MAPTalk-Digest Thursday, December 15 2005 Volume 05 : Number 150
001 San Diego Dispesaries Under Attack
From: Rick Steeb <>
002 US CA: 13 Medical Pot Dispensaries in County Raided
From: Richard Lake <>
003 On-line Poll
From: Rick Steeb <>
004 DAMMADD is on the attack
From: Tom Angell <>
005 Re: MAP: San Diego Dispensaries Under Attack
From: R Givens <>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subj: 001 San Diego Dispesaries Under Attack
From: Rick Steeb <>
Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 15:06:08 -0800 (PST)
THIS JUST IN:
From: "Steph Sherer" <>
To: "'Dale Gieringer'" <>, <>
Subject: DPFCA: UPDATE: Wide-scale San Diego Dispensary Raids
Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 14:43:52 -0800
ASA office has received reports that seven dispensaries have been
raided in total. So far no arrests. Agents have just come in and taken
medicine and records.
One dispensary claims warrant was signed by local judge.
We will keep you posted.
SS
- -----Original Message-----
From: [] On
Behalf
Of Dale Gieringer
Sent: Monday, December 12, 2005 1:37 PM
To: ;
Subject: DPFCA: Wide-scale San Diego Dispensary Raids
San Diego, Dec. 12th, 1:30 PM PST - Reports are that police are
raiding all of the medical cannabis dispensaries in San Diego.
(Some18 clubs are known in the city:
http://www.canorml.org/prop/cbclist.html#sd). The raids are being
conducted by local LEOs, but DEA agents are also reported to be
involved.
- - D. Gieringer
- --
- ----
Dale Gieringer (415) 563-5858 //
2215-R Market St. #278, San Francisco CA 94114
------------------------------
Subj: 002 US CA: 13 Medical Pot Dispensaries in County Raided
From: Richard Lake <>
Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2005 05:30:52 -0500
Newshawk: Dale Gieringer
Pubdate: Tue, 13 Dec 2005
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Webpage: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20051212-2205-pot-staff.html
Copyright: 2005 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact:
Website: http://www.uniontrib.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Note: Does not print LTEs from outside it's circulation area.
Author: Jeff McDonald, Union-Tribune Staff Writer
Action: An Emergency Alert From Americans for Safe Access
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=2894
Cited: Americans for Safe Access http://www.safeaccessnow.org
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/San+Diego
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
13 MEDICAL POT DISPENSARIES IN COUNTY RAIDED
Warrants Served After Drug Bought Without Paperwork
Federal agents fanned out across San Diego County on Monday,
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.
No one was arrested on suspicion of drug-dealing, officials said, but
three people were arrested on unrelated charges.
The agents arrived at most of the dispensaries unannounced with guns
drawn, witnesses said. They handcuffed employees and ran background
checks on both workers and patients. Drug-sniffing dogs searched for
pot and pot-laced products, such as brownies, ice cream and butter.
The raids were conducted on dispensaries in San Diego and San Marcos
but quickly made news across California. Activists were worried that
other dispensaries around the state would be targeted next.
Law enforcement officials said the warrants were signed by a federal
judge after undercover agents purchased marijuana without the
paperwork required under state law, said Jack Hook, the DEA's acting
special agent in charge.
"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," Hook said. "These people are not helping the medically
infirm. They're out to make money."
Hook said the task force had identified 29 dispensaries operating
across San Diego County in recent months. Of those, 16 went out of
business during the investigation.
According to Hook, the dispensaries pose a serious risk to public
safety. Several storefronts have been targeted by thieves because
there are large amounts of drugs and money inside, he said.
Even though investigators plan to scrutinize the patient records
seized yesterday, the DEA said medical marijuana users are not
targets of the ongoing investigation.
"Those that are violating federal narcotics laws are subject to this
investigation," spokesman Misha Piastro said. "We're talking about
drug dealers people who are trafficking in illegal substances."
The afternoon raids incensed dispensary operators and medical
marijuana activists, who say the federal government has no business
interfering in a state issue.
"These actions fly in the face of voters," said Laurie Kallonakis,
president of San Diego NORML, a group dedicated to reforming laws
prohibiting marijuana use and cultivation.
"Politicians and law enforcement officers are not doctors," she said.
"Patients' records have been taken in violation of privacy rights."
Although California voters passed an initiative in 1996 allowing the
medicinal use of marijuana, it remains illegal under federal law. In
June the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the federal government's authority
to arrest anyone using or possessing marijuana in the 11 states that
have passed medical marijuana laws.
The city of San Diego adopted guidelines regulating the medical use
of marijuana in 2003, seven years after California voters approved
the statewide initiative permitting sick and dying patients to use
the drug with a doctor's recommendation.
Dispensaries began opening across San Diego last year, after another
state law spelling out terms of medical marijuana use went into effect.
For more than a year, local police investigated the storefront
operators, visited the dispensaries and kept records, but generally
left them alone. After the high court's decision in June, some
dispensaries shut down temporarily, but most of them quietly reopened
in recent months.
Jon Sullivan, who runs two San Diego dispensaries targeted in
Monday's crackdown, said the raid only strengthened his resolve to
keep dispensing marijuana.
"There are very sick people out there that need this medicine
desperately," he said. "What the feds are doing is against the law I
voted for."
News of the raids traveled quickly, both by telephone and on the
Internet. Medical marijuana advocates from San Diego to Northern
California blasted the operation as an assault on sick people using
the only medicine that works to relieve symptoms associated with
cancer, AIDS and other diseases.
