cannabisnews.com: Agents Raid Calif. Medical Marijuana Club





Agents Raid Calif. Medical Marijuana Club
Posted by FoM on February 12, 2002 at 21:47:08 PT
By Reuters
Source: Reuters
U.S. agents raided a California medical marijuana club and arrested four people on Tuesday, provoking local protest as the Bush administration's top drug enforcement official arrived to defend his get-tough-on-drugs policy.Demonstrating that federal officials are determined to push prosecution of marijuana cases despite California's 1996 law legalizing the drug for certain medical purposes, Drug Enforcement Administration officers searched clubs and homes in San Francisco and surrounding communities, ordered one cannabis club shut down and made four arrests.
DEA spokesman Richard Meyer said the crackdown targeted a marijuana-smuggling operation linking San Francisco area activists.``It pertains to smuggling and trafficking of marijuana and also some possible money laundering,'' Meyer said, adding that the investigation had been aided by the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Customs Service.The raids were condemned by San Francisco officials, who have been outspoken in support of the right of Californians to use marijuana to treat symptoms of anything from glaucoma to AIDS and cancer.``This is the federal government trying to make a point in opposition to the voters of California,'' San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan told a crowd of several hundred chanting protesters outside a hall where DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson was delivering a speech. ``The voters should be outraged.''Officials and club members said the raid on San Francisco's ''Harm Reduction Center'' cannabis club began early on Tuesday morning, and that agents ordered the building closed while removing hundreds of marijuana plants as well as computers and other equipment.The club's director, Richard Watts, was charged along with two associates, one of whom was arrested in Canada. Another man, James Halloran of Oakland, was arrested in a separate case and charged with cultivating hundreds of marijuana plants.``It's a travesty of American justice,'' said witness Eric Levy, standing outside the club's shuttered storefront.MORE RAIDS SHOULD BE EXPECTED Hutchinson, a former Republican congressman named to the DEA in August, said California should expect more federal sweeps against marijuana-distribution clubs.``The DEA must simply follow the law,'' Hutchinson said to jeers from an audience packed with medical marijuana advocates. ''We don't make a judgement of use and abuse. We make a judgement of legal and illegal.''Tuesday's crackdown marked the DEA's latest tough line in California, where voters in 1996 overwhelmingly approved Proposition 215 as the first law in the country legalizing medical marijuana use with a doctor's prescription.That state law was challenged by federal officials. In May, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative that federal anti-drug laws do not permit legal distribution of marijuana as a ``medical necessity'' for seriously ill patients.The raid came on the same day that President Bush unveiled in Washington a new anti-drug strategy aimed at cutting use of illegal drugs by 10 percent over two years and 25 percent over five years.The Supreme Court's ruling against medical marijuana has been widely ignored in California, where a number of cannabis clubs have continued to operate with tacit permission from local authorities.But recently the DEA has taken a tougher line, moving against the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center in October and against the San Francisco ``Harm Reduction Center'' on Tuesday.Hutchinson said Tuesday's raid was not aimed at targeting individual medical marijuana users but rather ``major traffickers'' who supply the drug.He also vowed that federal drug officials would continue to accumulate information from the scientific community on the potential medical uses of smoked marijuana, noting that the DEA itself had approved one such study now underway at the University of California San Diego.Source: ReutersPublished: February 12, 2002Copyright: 2002 Reuters UnlimitedRelated Articles & Web Site:Medicinal Cannabis Research Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/research.htmDEA Busts Pot Club Operation; Four Arrestedhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11990.shtmlSF, Oakland Cannibis Clubs Raided http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11988.shtml 
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Comment #3 posted by freedomtoker on February 14, 2002 at 11:41:40 PT
Sheriffs can kick the feds out of the county!!!
