmful
War Against Marijuana is Crackpot
Anti-Ganja Laws Archaic, Says Doctor
Spoils of Drug War Forfeitures Prove Too Lucrative
Government Property Seizures out of Control

"John P. Walters is the United States Drug Czar, also known as the Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. He is the governments minister of drug policy disinformation, insuring that historical experience and scientific data do not interfere with the propagation of government poliicies on select drugs."
Pete Guither



Follow the money. When the government spends $10 billion arresting cannabis smokers each year, someone is also profiting on that $10 billion. Perpetuating the war is what profits. Not common sense ending it.
DdC

Stop the War - A Former Police Chiefs Plea to the New Drug Czar
America's Plague of Bad Cops
Cops on the Dole
Cop's View of the Drug War

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.
-- Upton Sinclair, "The Jungle"

End the War by Anthony Lewis
Has the Drug War Created an Officer Liar's Club?
cops against the drug war
police chiefs question merit of drug policy
Slave Labor Means Big Bucks For U.S. Corporations



Who is the DEA? by anonymous
Answer: The Geheime Statspolizei of Amerika. [The Amerikan Gestapo] Identical inevery way. The Gestapo was decared a criminal organization at the Nuremberg Trials. A police organization directing medicine and medical research. Sound familure? Rousting people out of their beds in the middle of night for their political beliefs. Sound familure? Shooting and killing unarmed nonviolent people in their homes. Sound familure? Hauling people off to be tried in a kangaroo court and sent to prison. Sound familure? The DEA is as American as vinershnitzel. This is not my America.

'Virtues' of Ganja

[DdC]

It's 'Warfare' Medi-Pot Activists are Mad as Hell By David Rolland
Source: San Diego, CA City Beat December 14, 2005 
Already steaming mad about the county Board of Supervisors’ decision to sue the state in federal court to overturn the law that allows sick people to use marijuana as medicine, activists who gathered in University Heights Monday night were furious about the raids on pot dispensaries that occurred earlier in the day—and vowing not to back down in the face of what they called federal law-enforcement intimidation.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21382.shtml



Dispensary Raids Slammed By Kimberly Trone
Source: Press-Enterprise December 15, 2005 Riverside, CA
Medical-marijuana users rallied Wednesday outside the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration building in downtown Riverside to protest the agency's recent raids on 13 Southern California marijuana dispensaries. Federal agents seized large quantities of marijuana, records and small amounts of psychedelic mushrooms and hashish from the San Diego-area dispensaries on Monday. No dispensaries in Riverside or San Bernardino counties were raided.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21386.shtml



The Right To Feel Better
Pot or Politics? - Good Times
Why I'm Fighting Drug Laws From City Hall

"fascism - A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism."
American Heritage Dictionary, 1983

Blindness of the Prohibitionists Paradigm
Bush Crimes Against Humanity
Bush:Timeline of Treason



Marijuana Arrests For Year 2004
Source: NORML October 17, 2005 - Washington, DC, USA
Pot Smokers Arrested In America At A Rate Of One Every 41 Seconds
Washington, DC: Police arrested an estimated 771,608 persons for marijuana violations in 2004, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's annual Uniform Crime Report, released today.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21198.shtml

Even though investigators plan to scrutinize the patient records seized yesterday,
the DEA said medical marijuana users are not targets of the ongoing investigation.

"The bottom line is the prices that these people are charging
is three to four times higher than you buy from a seedy drug dealer in a back alley,"

"These people are not helping the medically infirm. They're out to make money."
Jack Hook, the DEA's acting special agent in charge.



Conflict of Interest? By Kelly Davis 
Source: San Diego, CA City Beat December 14, 2005  
A month ago, it was only going to be SB 420, the 2004 state Senate bill that ordered counties to provide ID cards to medical-marijuana patients. What a difference a few weeks makes. On Tuesday, Dec. 6, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted to step up their attack on the Senate bill with a concurrent legal challenge that seeks to overturn Proposition 215, also known as the Compassionate Use Act, a 1996, voter-approved initiative that says chronically ill people with a doctor’s recommendation can use marijuana for medicinal purposes. Prop. 215 won by a 12-point margin statewide and even garnered majority support in traditionally conservative San Diego County.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21383.shtml

Government defends medical marijuana monopoly
GOPerverted Officials
Bushladen and the Terrorists Carlyles Groups

