Feds Raid L.A. Medical Marijuana Clinics

(CBS/AP)  Federal agents raided 10 marijuana clinics Wednesday, the same day city leaders introduced a measure calling for an end to the crackdown on the dispensaries allowed under state law.

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.

[rushman71]

Dublecros: I agree!!! LOL

[Dublecros]

Me thinks that WheelsUp1 has smoked a fat doobie and was busted by his/her parents, which must have ruined the remainder of his/her high school experience. He/she seems to have developed a psychosis........PARANOIA!!!!!!!

LMAO

[Dublecros]

There goes the 10th Amendment.
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.

[rushman71]

WheelsUp1: I should get together with you sometime, with a big fat dubbie, and have you try a couple puffs. But this time you will have to "INHALE"!!! LOL!!!

[rushman71]

WheelsUp1: All you are focusing are on what they claim as assumptions, possibilitie, what-ifs!!! You are overlooking the facts. Question: do you drink alcohol? If so, how do you feel for alcohol? A glass of wine, a 6-pack of beer, or give me that whole danm bottle of tequila? Do you understand the effects towards ones self and the people that surround you when you consume alcohol? Do you understand that alcohol causes deaths every day due to drunk driving, abuse, overdose, etc.?
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

[my2centss]

There goes the 10th Amendment.

[wheelsup1]

Have any of you seen the news this morning? It states that smoking pot may lead to developing a phsycosis later in life, such as schizophrenia!

No, I haven't gone away........

[slim1h2o]

Nice to see some RESPONSIBLE ADULT MARIJUANA SMOKERS read the news. Its time to end the war on marijuana. Lets face the facts, ALL marijuana use is medical use. Old enough to go kill for your country. Old enough to have a shot of whiskey and smoke a joint. USE WITH RESPECT.
Posted by weed4thesick at 07:23 PM : Jul 26, 2007

Where you been? We've been here a looooonnnng time!

[kansas1946]

Ohhh...the big bad cops getting tough on cancer patients, AIDS patients, MS patients. I bet they were scared.
What a bunch of horse puckey.

[weed4thesick]

Nice to see some RESPONSIBLE ADULT MARIJUANA SMOKERS read the news. Its time to end the war on marijuana. Lets face the facts, ALL marijuana use is medical use. Old enough to go kill for your country. Old enough to have a shot of whiskey and smoke a joint. USE WITH RESPECT.