cannabisnews.com: DEA Fights Drug War in California Cannabis Clubs DEA Fights Drug War in California Cannabis Clubs Posted by FoM on December 01, 2001 at 07:43:10 PT By Kelley Beaucar Vlahos Source: FoxNews.com If polls are any indication, the events of Sept. 11 have sparked a resurgence of support for Uncle Sam’s activities. But not all government agencies are enjoying this renewed swell of pride and confidence.The Drug Enforcement Agency, long a target of attacks by those who believe the drug war to be a failure, is taking its still share of hits, but now the concern is that they are too busy bullying ailing cannabis smokers to join in the war on terrorism. "(The DEA) do not appear to be sharing in the effort to combat the war on terror," charged Dave Koppel, a criminal justice expert for the Independence Institute and a critic of the war on drugs.Koppel believes that rather than taking a lead in eliminating Afghanistan’s massive opium trade, long a source of cash for the Taliban and Al Qaeda, the DEA doesn’t seemed to have changed its priorities. Case in point: three major DEA raids after Sept. 11 on California facilities that supply medicinal marijuana to the terminally ill. "It seems they are going after the last problem in the Drug War that you’d think is important right now — they’re going after people with AIDS who are trying to keep their food down."But the DEA isn’t falling into any traps."Those who are criticizing the DEA now have been doing so for a long time, pre-Sept. 11," offered Agent Tom Hinojosa. "We don’t write the laws, we enforce them. There are millions of people out there. We do our job but don’t necessarily please everybody."The new head of the DEA, former Republican Congressman Asa Hutchinson, says the agency is working closely with the administration to wipe out the poppy crops that have made Afghanistan the largest supplier of opium in the world today."We’re going to have a team ready to go," Hutchinson told Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly last week when asked if the DEA will be present in Afghanistan to assist in the post-Taliban process. In recent testimony before Congress, Hutchinson said the "relationship between the Taliban and bin Laden is believed to have flourished in large part thanks to the Taliban’s substantial reliance on the opium trade as a source of organizational revenue."In testimony to Congress recently, Hutchinson asserted that the recent attacks graphically illustrate the need to deprive Al Qaeda of the drug proceeds used to fund acts of terror. To that end, he said, the DEA is sharing intelligence, evidence and research with the FBI through its foreign offices in 56 different countries."We are doing things in a proactive manner," said DEA spokesman Hinojosa. "We’re not turning away from this, we’re facing it head-on."But if the war on terror is of such tantamount importance, questions Koppel, why divert resources to raids on California cannabis facilities?"Amazingly, the biggest news out of the DEA since Sept. 11 has been a massive new crackdown on drug users whom we know not to be associated with terrorist suppliers," he said.The agency’s website brags mainly about recent cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, methamphetamine and marijuana busts. There is only passing mention of the agency’s anti-terror activities, Koppel points out. Since September, the agency also has raided and destroyed a marijuana garden in Ventura Garden, seized patient records in a medical research facility in El Dorado and shut down the Los Angeles Cannabis Resources Center after seizing the records of several thousand patients smoking marijuana for medicinal purposes.In 1996, the State of California passed a referendum allowing physicians to prescribe marijuana for medicinal purposes. But marijuana is still illegal under federal law, so with the backing of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in its favor, the feds have warned that they will continue to arrest and prosecute anyone using the drug.Considering its recent activity, the DEA’s critics wonder whether the agency has really shifted its focus to what they say is the real drug problem: terrorists who sell drugs to run their operations. "One way to help satisfy the public that (the DEA) are doing what the public thinks is priority work like fighting terrorism is not to engage in low-level enforcement like busting a Los Angeles cannabis facility," said Eric. E. Sterling, the president of the Criminal Justice Foundation. "What is striking is they’re going after a program designed to help sick people," he said. "It’s not like they're protecting these people from some big dangerous thing."Hinojosa answer with a shrug. "We have a mission to fulfill and were trying to seize the moment and do the best job we can," he said.Source: FoxNews.comAuthor: Kelley Beaucar VlahosPublished: Friday, November 30, 2001Copyright: Fox News Network, LLC 2001 Contact: comments foxnews.com Website: http://www.foxnews.