Freedom from fear and injustice and oppression will be ours only in the measure that men who value such freedom are ready to sustain its possession - to defend it against every thrust from within or without.
Dwight Eisenhower 
American statesman (34th US president: 1953-61),
Supreme Allied Commander in WW II, Europe



New DOJ Report: “Indicators of School Crime and Safety, 2005”
Shows That State Laws Have No Impact On Student Marijuana Use.
Posted by Richard Cowan on 2005-11-22 16:20:00
Actually, these numbers show that we are arresting millions of Americans to support a prohibition that is actually counterproductive. However, I would never have guessed which states have the highest rate of teen use.
Read Full Story... http://www.marijuananews.com/news.php3?sid=867



Council To Allow Marijuana Clinics Pot Centers By Mike Sprague
Source: Whittier, CA Daily News December 14, 2005 
The City Council has voted 3-2 to allow medical marijuana dispensaries in certain industrial areas of the city. If the council approves the second reading of the ordinance at its Jan. 10 meeting, Whittier will be one of 21 cities in California that have laws allowing such establishments. Fourteen cities in California have banned them.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21385.shtml

He who allows oppression shares the crime.
Erasmus Darwin English physiologist & poet, grandfather of Charles R. Darwin 



Supervisors Wrong on Medical Marijuana 
Source: North County Times December 13, 2005 
San Diego County supervisors made a bizarre choice last week to waste time and money suing the state to overturn its medical marijuana laws. The decision just doesn't pass the common-sense test. State and county voters nine years ago decided that people suffering from a variety of diseases can obtain legal access to marijuana if a doctor decides the drug can help. Yet the five folks who run county government have refused to implement the law.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21377.shtml

[DdC]

A Time for Patriots To Rebel By John Calvin Webster
North County Times December 16, 2005 San Diego, CA
Today is the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. In a legendary act of defiance, Massachusetts patriots donned feathers, blankets and face paint, and boarded a cargo ship in Boston Harbor loaded with 342 trunks of dried and processed leaves from the Camellia sinensus plant ---- British East India tea. In an act of defiance that was repeated in five other ports, they dumped the entire shipment into the harbor and helped spawn the revolution that founded our nation.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21390.shtml



DEA's Pot Raid Draws Protests By Robert D. Dávila
Source: Sacramento Bee December 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.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21388.shtml

The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie,
deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth,
persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.
John F. Kennedy

"How many murders, suicides, robberies, criminal assaults, holdups, burglaries and deeds of maniacal insanity it causes each year, especially among the young, can only be conjectured... No one knows, when he places a marijuana cigarette to his lips, whether he will become a joyous reveller in a musical heaven, a mad insensate, a calm philosopher, or a murderer..."
-- Harry Anslinger, 1930-1962
Commissioner of the US Federal Bureau of Narcotics



Guide to the Upcoming Rebellion
Part 1: Clinton's Last Lesson
Part 2: Spoils of The Civil War
Part 3: Public $upport of Religion
Part 4: Hemp Through A Lucid Lens
Part 5: McVeigh's Blunder
Part 6: Snitches, Junk Science and Big Business



A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.
John F. Kennedy

Ole Miss Marijuana Monopoly Under Fire By Andy Kanengiser
Source: Daily Journal December 17, 2005 Oxford, MS
University of Mississippi leaders are battling a legal challenge that threatens
to end the school's legal monopoly to grow marijuana for research purposes.

If a ruler hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked. (Prov. 29:12)

Government defends medical marijuana monopoly



The Economics of Fascism October 7-8, 2005
Supporters Summit 2005
Whenever the fascists came to power in Europe, they banned the work of the Austrian economists. The reason: the Austrians wrote as vehemently against "right-wing" central planning as against old-fashioned left-wing socialism. While many are alert to the dangers of socialism, far fewer know of the danger of fascism, which might be defined as economic regimentation toward monopolized state capitalism.

School of Pharmacy Office of the Dean
The following GRANTS/CONTRACTS have been awarded: Dr. Mahmoud ElSohly

CCRMG ... Dr. Mahmoud ElSohly, who has devised a test
that can distinguish between traces of Marinol and natural cannabis in the urine.

