Feds Raid L.A. Medical Marijuana Clinics
Local Officials, Medical Marijuana Advocates Irked By DEA Raids
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A medical marijuana advocate uses his cell phone to photograph the front door of a medical marijuana dispensary which was broken during a raid by DEA agents, July 25, 2007 in Los Angeles, California. Medical marijuana facilities are legal under California law, but not under federal law. (Getty Images/Robyn Beck)
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Medical marijuana advocate Jaime Green confronts Los Angeles policemen during a federal Drug Enforcement Administration raid of a medical marijuana dispensary in Los Angeles, Calif., July 25, 2007. (Getty Images/Robyn Beck)
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Police try to clear the perimeter after angry medical marijuana advocates and protestors watched plainclothes federal agents tackle and arrest a protestor during a DEA raid of a medical marijuana dispensary. (Getty Images/Robyn Beck)
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The bust netted five arrests, large quantities of marijuana and cash, and even pot brownies and cookies, reports CBS Station KCBS. It was the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's second-largest since California voters approved medical marijuana sales in 1996. The drug remains illegal under federal law.
The agency has maintained the clinics are distribution points for illegal drugs and earn their owners big profits. Those arrested Wednesday included clinic owners and managers, though no patients, for investigation of marijuana distribution.
Councilman Dennis Zine, who earlier in the day wrote a letter to DEA Administrator Karen Tandy asking the agency to stop the raids, called the federal agents "bullies."
"Instead of using resources to go after drug dealers ruining neighborhoods and poisoning school kids, they're going after individuals dying of cancer and suffering from AIDS who need cannabis to have any type of appetite," Zine said.
"The DEA came in and they smashed the doors, and they ransacked the building and took all of the medicine from the patients, and left the place in shambles," Dan Duncan of California Patients Group, an advocacy organization for medical marijuana, told KCBS.
KCBS correspondent Kaj Goldberg reports that protestors flocked to the California Patients Group's office in Hollywood trying to stop the DEA raids.
"It's really a shame that on the same day that Los Angeles City Council was voting to support the federal legalization of medical marijuana that the DEA and the LAPD were cooperating to shut down dispensaries in Hollywood," Duncan said.
DEA spokeswoman Sarah Pullen said the timing of the bust and the city's action was "purely coincidental."
The clinics are largely unregulated, which Zine and others said invites illegal pot use and sales.
He said he and the council support a congressional bill that would prohibit new clinics from opening until the city finds a way to better regulate its more than 100 dispensaries. It also calls for withholding funding for DEA raids on medical marijuana clinics.
The council proposed Wednesday requiring existing dispensaries to obtain a city tax registration certificate, a seller's permit, a property lease, business insurance, proof of dispensary membership and a county health permit within 60 days.
DEA agents raided 11 Los Angeles-area dispensaries in one day in January, the largest-ever such crackdown by the agency.
Earlier this month, the DEA sent letters to at least 30 landlords of marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles County warning their property and assets could be seized. Agency officials said at the time the letters were not a threat.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
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See all 68 CommentsLMAO
Posted by my2centss at 11:05 AM : Jul 27, 2007
"Most recently, the Commerce Clause was cited in the 2005 decision Gonzales v. Raich. In this case, a California woman sued the Drug Enforcement Administration after her medical marijuana crop was seized and destroyed by Federal agents. Medical marijuana was explicitly made legal under California state law by Proposition 215; however, marijuana is prohibited at the federal level by the Controlled Substances Act. Even though the woman grew the marijuana strictly for her own consumption and never sold any, the Supreme Court stated that growing one's own marijuana affects the interstate market of marijuana, citing the Wickard v. Filburn decision. It therefore ruled that this practice may be regulated by the federal government under the penumbra of the Commerce Clause."
This is the Commerce Clause of the 10th amendment.
DEA had the right to raid and close down this "establishment" under the 10th amendment. It's not going anywhere, it's been there.
Now back to pot. Did you know that there is no evidence whatsoever that pot could kill by smoking too much? Have you heard of any cases (name one if you can) that pot leads to psychosis? When was the last fatal accident, if you recall, caused by someone who was stoned? This article is nothing more than propoganda, provided by Uncle Sam himself.
P.S. You've must have watched that movie "Reefer Madness" and believe it!!! LOL
No, I haven't gone away........
Posted by weed4thesick at 07:23 PM : Jul 26, 2007
Where you been? We've been here a looooonnnng time!
What a bunch of horse puckey.
Another IDIOT,. sorry I missed the debate, but I had to stop posting, drink some beers and play some cards.
Holy *** batman we agree!
Anyone with a working brain should be able to see that prohibition just doesn't work!
But I guess when you have prisons run by private corporations, it's a lot easier to profit from locking up non-violent drug offenders rather than dangerous criminals.
www.leap.cc
www.mpp.org
Posted by rushman71 at 04:14 PM : Jul 26, 2007
I have it on tape. I love it! There's also a musical version made in (I think) the late 1990's and it's even funnier.
Posted by WheelsUp1 at 02:55 PM : Jul 26, 2007
ROTFLMFAO!!!!!!! No one believes that garbage anymore! That's been disproved so many times that you'd have to be high to think it might be true!! LOLOLOLOL!!! That's right out of "Reefer Madness"! LOLOLOLOL!!
Posted by festes81 at 03:06 PM : Jul 26, 2007
Yes, I can see that I am the only one posting on ym point of view. That leaves one to draw a conclusion to 1 of 2 things......either....
1. everyone here is a dope fiend,
or,
2. everyone else who argees with my "single minded point of view" is not speaking/contributing.
Survey says.............rushman71 and festes81....BITE ME !!!!!!
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