The federal Drug Enforcement Agency ratcheted up its crackdown on medical marijuana clubs this week, confiscating thousands of plants and arresting four men in the San Francisco Bay Area. While the DEA has raided medical marijuana clubs several times in recent months, the arrests on Feb. 13 mark the first time suspects have been taken into custody. Just hours before DEA head Asa Hutchinson was scheduled to speak in San Francisco, DEA agents seized 600 marijuana plants from the Sixth Street Harm Reduction Center, a well-known medical marijuana club located in a gritty section of downtown. [continues 382 words]
Federal agents have destroyed Alex White Plume's industrial hemp crop for the second year running. But the courts may soon decide whether Native Americans can grow THC-free cannabis. For the second year in a row, the War on Drugs has come to the Pine Ridge Sioux Indian reservation. On the morning of July 30, federal agents arrived at tribal member Alex White Plume's farm outside Manderson, South Dakota, cutting down and hauling away three acres of industrial hemp. [continues 655 words]