"We will not give up without a fight," said Andy Mullins, executive assistant to Ole Miss Chancellor Robert Khayat. Critics of the Ole Miss research are just trying to get the federal contract, he said Friday.
Andy Mullins, executive assistant to Ole Miss Chancellor Robert Khayat

MAPS

Prof. Questions Gov't Monopoly on Marijuana

Federal Marijuana Monopoly Challenged

DEA To Argue Against Growing of Cannabis

A revolution is coming - a revolution which will be peaceful if we are wise enough; compassionate if we care enough; successful if we are fortunate enough - but a revolution which is coming whether we will it or not. We can affect its character, we cannot alter its inevitability.
John F. Kennedy

[DdC]

Pot Clubs Call Raid Warrants Illegal By Jeff McDonald
Source: SignOnSanDiego.com December 19, 2005  
The warrants federal drug agents relied on to search 13 medical marijuana dispensaries last week were signed by a San Diego County Superior Court judge, not a judge from U.S. District Court. That's no small distinction for some dispensary operators and medical marijuana activists. They note that marijuana is legal under California law if it's recommended by a doctor, and state judges are bound by state law.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21395.shtml

California NORML
DEA's Pot Raid Draws Protests
Warrant Served After Drug Bought

[DdC]

Marijuana Groups Survey Says Voters Oppose Lawsuit By Gig Conaughton
Source: North County Times January 10, 2006 San Diego, CA  
Most county voters support California's 9-year-old medical marijuana law and oppose San Diego County supervisors' plan to sue to overturn it, according to a survey released Monday. In addition, the survey said most respondents would vote to replace the supervisors over the issue. The $15,000 telephone survey of 500 randomly selected county voters ---- 100 from each of the county's five districts ---- was commissioned by the Marijuana Policy Project, a national nonprofit group that wants to decriminalize all marijuana use.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21467.shtml


Medical Marijuana of San Diego.com

Scam DEAgo Dispensary Pilaged

Conflict of Interest? By Kelly Davis
Source: San Diego, CA City Beat December 14, 2005
A month ago, it was only going to be SB 420, the 2004 state Senate bill that ordered counties to provide ID cards to medical-marijuana patients. What a difference a few weeks makes. On Tuesday, Dec. 6, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted to step up their attack on the Senate bill with a concurrent legal challenge that seeks to overturn Proposition 215, also known as the Compassionate Use Act, a 1996, voter-approved initiative that says chronically ill people with a doctor’s recommendation can use marijuana for medicinal purposes. Prop. 215 won by a 12-point margin statewide and even garnered majority support in traditionally conservative San Diego County.



Did the Feds Frame Brian Epis?
Counterpunch December 17, 2005
The judge who sentenced Bryan Epis to 10 years in federal prison now realizes that Epis was the victim of prosecutorial misconduct, Assistant U.S. Attorney Samuel Wong misled the jury and U.S. District Judge Frank Damrell about a crucial piece of evidence. Epis is now 38. At 17 he was in a near-fatal car crash that left him with two compressed vertebrae. Prescription painkillers sapped his energy; marijuana enabled him to function. Damrell sentenced Epis to 10 years, the mandatory minimum, and denied him bail pending appeal.

San Diego Billboard Campaign
Attacks Federal War on Medical Marijuana, Prop. 215
SAN DIEGO - February 3, 2003
Elvy Mussika, a glaucoma patient who is one of seven legal patients provided marijuana by the Federal government, appeared at a press conference in San Diego today. She stood in front of a billboard that featured 8 year-old Ashley Epis, daughter of a federal prisoner who was sentenced to ten years for growing medical marijuana that he believed to be legal under California's medical marijuana law, Prop. 215. She noted: "Marijuana saved my sight, it relieves illnesses for tens of thousands in California, it is a misuse of power for the DEA to incarcerate people trying to provide medicine to the ill."

[DdC]

San Diego Fights Medical Marijuana Law  
Source: Associated Press January 19, 2006 San Diego, CA  
San Diego County will file a lawsuit that challenges a voter-approved California law allowing marijuana use for medical purposes, county officials said Thursday. County Counsel John Sansone said the county will file a complaint Friday in U.S. District Court in San Diego against the state of California. It will ask a federal judge to decide whether federal law outlawing marijuana use for any purpose trumps the state’s decade-old Compassionate Use Act that allows sick people to smoke pot.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21499.shtml

Protest Massive DEAth Raids in San DEAgo!