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:Medical Marijuana Information Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/medical.htmReefer Madness - News & Reviewhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11457.shtmlDEA Seize Files on Medical Marijuana Patients http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11023.shtmlCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #7 posted by kaptinemo on December 03, 2001 at 05:55:00 PT: Vee arrr unly vollowing orduhsss!! Undt pliss don't zay daht nasty vord "Nuremburg"! I haff a hardt time exshplaining ovuh undt ovuh again, I am unly vollowing der Law! (My law, not yoo-er law!) Zere ist no komparison! I am not zum yack-booten t'ug! I am an Amerikaner poleetzeeman! I don't vear SS on mine kollar! I don't haff dee "Horst Vessel Liedt" on CD (Uh, you vouldn't know how I kan get vun, vould you?). I don't deress up in Nazi regalia and do the fascist saluten in vront of mine mirror! Ich bin ein Amerikaner, gotverdammit!Sorry, but I couldn't resist; Santayana is never believed. Ever. And what we're going through right now proves that. The DEA can find no historical parallel between the Nazi murder of "lives not worth living" (the massive eutahnasia program, engaged in 'culling' those with mental or physical abnormalities from the population via gas chambers and lethal injections, underway long before WW2) and the deprivation of deathly ill people of their medicine which they need to stay alive? In both cases, the process was carried out almost civilly; the 'defectives' of Hitler's Germany vanished into bureaucratic never-never land of Nacht und Nebel (night and fog) which was perfected with them being used as a test case before they came after the Jews. The cannabis clubs were raided and the records stolen with cold efficiency. But the result will be the same. People will die. Because of government actions.It doesn't matter what language they use. It doesn't matter the country, the uniforms, the slogans, etc. It's always the same result. Death. Always excused as being "for your own good!" And the government to blame. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by herbdoc215 on December 02, 2001 at 21:28:30 PT: Seize this you facist pig punk...."1984" nah I can't believe that he was stupid enough to admitt that these pigs seized the very moment of national cohesiveness to "cointelpro" use dying patients in California. The very fact that more ordinary folks are not defending us and liberty speaks volumes about the numbing of population through doublespeak and years of devisive programs such as narcs to devide us. Then they co-opt media and subtle-spin all infomation to demonize minorities, subversives, and anyone who refuses to be a good wage slave. This is some scene from Dante's "Inferno", and there is no waking up. What is it going to take? Blood, hell many of us have given that many times over. Is our very non-violent nature our undoing? I am starting to believe that if they really want a war let's give them one. Hell so far it's been a total one sided slaughter, sitting in your home with your family this all seems abstract but living in Canada a fugitive with no health care and my family thousands of miles away is cold stark reality. My only crime was caring too much about watching folks I care about dye in front of my face knowing that I had the God given talent to supply their cannabis needs and make a difference in their quality lives. Sitting up here in the Sunshine Coast,BC is a beacon of hope for us all, Canadians have taken us in their hearts and made us feel as family- a role I was niavely raised to believe that USA should perform for the world is being done by Canada to save many of us from certain death, Thank God. Steven Tuck, in exile [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by military officer guy on December 01, 2001 at 19:35:15 PT fucked up scale remember everyone, this is our money that we pay in taxes that go towards the freaking dea... on a fucked up scale, this is a 9.3...vote libertarian... we can win this war... ps...sorry for the language FoM, but i'm introducing a new scale i've termed it the fucked up scale...i hope all like it... and this is so close the the perfect 10 on the fucked up scale...anyone have a second opinion..? [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by Dark Star on December 01, 2001 at 10:10:33 PT: Nuremberg "We don’t write the laws, we enforce them. There are millions of people out there. We do our job but don’t necessarily please everybody."Sounds suspiciously like the the German Defense, "Ve vere yust following orders!"Mr. Hinojosa may not realize it, but with that surname, he is descended from Spanish Jews. His forbears suffered the threat of the rack, the pendulum, and the iron maiden merely because of their religion. Now he is promulgating propaganda that similarly victimizes the sick and dying for their condition. The cosmic balance is disturbed. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by Sam Adams on December 01, 2001 at 09:58:40 PT on Fox? I can hardly believe my eyes Good to see this coming from Fox, President Bush's "favorite news station" (Bush's words, not mine). Maybe they ain't all bad after all. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by goneposthole on December 01, 2001 at 08:45:20 PT By the way Do you think that there will be 'Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men' this Christmas?Not if the government can help it. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by goneposthole on December 01, 2001 at 08:32:02 PT prosecution or persecution?The Taliban prohibited kite flying. John Ashcroft was not allowed to ride bicycle on Sundays. Why doesn't he go fly a kite?Asa Hutchinson should persue Sunday bicycle riders as well.Make them wear a Star of David that says, 'Sunday bicycle rider'.What Onanists [ Post Comment ] Post Comment