cannabisnews.com: US Marijuana Clinics Raided in Crackdown 





US Marijuana Clinics Raided in Crackdown 
Posted by FoM on November 12, 2001 at 18:33:10 PT
By Oliver Poole in Los Angeles
Source: Daily Telegraph
Medical centres in California that distribute marijuana to terminally ill patients are being raided by federal drugs officers. The raids have been ordered by Washington in a move that brings the United States government into conflict with the rights of individual states to create their own laws.California passed a law permitting the sale of marijuana for medical use after a 1996 referendum, but the move conflicts with federal anti-narcotics laws. Officers of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) have in the past month seized cannabis plants, medical records and legal documents from three sites in the state.
In a radical shift from the government's previously relaxed approach to the the medical use of marijuana, the Justice Department has also warned nine other states with similar local legislation to take action to prevent lawbreaking or face raids. The crackdown follows a Supreme Court ruling this year that the medical dispensation of marijuana is no protection from federal law.A protest vigil was held last week at the DEA's most recent target, the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Centre in West Hollywood. Among the crowd were many of its 960 registered patients, most of whom have cancer or Aids. They say they use the drug to suppress some of their worst symptoms."I don't know what I'll do now," said Lawrence Ornella, 50, who is HIV-positive. "Marijuana gives me an appetite. Otherwise, I can't eat."Capt Lynda Castro, the local sheriff, was present. She had refused to help the DEA with its raid.Scott Imler, the president of the centre, said he had been told to expect criminal charges. "I think it's shameful that the Justice Department would waste money going after medical marijuana when the rest of the world is falling apart," he said.He felt that the government had decided to implement its more controversial social policies at a time when attention was focused on Afghanistan.His patients said the centre's closure left them no choice but to turn to drug dealers. Mr Imler said illegal sellers had taken up position nearby. "A new market has opened up and the gangs are moving back in," he said.The swoop on his centre followed the seizure of a cannabis crop in Ventura County, grown under a supervised medical scheme, and the raiding of a doctor's surgery in Cool, near Sacramento.California's marijuana reform has been dogged by controversy. Some of the cannabis clubs have been less than stringent in ensuring that patients had the required medical documentation. The doctor in Cool was found to be charging $200 (£138) per prescription.The Justice Department said it would be pursuing a long campaign. Susan Dryden, an official, said: "The recent enforcement is indicative that we have not lost our priorities in other areas since September 11. The attorney general and the administration have been very clear: we will be aggressive."In a separate challenge to state laws, the Attorney General, John Ashcroft, said last week that action would be taken against any doctors in Oregon who helped terminally ill patients to die, even though a 1994 state referendum approved the practice.Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)Author: Oliver Poole in Los AngelesPublished: November 11, 2001Copyright: 2001 Telegraph Group LimitedContact: dtletters telegraph.co.ukWebsite: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/Related Articles & Web Sites:Los Angeles County Research Centerhttp://www.lacbc.org/Medical Marijuana Information Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/medical.htmDEA Marijuana Madness http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11319.shtmlFeds Are Busting The Wrong `Drug Ring'http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11284.shtmlThe Feds Crack Down -- on Medical Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11283.shtml
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Comment #6 posted by schmeff on November 13, 2001 at 09:01:06 PT
Radical Shift ??
In a radical shift from the government's previously relaxed approach to the the medical use of marijuana, the Justice Department has also warned nine other states with similar local legislation to take action to prevent lawbreaking or face raids.As Observer suggests, the Feds approach to medical MJ is about as relaxed as Hitler's approach to the Jews.