"How can there be peace when drunkards, drug dealers,
communists, atheists, New Age worshipers of Satan,
secular humanists, oppressive dictators, greedy money changers,
revolutionary assassins, adulterers, and homosexuals are on top?"
--Pat Robertson, The New World Order, p.227



The Marijuana Policy Council is a united a team of local authorities and advocates dedicated to raising awareness in the community about the social, health, and economic consequences of marijuana use. The Marijuana Policy Council monitors current trends in drug policies and mobilizes resources to address the threat of permissive changes at the federal, state and local levels of government.


The Invisible Prohibition

[DdC]

Five Arrested, Marijuana Dispensaries Raided By Angelica Martinez
CN Source: SignOnSanDiego.com July 06, 2006 San Diego, CA  

Five people were arrested and 13 marijuana dispensaries were raided Thursday in an investigation into what authorities say was the manufacture and distribution of the drug under the guise of medicinal purposes.

Federal officials unsealed two indictments Thursday morning after conducting undercover investigations at businesses suspected of illegally dispensing the drug, officials said.

The first indictment states that the operator of “The Purple Bud Room” on Garnet Avenue and of “Tender Holistics Care” or “THC,” illegally distributed marijuana.

The second indictment mentions five individuals who owned and operated “Co-Op San Diego” and distributed marijuana and marijuana plants. The individuals are also suspected of growing marijuana plants at various homes in San Diego to support their operations.

Four doctors are also being investigated on suspicion of selling medical marijuana recommendations for people who officials said did not legitimately need the drug. Federal and state officials have reported the doctors to the state Medical Board in a complaint letter. The board is responsible for taking action against the doctors and is investigating their conduct, officials said.

At least five individuals suspected of selling the drug were arrested Thursday, and more arrests are expected, said Damon Musler, chief of the District Attorney's Office Narcotics Division.
Officials said patients involved in the sales will not be arrested.

The investigation was conducted by both local and federal officials.

San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne said officers received hundreds of complaints in the past 18 months about burglaries, assaults and armed robberies in areas near the dispensaries.

During the investigation, undercover officers were able to talk to several doctors and obtain open-ended marijuana prescriptions based on vague complaints of illnesses, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis said.

The officers were then able to buy marijuana several times at the dispensaries. At some of the locations, she said, the marijuana was packaged into cookies and candy bars.

The District Attorney filed charges of illegal marijuana sales against five of the dispensaries that were searched. They are:

Ocean Beach Dispensary and Utopia, both on Voltaire Street in Ocean Beach
Native Sun Dispensary on Rosecrans Street, in the Midway District
THC Dispensary, no longer in business, in Pacific Beach
The California Medical Center, on La Jolla Boulevard in La Jolla.

“Our office has no intention of stopping those who are chronically ill with AIDS, glaucoma and cancer from obtaining any legally prescribed drug, including medical marijuana, to help them ease their pain,” Dumanis said.

But the law that allows for the use of medical marijuana in the state is “being severely abused and it has led to the neighborhood pot dealer opening up storefronts from La Jolla to Ocean Beach to North Park,” she said.

Contact: angelica.martinez@uniontrib.com * Website

CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archives

Protest Massive DEAth Raids in San DEAgo!



Another article dealing with this.

Related Article from News 8
DEA Raids Medical Marijuana Facility, Indictments Made July 6, 2006

U.S. Attorney Carol Lam announced indictments Thursday charging six people with trafficking marijuana while posing as medical marijuana providers.

"These defendants were not caregivers, and they did not run medical dispensaries," Lam said. "These defendants are drug traffickers who were illegally selling marijuana in the middle of our commercial districts."

John Sullivan, 38, is charged with one count each of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute marijuana, and one count of manufacturing marijuana.

According to the indictment, Sullivan operated Tender Holistics Care, or THC, which distributed marijuana and products made with marijuana.

The second indictment charges Wayne Hudson, 42, Christopher Larkin, 34, Ross McManus, 39, Scott Wright, 40 and Michael Ragin, 34, with one count each of conspiracy to distribute marijuana and conspiracy to manufacture marijuana.
Watch News 8 at 5 and 6:30 for more details in this developing story.



Medical Marijuana Profiteers Targeted By Jeff McDonold
Source: San Diego Union Tribune July 07, 2006 San Diego, CA

With dozens of medical marijuana dispensaries doing a brisk business across San Diego County, and many patients showing no signs of serious illness, state and federal prosecutors decided they had seen enough.

