cannabisnews.com: DEA Raids Clinic DEA Raids Clinic Posted by FoM on October 04, 2001 at 07:25:12 PT By Gus Thomson, Journal Staff Writer Source: Auburn Journal A clinic that has dispensed more than 6,000 medical marijuana recommendations remained open Wednesday, despite a Drug Enforcement Administration raid that removed files and computer records.Federal and West El Dorado Narcotics Enforcement Team agents searched the offices of the California Medical Research Center on Friday. At the same time, another team used a federal search warrant to seize files and 32 pot plants from the rural El Dorado County home of center directors Dale Schafer and Mollie Fry. Schafer, an attorney who announced in July that he would run for El Dorado County district attorney, said the medical and legal records of as many as 6,000 to 7,000 patients were seized. Fry is a general practitioner, breast cancer survivor and medical marijuana patient. The center opened in August 1999.Schafer blamed El Dorado County District Attorney Gary Lacy for initiating the raids. Lacy couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday."I'm running for DA in El Dorado County and he sicced the DEA on us," Schafer said. "He didn't think he could prevail under Prop. 215 so his next action was to call in the DEA."The file information was sealed during the raids, Schafer said. A hearing is scheduled today in federal court in Sacramento on a petition to return the records based on attorney-client privilege, he said."All those files are protected by attorney-client privilege," Schafer said. "Everything we have done was in good faith to comply with Proposition 215."A medical marijuana initiative, Prop. 215 was passed by California voters in 1996 and has since been tested in several court cases, including the Placer County trial of Libertarian Party gubernatorial candidate Steve Kubby. Kubby was acquitted last February on pot-possession-for-sale charges after a 1998 raid netted 256 plants at his Olympic Valley home.Schafer and Fry weren't arrested during the searches Friday and remain free, with no charges against them. Schafer said his wife and 14-year-old son were detained for several hours under armed guard during the raid at their home. The marijuana plants seized were for Fry's own medical needs because there has been some concern that her cancer may have returned, he said.A Drug Enforcement Agency Administration spokesman at the agency's San Francisco office was unavailable for comment Wednesday. In interviews with other media outlets, the DEA had declined comment, citing an "ongoing investigation."Both Schafer and Fry serve as witnesses for the defense in Prop. 215 cases.Less than two weeks ago, two DEA agents had "infiltrated" a class the center held on pot growing, going so far as to forge a note from noted Bay Area medical-pot proponent Dr. Tod Mikuriya to register, Schafer said."We were trying to get people out of the black market," Schafer said. He said he learned about the DEA involvement in the class during the raid on Friday.Schafer said he wouldn't speculate on what the files and other material taken in the raids would eventually be used for."But we will do everything to protect the interests of our patients," he said.San Francisco attorney David Nick is scheduled to appear on behalf of Schafer in court today. Nick represented Steve Kubby's wife, Michele, in the Placer County trial. She was acquitted by a jury on all charges.Nick said that a referee could be appointed by the court to examine documents to determine whether they show evidence of a crime or if they fit into the attorney-client communication privilege category. He anticipates a continuance to at least Oct. 22. In the meantime, the court will keep all records in safe custody, he said."This is an indication that the federal government is going to step up its war on states' rights," Nick said. "They're going to ignore the people of California, even if it means intruding on attorney's files."Schafer said the center is advising patients to not only show up at the hearing in Sacramento but bring an attorney — or $10 to help pay for one. The center has also set up a hot line n 823-0992 — to update patients on the business' status and the court petition, he said."My wife is an eighth-generation practicing physician whose grandfather used cannabis to treat anorexia," he said. "She's trained to be a free thinker and help patients. Politics should have no place in medicine." Note: Facility dispenses medical pot recommendations.Source: Auburn Journal (CA)Author: Gus Thomson, Journal Staff WriterPublished: October 4, 2001 Copyright: 2001 Auburn JournalContact: ajournal foothill.netWebsite: http://www.auburnjournal.com/Related Article & Web Sites:The Kubby Fileshttp://www.kubby.org/Medicinal Cannabis Research Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/research.htmDEA Seize Files on Medical Marijuana Patients http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11023.shtmlCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml END SNIP --> Snipped Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #4 