Federal Agents Raid 11 Medical Marijuana Clinics
 

LOS ANGELES, CA (CNS) -- Medical marijuana advocates plan to demonstrate outside West Hollywood City Hall in the wake of Drug Enforcement Administration raids that shut down 11 outlets around Los Angeles county.

Federal authorities do not recognize the California law, approved by voters in 1996 as Proposition 215, that allows some people to grow and smoke the normally illegal weed.

''The DEA continues to say that they are not going after patients,'' said Steph Sherer, executive director of Oakland-based Americans for Safe Access. ''But every time they raid a medical cannabis dispensary, hundreds of the most seriously ill lose their access to medicine.''

In West Hollywood, marijuana outlets were raided 7828, 7825, 7901 and 8464 Santa Monica Blvd., and at 8921 Sunset Blvd.

About 50 protesters shadowed DEA agents, who wore body armor, helmets and face masks as they carted away evidence.

Six other stores were searched and closed down, including four in the San Fernando Valley, one in Hollywood and one in Venice, said Sarah Pullen of the DEA.

About 20 people were detained, but apparently no one was arrested.

Pullen estimated that Los Angeles County has about about 200 marijuana outlets.

The Los Angeles Police Commission voted Tuesday to support a moratorium on new marijuana outlets, and police Chief William Bratton pledged to work with federal authorities to prosecute businesses in violation of the law.

The total amount of pot and cash seized was unavailable.

Ralph Partridge, who heads the DEA office in Los Angeles, said the raids showed that the storefront operations are ''nothing more than drug trafficking organizations bringing criminal activities to our neighborhoods and drugs near our children and schools.''

Some guns were seized in the raids.

West Hollywood politicians, who voted Tuesday night to impose restrictions on marijuana outlets, have sympathized with those who contend they need pot as medicine.

''The city of West Hollywood has had a long-standing commitment to the compassionate use of medical marijuana for those persons who are facing catastrophic illnesses,'' City Manager Paul Arevalo said.

Senate bill 420, which took effect in 2004, clarified Proposition 215, and taken together legalized possession and cultivation of marijuana for qualified medical patients.

? article from: http://www.knx1070.com/pages/186144.php?

We have to start working together to make sure this does not keep happening...Get the word out there to as many people as you can..

Held down by the man again..

Those losers really have no other crime like murders, kidnappings, bank robberies, child molesters etc etc to go after.

It's Gman to the rescue!!!

The pharmaceutical and cotton industries are just fucking terrified that California's positive stance on weed will catch on elsewhere. They're keeping the lobbyists well-stocked with everything they need to keep the politicians leaning on the DEA.

What a fucking country...

That's good to know... :smokin

Ralph sure is good with his verbal spewage - he managed to get "drug trafficking", "criminal activities" and threats against kids into part of one sentence - BUT missed out the purported massive street value of the confiscated material. Shame on ya :1orglaugh

What a load of crap....

Fascist Regime...there should be a song like that

Interesting point about the cotton industry. I never thought about it like that with hemp...

you people crack me up. its illegal under federal law. end of story.


if you want to sell illegal drugs, you need to change federal law. thats a very simple concept for anyone that is not a habitual pot smoker to understand.

(now... counting down to retarded arguments about the harmlessness of the drug, medical benefits etc as if that has any bearing on federal law)

easy mistake
 

it wasn't the man this time:Oh crap

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-...notsmoking.jpg

Not sure about the cotton part of his statement, you can grow hemp. While all marijuana is hemp, not all hemp is marijuana.

glad to see that they have their priorities in line

- Iraq - fuckup
- online gaming - trying to kill it
- dangerous weed clinics
- open the boarders to let more illegals in
- kill the middle class
- make sure wall street has at least $10 million dollar Christmas bonuses
- federal debt that cannot be corrected for at least 100 years

Who's doing that?

Theses guys definitly don't have a life...

America sucks

Damn, that sucks now i know why the stores were closed :(

I heard a rumor that some of the stores were selling to (undercover cops) people that did not have cards. Combine that with it being a federal crime, and yeah, afraid that will happen.

somebody opened the door - there are only a few million of them in country :disgust

Few things missing:

1. Very few if any are using the new state issued ID cards, let alone following the state rules of how a co-op clinic must operate. To many are still relying on doctor notes which many are questionable at best. Then all to many clinics are operating with not only marijuana in excess of valid patient numbers, not operating on a co-op basis, and making large profits.

2. Any argument that the cotton and textiles industries are against hemp are flawed at best and tin foil hat material in reality in this day and age. Not only could they switch over in a heart beat, produce a cheaper product, and already have large market share and distribution in place. Textile companies are already importing it and or having their products made where it is fully legal. As an odd side note, wide scale outdoor hemp production would lead to cross pollination with outdoor and some indoor marijuana growers. Lowering the quality of the strain of plants they are attempting to grow.