Yesterday they conducted a multi-agency sweep that snared what officials said were the worst offenders: dealers capitalizing on California's loosely drawn medical marijuana law to make a profit.

The pot dispensaries have become “magnets for crime in San Diego,” Police Chief William Lansdowne said. The operators “have taken the compassionate use of marijuana and convoluted it into a million-dollar business.”

Drug agents showed up at dispensaries in La Jolla, Ocean Beach, North Park and elsewhere across the city, detaining patients, running warrant checks on employees and arresting previously identified dispensary owners.

Of the 15 people arrested, six face federal charges related to a grand jury indictment handed down late Wednesday, and 10 were charged by county prosecutors. One suspect, John Sullivan, 38, of San Diego, faces both federal and state charges.

“Their motive was not to better society,” U.S. Attorney Carol Lam said at a news conference announcing the arrests. “But rather to make a profit by breaking the law.”

Prosecutors took the unusual step of filing official complaints with the California Medical Board against four physicians who they said sell an inordinate number of recommendations for medical marijuana.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that doctors cannot be targeted for recommending that their patients use marijuana.
The raids followed a December sweep by the same joint-agency narcotics task force. In that sweep, agents confiscated equipment and thousands of patient records but made no arrests.

Snipped: Complete Article: http://tinyurl.com/otnol

Contact: letters@uniontrib.com * Website

CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archives


Local and federal officers charged at least 10 people
with illegally selling medical marijuana Thursday

Pictures from NBCSanDiego.com

Video: Feds Raid Medical Marijuana Dispensaries
Prosecutors Say Drugs Were Sold To Healthy People July 7, 2006


One of the locations raided was Native Sons Dispensary in La Jolla.


Investigators said the dispensaries were selling marijuana in many forms, including candies and baked goods.


"He actually bought it for his German shepherd," Dumanis said. "It's just gotten out of hand.

[DdC]

Agents Make 'Visits' To Medical Pot Shops By Jeff McDonald
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER July 22, 2006

Marijuana seized, warnings given; nobody arrested

Federal agents paid “courtesy visits” to nine or 10 San Diego medical marijuana dispensaries yesterday, warning operators that they consider the shops illegal.

No arrests were made, although agents seized an undetermined amount of marijuana. Agents made it clear that the government will no longer tolerate retail storefronts selling pot.

Advertisement“Those dispensaries are operating in violation of state and federal law,” said Dan Simmons, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration special agent. “These were courtesy visits to remind the dispensaries that are still open that they're operating illegally.”

Medical marijuana activists painted a different picture of what happened.

According to Steph Sherer, executive director of the advocacy group Americans for Safe Access, drug agents barged into the dispensaries and threatened to arrest employees and patients before seizing whatever marijuana they could find.

“They're basically going in and taking everything,” Sherer said. “They said, 'Shut down or we're going to come back and arrest you.' ”

State law permits medical marijuana dispensaries but leaves it up to local municipalities to determine where they are allowed. Sherer's organization has repeatedly called on elected officials to regulate dispensaries rather than raid them.

Two weeks ago, local law enforcement agencies and federal drug agents raided some marijuana dispensaries and made 15 arrests. Those criminal cases are pending in federal and state courts.
After the July 7 raid, U.S. Attorney Carol Lam and San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis warned all dispensaries to shut down or face closure and arrest of the operators.

The dispensaries that were warned yesterday apparently were not part of the sweep two weeks ago. Some of the shops closed before agents arrived. Marijuana was seized at only two shops, Simmons said.

The approach by law enforcement officers yesterday was markedly different than during earlier raids, when agents swarmed inside dispensaries with flak jackets and automatic rifles, handcuffing everyone and seizing computers, patient records and other items.

It was deliberately lower-key, Simmons said. “It was not a confrontational thing.”

Medical marijuana has vexed elected officials since voters in California approved an initiative 10 years ago allowing patients with a physician's recommendation to grow and smoke the drug to relieve symptoms.

The original law was deliberately vague. Follow-up legislation that went into effect in 2004 allows marijuana dispensaries. Some California communities have adopted regulations dictating where they can be, but officials in San Diego have developed no such ordinance.

Under federal law, marijuana is illegal under any circumstance.

San Diego County has become a national testing ground for medical marijuana laws, which have now been adopted in 11 states.