posted by freedom fighter on October 04, 2001 at 19:01:16 PT Senseless Just senselessWaste of resources.. complete destruction of consitution of United States. Too angry to put words to it. These people are not terrorists. ff [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by xxdr_zombiexx on October 04, 2001 at 14:53:25 PT: Cannabis clubs need security from Terrorists, too. Cannabis clubs need security from Terrorists, too.IF I owned or ran a cannabis club, I would be discussing security matters with a professional. Record storage and management for saftey from theft, as in this case. Possibly altering the physical structure of the entrance to the building - if possible. Like gun stores with big, cement-filled posts to prevent people from smashing vehicles (hummers, in the DEA case) into the store fronts. Perhaps install misleading airsocks to trick the heliocpter pilots. The DEA will be given the Green light by John Ashcroft to raid, terrorize, and shut down all known clubs and grow ops. This will be done under the new fad: anti-terrorist laws. Dr. Fry is lucky to even be alive. Does she own any property? All those ill and dying people are actually terrorists ...patiently biding thier time until Mark Emery gives them thier marching orders..telling them to light up in front of the nearest small child. When NATO and the US began bombing the Serbs for similar activities towards the people of Kosovo, the bombing did not deter them from their house-to-house search and destroy missions. Same thing for the DEA and the War against peaceful pot-smoking types. The raid described here violates a standing FEDERAL injunction imposed when McCaffery initally threatened to spy on and have the licence removed from any physician who recommended cannabis to patients. The Fedral court rightly froze that crap because of the "chilling effect" it would have on the doctor-patient relationship. Keep in mind this is occuring at a time when John ashcroft, a man who hates civil rights and likes racial profiling, is pressing the government hard to let him do things that are egregiously unconstitutional (despite his hollow reassurances he will ask for nothing unconstitutional. ANYTHING given to him in terms of police powers for the "terror war" will be IMMEDIATLEy used against pot smokers. These people - ashcroft/bush/cheny - (The Talibush) they all hate you and me. The little guy. The free thinker. They hate us. They hated Tom Crosslin. They hated Donald scott. They hate B.E Williams. They hate steve Kubby. They hate Peter Mcwilliams. They hate Todd McCormaick. They hate Rene Boje. They will work day and night to violate our personal privacy, sell our rights down the river of Public Emotion: screw us all while were wavin' the flag. They dream of Martial Law. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by FoM on October 04, 2001 at 08:42:21 PT Inside the Beltway - Washington Times Keep Off the Grass Newshawk: Nicholas Thimmesch II NORML Media & Communications Source: Washington Times Author: John McCaslin Published: October 4, 2001 Copyright © 2001 News World Communications, Inc. A weed once cultivated by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson for fiber materials continues to be grown — albeit illegally now, and for illicit purposes — on hundreds of thousands of acres in all 50 U.S. states, with or without the landowner's permission. The Justice Department's just-issued Final Supplement to Environmental Impact Statements on Cannabis Eradication in the Contiguous United States and Hawaii, refers to an increasing concern among law enforcement authorities about potentially "lethal" measures growers will take to protect their marijuana plots, including the widespread use of booby-trap devices. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by FoM on October 04, 2001 at 07:52:18 PT News Brief from The Los Angeles Times No Arrests in Raid at Marijuana Ranch Source: Los Angeles Times From Times Staff Reports Published: October 4, 2001 Copyright: 2001 Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/ For the second time in two years, authorities have raided the Lockwood Valley ranch of marijuana activists Lynn and Judy Osburn, uprooting more than 200 pot plants that supply hundreds of medicinal users in Ventura and Los Angeles counties. Two dozen investigators from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, assisted by Ventura County sheriff's deputies, searched their wooded property last week. No one was arrested. The Osburns, who maintain they are medicinal marijuana users with written recommendations from doctors, grow marijuana for the 900 members of the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Cooperative, which dispenses the drug as allowed under the state's 1996 voter-approved Proposition 215. Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center http://www.lacbc.org/ Arraignment Delayed for 4 Suspected of Growing Pot http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7029.shtml Case Could Set Precedent http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7023.shtml [ Post Comment ] Post Comment