It already happened!!! Heres when and where!!!From: Dave Champion 
Subject: Sheriff controls federal actions
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 09:07:25 -0800Don't we all wish we had a sheriff with this much integrity working for us!Dave
___________________________________________________________________________________________Sheriff Dave Mattis of Big Horn County, Wyoming, said this week that as a
result of Case #96-CV099-J, U.S. District Court, District of Wyoming, he now
has a written policy that forbids federal officials from entering his county
and exercising authority over county residents unless he is notified first
of their intentions.After explaining their mission, Mattis said he grants them permission to
proceed if he is convinced that they are operating within the legal
parameters and authority limitations set forth in the U.S. Constitution.The sheriff grants permission on a case-by-case basis only. When asked what,
if any, repercussions he had gotten from the Feds, he quickly and
confidently replied, "None whatsoever." He explained by saying, "They know
they do not have jurisdiction in my county unless I grant it to them."Mattis clarified his position by saying the federal court had ruled that the
state of Wyoming is a sovereign state and the state constitution plainly
states that a county sheriff is the top law enforcement official in the
county.Additionally, Sheriff Mattis contends that the U.S. Constitution, Article 1,
Section 8, clearly defines the geographic territories where the federal
government has jurisdiction. Amendment X, he said, states that "the powers
not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it
to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."Therefore, Mattis thoroughly believes the Feds have very limited powers in
any state unless the local high-sheriff allows them to exercise power beyond
that which the Constitution provides."Put another way," Mattis said, "If the sheriff doesn't want the Feds in his
county, he has the constitutional power and right to keep them out or ask
them to leave."Accompanied with other legal interpretations Mattis stands on the definition
of the world "sovereign," which is defined by Webster's as "paramount,
supreme. Having supreme rank or power. Independent: a sovereign State."Mattis said he grew weary of the Feds coming into his county and running
rough-shod over county residents: i.e., illegally searching, seizing
property, confiscating bank accounts, restricting the free use of private
lands and other abuses, without a valid warrant and without first following
due process of law as guaranteed by the Constitution to every citizen.As long as Mattis remains sheriff he says he will continue to see to it that
the citizens of his county get their day in court.Mattis went on to say that, to his knowledge, even the IRS has not attempted
to seize any citizen's real property, bank account or any other
private-owned possessions since he ran the Feds out of his county.Sheriff Mattis emphasized that he is not a radical man. He said he is only
dedicated to protecting the constitutional rights of the citizens of his
county.He added that ordinary citizens are not the only ones bound by and expected
to obey laws. Elected officials and government employees at all levels of
government are also bound by and should be expected to obey certain laws.As long as Sheriff Mattis is the high-sheriff of Big Horn County, he seems
determined to make sure private citizens and government officials alike act
within the law and their designated powers.Sheriff Mattis came across as a soft-spoken, polite man whose only interest
is protecting the citizens he was elected to serve. That being the case, he
might be the sheriff for as long as he wants to be.Sheriff Mattis is hopeful that other sheriffs will assume the same stance.
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Comment #2 posted by goneposthole on February 13, 2002 at 08:01:04 PT
Do the right thing
The US government will never be able to curb drug use or abuse, legal or illegal. It cannot be done.If a person is ill or in need of medical attention, he or she may also need prescribed medications. That is fine.However and be that as it may, legally prescribed drugs are a serious problem. They kill, by misadminstrations, some 100,000 people per yer. Not a good track record. Other forms of treatment can be a problem, too.Oodles of examples, I can think of a few. For instance, a radiation treatment that ended up many thousands of times more than the dosage normally used.Pharmaceutical prescriptions are completely out of line, if you are using them, quit. Your goal to feel better may be arrived at through cannabis. If you are using 'street' drugs, cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, methamphetamine, etc., or, the worst, alcohol, quit all of them.Your goal to feel better will never be reached and never what you expect.Smoke cannabis, it won't harm you, and you will definitely feel better.As Richard Cowan once wrote of the people who govern us, their behavior is so appalling, we have no choice but to seek some mind altering substance.The knaves and fools who govern us - er- I mean rule us, have lost control and are grabbing straws of any kind to regain it. It is all in vain.  They're a hapless bunch.If you are burdened by the woe of the wretched conditions of where you must survive, don't be. Take heart and solace in this:"It is no shame to be poor, to be ashamed of it is."- Benjamin FranklinWhat is a shame is to be an agent the initiates force where none is needed, i.e. the DEA.It is a shame to be a part of such an entity, and they need to be shamed, unfortunately.Their unexamined lives are not worth living and they need to find new ones. If they end up poor, so be it, it will be nothing that can bring shame.The government is not going to help you, they are only going to make your situation worse. What they do is designed and set up to seperate you from you and yours. do not believe them for one second, they lie, lie all of the time. They are liars.Only you can change what may beset you and no one else.Cannabis will do wonders, given the chance. It is time for a change, and it may seem big, but really it is not.
Everybody I know who uses it always say that it alway helps.Like I say, the government will never be able to curb drug use. They promise the moon, they would try to quell the thirst of a thirsty man instead of quench it. Who can do that? Only you.Who can stop drug use and abuse? Only you.By using cannabis as your medicine, the wonder herb, it can only help and never hurt.The evidence is there, and cannot be refuted. For goodness sake, use it, instead of the other 'JUNK'. 
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Comment #1 posted by eco-man on February 12, 2002 at 22:13:35 PT
ongoing reports 
Also see San Francisco Indymedia for ongoing reports on the DEA raids: 
http://sf.indymedia.org/ and 
http://sf.indymedia.org/news/search/ --Fast search engine. 
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