County supervisors sued the state of California earlier this year to try and overturn the Compassionate Use Act of 1996 and the bill permitting retail sales to qualified patients.

The case is pending in state court.

Jeff McDonald: (619) 542-4585; jeff.mcdonald@uniontrib.com

15 States and the District of Columbia arrested for marijuana
It's estimated that over 17 million people have been arrested for marijuana since 1965.
That's more than the combined populations of Alaska, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

End the B o g u s   W a r   O n   D r u g s
John Murphy for Congress!

[DdC]

Medical Marijuana Is Here To Stay
By Kevin Keenan, Steph Sherer & Daniel Abrahamson 
CN Source: San Diego Union Tribune July 25, 2006 California

San Diego County has adopted an official head-in-the-sand policy on medical marijuana: Sit back and hope the courts outlaw it.

But an ostrich strategy won't work. Doctors will continue to recommend it, patients will continue to use it, and the law is clear: the judiciary will not overturn California's medical marijuana in favor of federal prohibition. To do so would violate centuries of legal precedent firmly establishing the boundaries between state and federal power.

Instead of pursuing baseless litigation, San Diego County should implement the law and work with the rest of the state to find practical ways for law enforcement and others to distinguish between legitimate patients and those who would abuse the system.

Our nation is built on the principle that states do not have to march in lock-step with all federal policy decisions. It is true that Congress could have chosen to make the federal government solely responsible for making and enforcing criminal drug laws. But it has not.

The Controlled Substances Act is the federal statute that identifies marijuana, among other drugs, as a “Schedule I” substance prohibited for all uses. The CSA explicitly provides that states can implement and enforce their own drug laws using state-level resources and manpower.

Even if state laws differ from federal laws, the federal government cannot trump or invalidate them.

No doubt economic reality has much to do with this. The federal government undertakes less than 2 percent of marijuana arrests and prosecutions nationwide and has neither the resources nor the will to expand that to a full 100 percent.

Can the federal government arrest and prosecute people under federal law who use medical marijuana in California even though it is legal under state law? Yes.

Can the federal government force California to make medical marijuana illegal under state law and to arrest and prosecute medical marijuana patients? No.

The California attorney general and the attorneys general of other medical marijuana states all made this clear in legal opinions issued after the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the federal government's ability to prosecute medical marijuana patients.

Despite this, San Diego County has filed a lawsuit (at great cost to its taxpayers) against the state of California based on the mistaken theory that federal law preempts state medical marijuana laws. This doomed legal argument also serves as the rationale for San Diego's refusal to issue identification cards to medical marijuana patients as required by state law.

But the courts are not going to solve San Diego County's predicament, nor should they. It is the responsibility of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors and local government to develop a workable, fair way to limit use of marijuana to legitimate medical patients.

California voters passed these laws in response to the growing realization that science had proven the medicinal benefits of marijuana and that people whose doctors recommended it to them should not fear arrest for following that advice. Passage of Proposition 215, California's medical marijuana initiative, did not give rise to the medical use of marijuana; it simply protects the sick and suffering from prison. Since then, the legislature has expanded Proposition 215 to include an identification card system that helps law enforcement identify legitimate patients, protecting them from arrest and allowing law enforcement to focus its resources on criminals.

San Diego County's refusal to implement that ID card system defies logic. If limiting marijuana use to legitimate patients is the goal, then why would the county be so loathe to take steps toward proper regulation?

Some critics of the card program argue that the system would not fully prevent abuse. It is true that the identification card system is not perfect, just as the 21-year age limit for purchasing alcohol is not perfect, but it is a much-needed step in the right direction.

While any system of regulation over otherwise illegal goods is open to abuse, San Diego County's refusal to implement the state-required identification card system ensures as much. Legitimate patients are denied a safe and effective means to access medicine, and police are denied a means to identify legitimate users, making appropriate enforcement virtually impossible.
Anyone who has ever had a loved one with a complicated or persistent illness knows the challenge of managing medications and especially their side-effects. Doctors and patients must have options, including medical marijuana, because when you are trying to get better, you care about science and how you feel, not politics.

It is time for San Diego County's supervisors and local officials to find compassion, pull their heads out of the sand, and start making sensible, responsible policy decisions.

Keenan is executive director of the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties. Sherer is executive director of Americans for Safe Access. Abrahamson is director of legal affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance.

Contact: letters@uniontrib.com * Website

Protest Massive DEAth Raids in San DEAgo!

San Diego Billboard Campaign Attacks Federal War on Medical Marijuana, Prop. 215

[DdC]

Get The Pot To The Patients
CN Source: San Diego City Beat  Editorial July 25, 2006 San Diego

People who wish to make it safer and easier for sick folks to get their hands on the marijuana that ameliorates their symptoms are a passionate bunch, and, without a doubt, we stand with them. But if they advocate for a laissez-faire government attitude toward the recent explosion of pot dispensaries in San Diego, we cannot abide.

Let there be no more confusion over whether or not medical-marijuana dispensaries are legal in California—they are not. Proposition 215, passed by voters in 1996, simply allowed people, armed with a doctor’s recommendation, to use marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Senate Bill 420, passed in 2003, provided more specifics and established a voluntary ID-card program. San Diego passed an ordinance that set guidelines for how much pot patients and their caregivers can cultivate and possess.

But none of these laws legalized large-scale storefront dispensaries. For better or worse, it is illegal to sell marijuana, medicinal or otherwise.

Nevertheless, at least two-dozen for-profit operations sprung up citywide, with the tacit approval of the city of San Diego, attracting the attention of federal agents, who have, on several recent occasions, raided many of these dispensaries, confiscating property and records and handcuffing and detaining people inside.

While we condemn any heavy-handed, thuggish behavior on the part of narcotics agents, medicinal-pot advocates and the operators of these dispensaries shouldn’t be surprised or outraged that these places are being shut down. Not only are they illegal, they’re also counterproductive.

Widespread existence of unregulated dispensaries only invites trouble. Sure, some of them are run by genuine advocates motivated only by the spirit of Prop. 215 and the desire to help people in need. But, inevitably, there will be opportunists bent on exploiting the situation for their own financial gain. It is these people who will get in the way of a righteous cause by selling pot to people who can’t demonstrate a medicinal need for it, or preying upon the truly needy by selling it to them at exorbitant prices, and confirming the fears of those who oppose its legal use.

But if patients can’t get the stuff at a corner store, what are they to do?

State and local laws envision a system in which individuals (caregivers) cultivate marijuana and provide it, at no profit, to ill people with legitimate doctor’s notes. The idea is for these caregivers to provide for only a handful of patients apiece. But, given the high number of people with ailments that can be relieved with marijuana, that system is not realistic. There just aren’t enough people with the time and know-how to be caregivers.

What’s needed is a carefully controlled, tightly regulated system that allows the few to provide for the many. Our recommendation is for San Diego to allow a nonprofit organization to distribute marijuana to legitimate patients from several locations—perhaps southern, central and northern outlets. The pot, which is inexpensive to grow, should be sold as cheaply as possible, covering only the costs of growing the plants, keeping the facilities up and running and conducting semi-regular audits to make sure everything’s on the up and up.

We call on Mayor Jerry Sanders, who supports medicinal marijuana in concept, and the City Council to either reconvene the medical marijuana task force that designed the quantity guidelines or form a new one to come up with recommendations for such a system. The task force should review all existing systems elsewhere—six California counties and 24 cities currently regulate dispensaries or have recently passed regulations, according to Americans for Safe Access. The panel should include representatives from the police department and the city attorney’s office as members or as staff support.

The City Council has been very, very quiet on the dispensary issue. Perhaps they think the work was done with the 2003 guidelines. If so, they were wrong. San Diego has become a battleground, and resolving battles requires leadership.

On Tuesday, City Council President Scott Peters told a group of activists who asked for the dispensary issue to be docketed for discussion that the docket is full until after the City Council’s August recess. Fine—then let’s get that discussion docketed for a meeting of the Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee soon after the break.

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors, leading the charge to overturn Prop. 215, has shown itself to be completely backward on medical marijuana and hostile to the people who find the herb helpful in dealing with pain and suffering. The City Council, on the other hand, has been just the opposite, and we commend them for it. Now let’s finish the job.

Contact: editor@sdcitybeat.com * Website

Americans For Safe Access

Medical Marijuana Is Here To Stay

An End To Pot Dispensaries?

