cannabisnews.com: Cannabis Club Raided by DEA





Cannabis Club Raided by DEA
Posted by FoM on November 03, 2001 at 11:12:38 PT
By Malaika Costello-Dougherty
Source: Los Angeles Independent
Last Thursday at about 4:30 p.m. federal Drug Enforcement Agents came through the doors of the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center calling President Scott Imler's name. It was a bust. The DEA had a federal search warrant and declared the center a federal crime scene. About eight agents were present and some momentarily had their guns drawn outside, according to neighbor Chris Shaefer. Shaefer says the agents secured the exits, watched the windows and entered the building.
The LACRC was closed for the day, but some members who work there had just finished baking marijuana goods, according to member Michael Mallory. The members were detained for about four hours, during which time neither West Hollywood Mayor John Heilman nor the center's attorney, City Councilman John Duran, were allowed into the center. The DEA left at around 11 p.m. after confiscating about 400 marijuana plants, the growing equipment, disbursement records, financial documents, computers, 3,000 medical records, and doctors' names in two Ryder trucks."They were as gracious as they can be when they are raping you," Imler says of the DEA agents.The bust was a result of months of surveillance and years of investigation of the LACRC by the DEA. Court records state that the center and its leadership are under investigation for manufacturing and distribution of a controlled substance, maintaining a drug establishment and related money-laundering offences. No arrest warrants have been issued yet.The bust is another move in the conflict between state and federal law over medical marijuana. In May, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that dispensing marijuana was a federal crime and that marijuana did not have medicinal value, upholding a 1970 law. "It is a felony violation of federal law to cultivate, distribute or possess with intent to distribute marijuana.... Prop. 215 [the medical marijuana initiative approved by voters in 1996] is a California state law that has no bearing on the applicability of federal criminal laws," U.S. Attorney John S. Gordon said in a statement.According to court records, DEA agents conducted surveillance outside the LACRC on four days -- Aug. 31, Sept. 5, Sept. 7, and Oct. 17 -- and counted individuals who entered the staircase as well as noting they stayed for about 10 to 20 minutes and left carrying small paper bags.The DEA also searched the property of Lynn and Judy Osburn in Ventura County on Sept. 28, 2001, according to court records. Agents seized 273 cultivated marijuana plants, 76 pounds of marijuana and tax documents where the Osburns claimed $264,500 as income from "dried flowers." They also found a document titled "LACRC Patient Co-op Cultivation Cost Reimbursement Jan. through Dec. 1999" listing paid amounts totaling $264,500.The court records cited a news report where Imler stated the plants seized from the Osburns were 30 percent to 40 percent of the annual supply. It also cited a news source that in the calendar year 2000 the LACRC had paid $620,000 to black market dealers for 100 pounds of marijuana that was distributed to its members. The court records show that the DEA anticipated finding between 408 and 637 plants on the LACRC premises if these plants constituted the rest of the supply.City officials condemned the raid at a press conference last Friday that was attended by more than 100 center members.The West Hollywood Sheriff's Station has worked in the past to protect the center and did not cooperate with the DEA raid, when they were reportedly given a five-minute warning.Duran says that a visiting federal judge issued the search warrant from Florida rather than a California judge, which is unusual. He says that the DEA treated the LACRC as if it were a crystal methamphetamine laboratory instead of a group of patients using medical marijuana to treat AIDS, cancer and other illnesses."It is absolute overkill, it is outrageous," Duran says. "Given all the priorities -- war, anthrax terrorism -- that the federal government would think that this is a priority in light of Sept. 11 is just outrageous."The cannabis resource center has been open in West Hollywood since 1996. The LACRC is a cooperative of medical marijuana patients who collectively assert the ability provided under Prop. 215 for patients to grow medical marijuana, according to Imler. Duran says the center has been fully compliant with local and state law and keeps "squeaky-clean" records.Imler says: "The immediate problem in the short term is to find marijuana for the 960 people who have come to rely on it in the past four and a half years." Eighty percent of LACRC clients are HIV/AIDS patients, 10 percent are cancer patients and the rest have glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, sickle cell anemia, paralysis, epilepsy and other illnesses.Many LACRC medical marijuana patients felt the Supreme Court ruling was a potential deathblow. However, they hoped that the federal government did not have the resources to come after them. The center did begin cultivation classes to teach members how to grow their own marijuana as a precaution, according to Imler.LACRC member Mallory, an HIV patient, says the raid has left him feeling "robbed." "It's become systematic to go on a regular basis to pick up my medicine, to improve my health and my weight.... Now I don't know what to do," he says. "I have concerns that my weight is going down. All this causes me to do is to get it off the black market."Mallory says that his use of medical marijuana decreases the nausea caused by HIV medications and increases his appetite. Center vice president Jeffrey R. Farrington, who cultivates the plants, is a glaucoma patient who says that medical marijuana prevents him from going blind. LACRC members had to provide a doctor's recommendation and go through a screening process before they were accepted into the center. They would enter an unmarked door, present their identification card at a checkpoint and then proceed to a counter where they could choose from a selection of marijuana, the best quality selling for $65 for 3.5 grams. (Fees were charged on a sliding scale.) Downstairs, there was an indoor garden of marijuana plants being grown with lights and equipment that were carefully cultivated and documented.The U.S. Attorney handling the case, Patrick Fitzgerald, is planning to go through the records for anything unorthodox, according to Duran. The LACRC is concentrating on getting medical marijuana to the patients first and then planning its legal strategy, he adds.Source: Los Angeles Independent (CA)Author: Malaika Costello-DoughertyPublished: November 3, 2001Contact: editor laindependent.comWebsite: http://indep.townnews.com/news/Related Articles & Web Sites:Los Angeles County Research Centerhttp://www.lacbc.org/Medicinal Cannabis Research Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/research.htmThe Other War - LA Weekly http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11233.shtmlDrug Raids are a Waste of Time http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11229.shtmlUS Cracks Down on Med. Marijuana in California http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11227.shtml 
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Comment #10 posted by lookinside on November 04, 2001 at 09:14:45 PT:
in a perfect world...
