Pubdate: Tue, 17 Jul 2007
Source: New Mexican, The (Santa Fe, NM)
Copyright: 2007 The Santa Fe New Mexican
Contact: http://www.freenewmexican.com/emailforms/letters.php
Website: http://www.freenewmexican.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/695
Author: Eric Bailey, LA Times
Cited: Americans for Safe Access http://www.americansforsafeaccess.org
Cited: California NORML http://www.canorml.org
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)

FEDS TARGET OWNERS RENTING TO POT DISPENSARIES

LOS ANGELES - Raising the stakes in the federal government's war 
against medical marijuana, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration 
has warned more than 150 Los Angeles landlords that they risk arrest 
and the loss of their property if they continue renting to cannabis 
dispensaries. The two-page letter dispatched last week by Timothy J. 
Landrum, DEA special agent in charge of the Los Angeles office, has 
whipped up worries among landlords and dispensary operators in a 
region that has seen a proliferation of the businesses in the past two years.

"I'm devastated," said Lisa Sawoya, who left her job selling 
high-tech hospital equipment to open a dispensary 18 months ago in 
Hollywood. "My landlord believes in cannabis as medicine.

But they're taking the letter very seriously.

So I'll be closing my doors at the end of this month." Sarah Pullen, 
a DEA spokeswoman in Los Angeles, said the purpose of the letters is 
to "educate" property owners at risk because they're housing 
marijuana dispensaries. "The move by the DEA has focused entirely on 
Los Angeles. Activists suspect the logistics and timing - more than a 
decade after state voters legalized medical marijuana - is intended 
to thin the ranks of Los Angeles dispensaries on the eve of new city 
regulations. A proposed city ordinance would cap and regulate the 
number of outlets, which now number more than 400.

Medical marijuana activists say most landlords are taking the threat 
seriously and have asked the dispensaries to move out. "Raiding 
dispensaries and arresting patients hasn't worked to end medical 
marijuana so the DEA is trying a new tactic and claiming a new victim 
in this war," said Steph Sherer of Americans for Safe Access, a group 
that supports medical marijuana. Dale Gieringer of the National 
Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws said the DEA crackdown 
won't stop patients' marijuana use. Instead, he said, the ill could 
be driven to find drugs on the illegal market, potentially putting 
themselves at risk.

In recent years, courts have upheld the federal government's ability 
to seize assets.

After the DEA raided the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center in 
2001, the federal government seized more than $300,000 that West 
Hollywood had loaned the center to buy its building. Gieringer said 
the most likely outcome of Landrum's letter would be numerous 
evictions and shutdowns followed by a few select forfeiture 
prosecutions "to scare remaining landlords."

Hap Kent, who runs Therapeutic Medicinal Health Resources in the 
Sherman Oaks district of the city, said he hopes the DEA would 
consider letting dispensaries continue to operate for another six 
months. While the possibility of eviction looms for many 
dispensaries, Kent sees a possible silver lining - a political outcry 
that could get the state to respond to voters' wishes and take on the 
role of directly supplying medical marijuana. "That's the way it 
should have been from the beginning," he said. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake