Pubdate: Wed, 16 Mar 2011 Source: Great Falls Tribune (MT) Copyright: 2011 Great Falls Tribune Contact: http://www.greatfallstribune.com/customerservice/contactus.html Website: http://www.greatfallstribune.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2502 Author: John S. Adams, Tribune Capital Bureau STATE'S U.S. ATTORNEY DEFENDS MEDICAL MARIJUANA RAIDS HELENA -- State and federal authorities executed 26 criminal search warrants and four civil seizure warrants in 13 Montana cities this week, culminating an 18-month multi-agency investigation into illegal drug trafficking activities surrounding the state's medical marijuana industry. Michael W. Cotter, U.S. Attorney for the District of Montana, issued a three-page press release Tuesday stating that authorities believe the medical marijuana businesses involved in Monday's raids violated the federal Controlled Substances Act. According to the press release, authorities seized up to $4 million in funds at financial institutions in Bozeman, Helena, and Kalispell. "Twenty-six search warrants were carried out yesterday where there is probable cause that the premises were involved in illegal and large-scale trafficking of marijuana," Cotter said in a written statement. "When criminal networks violate federal laws, those involved will be prosecuted." News of the raids stunned the state's booming medical marijuana community Monday as thousands of marijuana plants, computers, cell phones, patient lists and other related items were whisked away by federal agents in an unprecedented statewide crackdown. According to the release, no federal criminal charges or indictments have been filed against any of the individuals named in the search warrants. The press release did not say if any arrests were made in connection with allegations of drug trafficking. Montana legalized the use of medical marijuana by certain patients in 2004; however, the federal government still considers the drug an illegal Schedule 1 controlled substance, with "a high potential for abuse" and with "no currently accepted medical use." Montana's medical marijuana industry boomed after U.S. Deputy Attorney General David Ogden issued an October 2009 memo advising U.S. attorneys in states with medical marijuana laws to not focus federal resources "on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana." In a March 2009 interview with USA Today reporters, Holder said the Obama administration's focus would be "on people, organizations, that are growing, cultivating substantial amounts of marijuana, and doing so in a way that's inconsistent with federal law and state law." Many medical marijuana patients and caregivers interpreted the memo and Holder's statements to mean the Obama administration would not prosecute medical marijuana businesses or patients that complied with the state law. Since then, the number of registered marijuana patients in Montana has skyrocketed from 3,921 in September 2009 to 28,739 in February 2011. During that same period, the number of Montana caregivers authorized to grow marijuana for patients jumped from 1,403 to 4,833. The then-newly appointed Cotter, declined in a January 2010 interview with the Tribune to comment about Holder's apparent change in policy regarding medical marijuana, other than to say: "I know what (Holder's) feelings are." Tuesday's new release states: "Because of the danger posed by Schedule 1 substances, the Department of Justice continues to focus its enforcement and investigative efforts in targeting large-scale drug organizations that cultivate, manufacture, distribute or sell marijuana." Medical marijuana advocate Tom Daubert, the author of the 2004 voter-approved Montana Medical Marijuana Act, said the recent raids had a "extraordinary chilling effect" on the state's medical marijuana community. "They list serious federal offenses, which would be alleged of someone who was 100 percent legal under state and local law," Daubert said. "That's the irony. It's part of the disconnect between compassionate state laws in the face of prolonged, resistant federal prohibition. You can be completely legally locally, abiding by and honoring fully the compassionate law, and yet still, in the eyes of the federal government, be a hideously criminal 'dangerous drug trafficker.'" Some of the businesses raided Monday previously invited state and local law enforcement officials into their growing operations to demonstrate compliance with the state law. Over the past two legislative sessions, Daubert worked closely with law enforcement officials to try to improve the state's medical marijuana law. Until November Daubert was a partner in one of the facilities that was raided Monday. Daubert gave law enforcement officials and press tours of Montana Cannabis' greenhouse on multiple occasions during that time. "I certainly hate thinking that my relationships with top law enforcement leaders in Montana -- some of whom I really have respected and enjoyed working with and getting to know -- I hate the notion that they were acting deceitfully throughout what I thought were my friendships with them," Daubert said. Cotter's news release reiterates a point that was made clear in the 2009 memo, that "individuals with illnesses who are in clear and unambiguous compliance with state law are not the focus of the investigation." Daubert said the timing of the raids -- as lawmakers at the state Capitol consider several bills aimed at restricting or repealing the state law -- is troubling. "I think we've gone from a place where a lot of folks in Montana were concerned about 'Obamacare,' and now in Montana there's a great similar number of folks who are terrified by what we're thinking of as 'Obamascare,'" Daubert said. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.