3. The DEA and law enforcement is the ones against hemp production. As they have put it, it would make their jobs more difficult as the plants look near identical. The DEA and many Government agencies make to much money and employ way to many people and programs for them to even think of slaughtering this cash cow.

4. The Federal Government is going against every scientific study as well as the vast will of the people to change the drug class of marijuana to one that has medical usage. This would not make it legal, just a controlled substance under the same rules as others like morphine, vicodin, and the like.

5. The Federal Government really does not have the proper jurisdiction in such matters unless they can prove interstate commerce, wire fraud, bank fraud, or mail fraud. It really is a states right issue.

why do you think the federal government has no authority over those prescribing illegal narcotics? i guess a state can also legalize "medical crystal meth" because it cures lethargy... and create meth stores all over the state? i am sure the FDA will approve.

its purely a federal issue on every single level... whether you agree or not.

A meth case is a state issue unless they either call in for DEA assistance or their is interstate commerce laws being broken, can also be for potential tax evasion. Please also note Amphetamines and Methamphetamine are a schedule 2 drug in the United States. Thus a doctor can and could prescribe it and a clinic or pharmacy could give it to patients without any concern of a raid if they are on the up and up. So yes the FDA would approve.

ok... you are quite insane. now you are saying that the FDA would approve crystal meth as a drug for legal prescription to treat illness or disease.

:disgust :disgust

On an additional side note. I participating a great deal in the passing of 215. I was present at one raid done at a clinic in San Fransisco, surrounded by masked agents with assault riffles, knocked out of my wheelchair, and handcuffed behind my back for two hours. I also had one of the first clinics opened with full local law support in Northern California. I also had an warrant issued for my arrest by the Federal Government for Conspiracy against the United States. I faced a ten year to life imprisonment charge. I made no deals, I stood my ground, and in the end after close to a year the Federal Government had to drop their case. One of the many issues around dropping the case was jurisdiction.

Check the damn drug schedules on any Government site. It is as clear as day. Yes according to the FDA and the DEA Meth is less dangerous than Marijuana and Meth has medicinal usages unlike marijuana.

the DEA drug schedule has absolutely nothing to do with FDA approval of a drug for prescription to treat disease or illness.

The FDA has plenty to do with the drug schedule. It abides by them just like pharmacies do. Hence the new rules in regards to medicines that have ephedrine. Now the drug schedule does not include a lot of doctor supervised drugs, referred to as "legend drugs".

Who's not using the state issued cards? Every single club I goto is very strict and by the book. I dunno, maybe they're fucking up down in the LA area, because in the Bay Area and Sacramento they don't fuck around.

I'm also pretty sure a doctor's note by itself doesn't do shit. You have to use the doctor's note to get registered in the state system and get a card.

Just more GOV Bullshit.... land of the free..... what a bunch of crap

I have this information due to numerous sources. Many are objecting to using the state ID card program since it would land them in a database that could in theory be subpoenaed by the Federal Government.

When I picked up my official card shortly after it was re-instated by California. My card number was remarkably low. I know the numbers are sequential as well due to my fiance getting her care giver card. Her number was one digit higher. At the end of December I brought in someone I know who was relying on the doctors prescription only. His card number was only 37 digits higher than mine and 36 higher than my fiances. Months and months have passed since we got ours and he got his.

I would be highly interested to know what your number is. As you would know it provides zero information about you to anyone that looks it up in the public data base.

You may also understand the grey areas regarding clinics as well as how they must operate to remain even quasi legal. There is a crap load of paperwork required, just the right amount of product weighed against your total number of registered patients. With of course no price mark ups beyond the actual cost of production, labor costs is debatable and is supposed to be covered by co-oping the work load among the patients. Another major contention is that they placed a limit on the number of patients a single care giver can have. Any infractions in any of this can easily lead to a major yet unpopular bust.

They also have assorted people and organizations that are attempting to use other state laws to assist in closing clinics done. This is being done through assorted "grass roots movements" with questionable funding who are attempting to enact zoning laws to keep them away from basically everything.

Fight the power. Grow that shit, light that shit, smoke that shit.

ummm . . . just an observation . . . ASM seems to know what he is talking about on this particular topic. You can still bow out gracefully.



I would.

UPDATE:

Mr. KnowsItAll in the da house .....

damn that sucks

Bill 420 ahahahahaha

weed clinics are advertised as much in LA as escorts in Vegas

Boooooo!!!!!

Maybe the guys at the DEA were low on stash.

If that's the case, then no sympathy from me. Gotta play it straight.

Besides, it's not like any dipensary is lacking in documented patients. Greed........

I've found this to be variable from club to club.

drugs are bad...mmmkay