"We're pretty disturbed by what we're hearing," said Hilary McQuie of
Americans for Safe Access, an Oakland organization that promotes safe
and legal access to marijuana for qualified patients.
"It seems like a large operation designed to intimidate the medical
cannabis community in San Diego," McQuie said. "Given the timing with
the board of supervisors' threat to sue the state over Proposition
215, we're concerned there's collusion between state and federal officials."
Last month, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to
challenge in court the state law requiring counties to issue
identification to qualified medical marijuana patients. Three
supervisors Bill Horn, Dianne Jacob and Pam Slater-Price said San
Diego County should not be forced to support activities that are
illegal under federal drug laws.
Despite the widely publicized vote, no lawsuit has yet been filed.
The county counsel's office has said San Diego County is almost
certain to lose such a case.
At the Native Sun dispensary on Rosecrans Avenue Monday, agents asked
anyone entering the storefront to step inside for an interrogation. A
reporter was told to leave, and not allowed to interview any staff,
patients or police.
Another team of agents converged on the Legal Ease Inc. dispensary
offices in North Park a little after noon. No drugs are stored on
site, but agents took equipment and files.
"They came in with guns . . . lined us up outside and handcuffed us,"
said one employee, who did not want to give his name because he fears
getting arrested. "We're closed now, I guess."
Legal Ease serves some 2,500 patients countywide, employees said.
The warrants were served by a task force made up of a number of San
Diego County law enforcement agencies, including the San Diego Police
Department.
Three years ago, when San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne ran
the San Jose Police Department, he pulled his officers from a similar
task force after federal agents raided a collective marijuana garden
outside Santa Cruz.
On Monday, Asst. Chief Cheryl Meyers said Lansdowne agreed to
participate in this investigation because it targeted dispensaries
within county lines.
One dispensary on El Cajon Boulevard apparently was overlooked by the
federal agents. Inside, the operator was visibly shaken by news of
the raids. So was medical marijuana patient Charles Dunn, who was
there to fill an order.
"I haven't had to take prescription drugs in four years," said Dunn,
who said his degenerative back and neck condition for years required
him to take powerful and expensive narcotics such as morphine and
Vicodin to reduce his pain.
Dunn, an insurance broker from Chula Vista, worried that he may have
to go back to buying marijuana on the street. In those cases, "you
never know what you're going to get," he said.
------------------------------
Subj: 003 On-line Poll
From: Rick Steeb <>
Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2005 11:08:46 -0800 (PST)
<http://www.nbcsandiego.com/health/5520782/detail.html>
SURVEY
Should California order counties to establish medical marijuana ID
programs even though the use of marijuana is against federal law?
Yes
No
------------------------------
Subj: 004 DAMMADD is on the attack
From: Tom Angell <>
Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2005 11:41:17 -0800
Check out the two most recent posts at http://DAREgeneration.blogspot.com.
- --Tom Angell
SSDp
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Attachment: http://mapinc.org/temp/part1123.html
------------------------------
Subj: 005 Re: MAP: San Diego Dispensaries Under Attack
From: R Givens <>
Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2005 08:51:03 -0800
The fact that no arrests are being made reminds me of the Bureau of
Narcotics persecution of doctors who were legally providing addicts
with heroin, morphine etc during the 1920s. Thousands of doctors were
arrested on bogus drug charges- every case was dismissed. Not one
doctor was ever convicted. Not one doctor ever went to trial.
Nevertheless, this tactic was successful in stopping doctors from
exercising their rights because the publicity surrounding an arrest
ruined them. (Nowadays a class action suit would send such fraudulent
narcs into receivership which is an idea the San Diego clubs should
consider.)
Apparently San Diego authorities hope to harass local medical
marijuana clubs out of business by sidestepping trials which they are
certain to lose. A raid and handing the medicine off to the Feds to
avoid being forced to return it puts the dispensary out of business.
The whole thing stinks of an evasion of State law-
Article III, Section 3.5 of the California Constitution (adopted in 1978)
states that "An administrative agency, including an administrative agency
created by the Constitution or an initiative statute, has no power: ... (c)
to declare a statute unenforceable, or to refuse to enforce a statute, on
the basis that federal law or federal regulations prohibit the enforcement
of such statute unless an appellate court has made a determination that the
enforcement of such a statute is prohibited by federal law or federal
regulations."
Enforcing Reefer Madness laws for victimless crimes is itself a
crime against humanity. Particularly when the object of their attack
is the sick and dying.
R Givens
THIS JUST IN:
Re: Wide-scale San Diego Dispensary Raids
Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 14:43:52 -0800
ASA office has received reports that seven dispensaries have been
raided in total. So far no arrests. Agents have just come in and taken
medicine and records.
One dispensary claims warrant was signed by local judge.
We will keep you posted.
SS
Subject: DPFCA: Wide-scale San Diego Dispensary Raids
San Diego, Dec. 12th, 1:30 PM PST - Reports are that police are
raiding all of the medical cannabis dispensaries in San Diego.
(Some18 clubs are known in the city:
http://www.canorml.org/prop/cbclist.html#sd). The raids are being
conducted by local LEOs, but DEA agents are also reported to be
involved.
- - D. Gieringer
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Attachment: http://mapinc.org/temp/part2720.html
------------------------------
End of MAPTalk-Digest V05 #150
******************************
Mark Greer () ___ ___ _ _ _ _
Media Awareness Project /' _ ` _ `\ /'_`)('_`\
P. O. Box 651 | ( ) ( ) |( (_| || (_) )
Porterville, CA 93258 (_) (_) (_) \__,_)| ,__/
(800) 266-5759 | |
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/lists/ (_)
|