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Comment #5 posted by observer on November 13, 2001 at 08:14:12 PT
Benefits of Scapegoating
 The Justice Department said it would be pursuing a long campaign. Susan Dryden, an official, said: "The recent enforcement is indicative that we have not lost our priorities in other areas since September 11. The attorney general and the administration have been very clear: we will be aggressive."Sometimes, when governments are unable to get read bad guys (that blow up buildings, say,) governments can direct that "righteous indignation" elsewhere. They can point their anger and frustration at some other scapegoats. In this case, it is those threatening, evil, sick ill and infirm people. History records other such instances.In 1941, instead of annihilating the red Army which refused to be annilihated and continued fighting, one could kill helpless Jews. . . . Instead of driving away the Anglo-American fliers, one could again kill Jews: after the first RAF bombardment of Cologne, 258 Jews in Berlin were lined up in the Gross-Lichterfield barracks and shot "in reprisal." In other words, while the actual fighting foes were out of reach, Germany could kill, as savages do, the images of foes, the Jews. But in this case the images, too, were people of flesh and blood.3 For authoritarians a crucial benefit of scapegoating is that directing public anger toward scapegoats assures continuance of public anger, because problems creating fear and anger thereby remain unaddressed and will continue. In contrast to a confident and contented citizenry, a fearful and angry citizenry is more susceptible to authoritarian demands. Scapegoats are crucial for maintaining social turmoil by authoritarians.It was the Jews who helped hold Hitler's system together -- on the practical as well as ideological level. The Jew allowed Hitler to ignore the long list of economic and social promises he had made to the SA, the lower party apparatus, and the lower middle classes. By steering the attention of these groups away from their more genuine grievances and toward the Jew, Hitler succeeded in blunting the edge of their revolutionary wrath, leaving him freer to persue his own nonideological goals of power in cooperation with groups whose influence he had once promised to weaken or even destroy. An ideological retreat on the Jewish issue in these circumstances was impossible. . . . The continued search for a solution to the Jewish problem allowed Hitler to maintain ideological contact with elements of his movement for whom National Socialism had done very little.4(Richard L Miller, Drug Warriors and their Prey, 1996, pg.191-192)http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0275950425
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Comment #4 posted by lookinside on November 13, 2001 at 07:41:27 PT:
p4me...
sorry about your mom...my father in law has leukemia...has maybe a year...he's in a nursing home...completely lucid, but his body just doesn't work well anymore...concerning calling our prez a pr*ck...guys like him i refer to as dildos...no brains...
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Comment #3 posted by p4me on November 12, 2001 at 22:05:50 PT:
the people have to change this
We need a complete new set of Congressmen. If I were a Senator from California I would filibuster everything until the stupidity of the Schedule 1 Narcotic is corrected. 535 people in Congress and who is speaking out for these sick people. The politicians are going to get theirs because what goes around really does come back around.They are saying now that what word processing was to computers the last ten years, video production will be to the next. The DVD rewritable drives are below $400 now and anything produced on them will be able to be played on any DVD player. Wait until all the digital camcorders learn their new DVD editing and then let them show grown men crying as they suffer in their wheelchairs and death beds. You can count on me not to be driving up the market forces on new electronic hardware. I have only driven 10 miles in the last 3 weeks as to help you all with a softer market for gasoline. Anyway we can expect the politicians to support the monied interest. The physicians that are caring for their patients
sure could do better in my opinion. I just wanted to copy from the history book we used when I was a freshman in college taking world history. This is the original Hippocratic Oath as published in "Civilization- Past and Present" and published by Scott, Foresman, and Company- Library of Congress Catalog Card No.69-11738.I will look upon him who shall have taught me this Art even as one of my parents. I will share my substance with him, and I will supply his necessities, if he be in need. I will regard his offspring even as my own brethren, and I will teach them this Art, if they would learn it, without fee or covenant. I will impart this Art by precept, by lecture and by every mode of teaching, not only to my own sons but to the sons of him who has taught me, and to disciples bound by covenant and oath, according to the law of medicine.The regimen I adopt shall be for the benefit of my patients according to my ability and judgment, and not for their hurt or for any wrong....Whatsoever things I see or hear concerning the life of men, in my attendance on the sick or even apart therefrom, which ought not to be noised abroad, I will keep silence theron, counting such things to be as sacred secrets.My mother was a nurse now lying on the bed she will probably die on. On behalf of my mother I can only feel contempt for the government, the lawyers, and now the medical community. I would go so far as to call President Puppet a prick, but as we all know even a prick has a head on it.Bastards.Vote against all incumbents. Buy someone you love a vaporizer.
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Comment #2 posted by goneposthole on November 12, 2001 at 19:52:02 PT
futile efforts
There is no hope for a government that refuses to bend.They must have nothing else to do.Cold, callous, and cruel; compassion is a result of goodness.The government refuses to act in good faith.what a shame, what a pity to be so pathetic.These people have gone from governing to ruling.They have a great oppurtunity to keep America great and are unknowingly bringing it down.They don't have a lick of sense. A few years ago Charles Krauthammer wrote these words in a column, "America is great as long as it is good."The handwriting is on the wall.
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Comment #1 posted by lookinside on November 12, 2001 at 19:33:38 PT:
if...
they press criminal charges, i hope the ACLU and NORML get seriously involved...this is the case that can break the fed's misbegotten, twisted agenda...i think the DEA views these raids as test cases...if they lose in court, (and the papers cover it) it may be enough to make congress rethink their B.S. laws...
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