ACLU & Others Step In To Defend CA MMJ Law



OF POUNDS AND PLANTS
Medical Marijuana activists want DA to draft countywide guidelinesby Kelly Davis

San Diego County Public Defender Juliana Humphrey spent a year defending a woman charged with possessing 17 “scraggly” marijuana plants, the source of relief for the woman’s persistent migraines. The case, said Humphrey, was eventually thrown out, but not after a year’s worth of anxiety had taken its toll on her client.

Indoor marijuana grows raided By: JO MORELAND
North County Times Archives March 22, 2004 SAN DIEGO


The high-grade marijuana from this growing operation and others in rented houses in North County and San Diego was sold for $4,000 to $5,500 a pound, authorities said Friday. Officers of the multi-agency San Diego County Integrated Narcotic Task Force arrested 24 people.

Medical Marijuana of San Diego
Provides online prequalification for medical marijuana recommendation in the privacy of your home. Doctor approved authorization process insures completely confidential medical marijuana recommendation and pre-screening services.

[DdC]

S.D. Urged To Take Stand on Medical Pot By Craig Gustafson
CN Source: San Diego Union Tribune July 26, 2006 San Diego, CA 

Council puts off immediate action

With medical marijuana dispensaries under mounting pressure from law enforcement agencies, supporters have urged the San Diego City Council to call for a halt to federal raids, and to regulate the shops through local authorities.
But city officials, already saddled with a pension crisis and numerous financial problems, didn't appear too thrilled to tackle the issue.

Nearly 70 supporters packed the council chambers yesterday, giving council members a brief two-minute plea to help keep dispensaries open so those with painful ailments wouldn't suffer needlessly.

Local law enforcement agencies and federal drug agents raided some marijuana dispensaries July 7 and made 15 arrests. On Friday, federal agents visited 10 shops and warned operators that they are operating illegally.

Supporters of medical marijuana asked the council to pass a resolution that would prohibit local authorities from assisting federal agencies in the arrest or prosecution of patients or dispensary operators. They also want the council to develop regulations to provide seriously ill patients safe and legal access to marijuana.

Council President Scott Peters, who has supported the use of medicinal marijuana, said he would need to seek input from Mayor Jerry Sanders and the Police Department before deciding whether to put the proposed resolution up for a vote. He also said the council's schedule is full until September and no immediate action could be taken.

The mayor's spokesman, Fred Sainz, said Sanders supports medicinal marijuana but hasn't studied the issue of regulating dispensaries.

State voters approved the use of medicinal marijuana with a doctor's recommendation 10 years ago, and follow-up legislation in 2004 tried to provide mechanisms for distribution. State law, however, leaves it up to local municipalities to regulate distribution.

Many have interpreted the state law as providing for dispensaries, but the San Diego County District Attorney's Office views them as illegal.

Under federal law, marijuana is illegal under any circumstance.

County supervisors sued the state of California this year to try to overturn the Compassionate Use Act of 1996 and the bill permitting retail sales to qualified patients. The case is pending.

City Councilman Jim Madaffer said there's no need for the city to take any action until the case is resolved.

“Until there's clarity between state and federal (laws), I think any city laws are pointless and perhaps placing the city at potential risk,” he said.

Ron Little, a Point Loma retiree who uses marijuana to alleviate osteoarthritis, said it's disappointing that officials are playing politics when science clearly shows the benefits of medicinal marijuana.

“This is clearly part of the cultural divide that's been fought on a number of issues,” he said.

Craig Gustafson: (619) 293-1884; craig.gustafson@uniontrib.com

Contact: letters@uniontrib.com * Website



Americans For Safe Access

Get The Pot To The Patients



Medical Marijuana Is Here To Stay

An End To Pot Dispensaries?



Protest Massive DEAth Raids in San DEAgo!

[RogerChristie]

Aloha. Some amazing news! We opened a new ministry/dispensary in San Diego the week BEFORE the raids and it's still open. Hallelujah!

As far as I know, we're the only location in San Diego where patients and ministry members can obtain Cannabis today. All the parties involved with the THC Ministry/San Diego are ordained and have paperwork to prove it. They are dedicated good samaritans, not 'dealers'.

So far the media has NOT, yet, picked-up this part of the story, but it must be coming as it's a significant development in a town where thousands of patients have just been cut-off from their medicine and we're open.

Congratulations San Diego THC!

Much love and respect,

Roger


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[Stokes]

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Where love is, there God is also.

-Mahatma Gandhi