i'd like to see a referendum passed in this state REQUIRING the state police and all local law enforcement officers to arrest any federal officers caught violating californians' civil rights...ALL the federal drug laws are illegal under the U.S. CONSTITUTION...these are state's rights issues and the feds have no business raiding ANY MMJ dispensaries...i hope scott imler files a suit for damages on behalf of the patients...using the DEA's own value estimates...could amount to slightly more than the U.S. GNP for the next century...
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Comment #9 posted by freedom fighter on November 04, 2001 at 01:53:54 PT
dowhatever,,,
Pls clarify your statement..Yeah, sure, an ounce of cannabis back in before 1930 cost only a buck..But then it was legal..Did you not know that very same ounce probably cost 800$ an oz in New York today? Are you that surprised to find out that an ounce of fine cannabis is worth 3 ounces of real gold...So pls clarify your statementff
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Comment #8 posted by Richard Lake on November 03, 2001 at 19:54:42 PT:
Chat with Scott Imler of the LACRC Wednesday!
Our guest is Scott ImlerWed. Nov. 7, 2001 8:00 EDT NY Times Drug Policy Forum Sat. Nov. 10, 2001 8 PM Eastern Drugsense Chat Room Click the URL for Details!
Drug Truth Forum and Chat schedule
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Comment #7 posted by ekim on November 03, 2001 at 19:46:57 PT:
CA: Medical Pot Trial Ends In Acquittal
US CA: Medical Pot Trial Ends In Acquittal
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1855/a13.html
Newshawk: rev.lynnette shaw
Pubdate: Sat, 03 Nov 2001
Source: Marin Independent Journal (CA)
Copyright: 2001 Marin Independent Journal
Contact: opinion marinij.com
Website: http://www.marinij.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/673
Author: Richard Halstead
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)MEDICAL POT TRIAL ENDS IN ACQUITTAL A Marin Superior Court jury yesterday found Marinwood resident Steven Babich innocent of charges of both cultivating marijuana and possessing marijuana for sale-a verdict that proponents of medical marijuana said was a reaffirmation of Prop 215 and compassionate use of the drug. 
 
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Comment #6 posted by john wayne on November 03, 2001 at 19:24:09 PT
DARE: expand drug war to fight terrorism
http://www.dare.com/common/narco_terrorism.htm
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Comment #5 posted by dosuckme on November 03, 2001 at 15:58:41 PT:
65.00 for 3.5 grams?
Are you serious? $65 for 3.5 grams? Are these people criminals? Maybe they should be locked up. That is highway robbery.
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Comment #4 posted by mayan on November 03, 2001 at 15:47:30 PT
Progress or Perish
As bad as all this seems, the feds are really digging their own grave regarding the war on marijuana & the whole war on drugs in general.Who could deny a dying person the only medicine that sustains them, other than someone with an evil agenda? These raids are bringing the ruthlessness of the federal government to light! The American people & the entire world are proving the feds wrong!Marijuana is the medicine of this new millenium. 
Industrial hemp is the material of this new millenium.The fed's farce of a drug war is on it's last leg. It's time to progress or perish, pure & simple.
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Comment #3 posted by MikeEEEEE on November 03, 2001 at 15:06:44 PT
History repeating itself
After WWII the SS elite tried to say that they were only following orders. During that time and now you'll see that the leaders gave the orders and the robots simply obeyed. Obviuosly, then and now, the leaders didn't have to watch their dirty work, it's very easy to sign an order and not be there. These leaders should have a front seat to their policies: made to watch people in wheelchairs, or people puking out their guts, or people suffering in pain. 
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Comment #2 posted by qqqq on November 03, 2001 at 13:01:18 PT
FEDERAL NATZI SH*THEADS!!
..they are going way out of bounds here....they are seeing if they can get away with it,,but there are making alot of really Californians really pissed!,,,,voters have been BETRAYED,by the dea gestapo,in a senseless act of federal agression,,,and what really frys my ass,,is they got some f*cking crooked judge from Florida,to issue the warrant.......BASTARDS! 
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Comment #1 posted by john wayne on November 03, 2001 at 12:33:40 PT
Pilgrim, on 9/11
"Hombre Sin Problema" predicted that the US would respond to the Muslim Rebellion by stepping up the war on drugs.Pilgrim.
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