cannabisnews.com: Calif. Pot Raids are Wasteful and Abusive Calif. Pot Raids are Wasteful and Abusive Posted by CN Staff on September 20, 2002 at 19:27:47 PT Editorial Source: Times Herald-Record The DEA keeps busting medicinal marijuana co-ops, but has filed no charges. Cocaine, much of it bound for the United States, retains its position as Colombia's largest cash crop. Illegal drugs still pour into this country from Mexico. Heroin is back. Ecstasy is still here. And pushers still provide teen-agers with marijuana to escape the rigors of school. The U.S. "war" on drugs – which continues to emphasize interdiction, arrest and prosecution rather than education, treatment and rehabilitation – has enough frontiers to keep the Drug Enforcement Agency busy for, well, forever. So long as there is enough demand and enough illegal profit to be made, there will be enough bad guys ready to make it. So what in the world were DEA agents doing a couple of weeks ago knocking down doors at dawn, brandishing guns and screaming at terminally ill cancer, AIDS and polio patients to get out of bed? Enforcing the drug law, says the DEA. Harassing law-abiding, peaceable citizens, say government and law-enforcement officials in California where the raid took place. The DEA drug bust took place on Sept. 5 at a medical marijuana co-op in the hills outside Santa Cruz. People at the co-op help to grow and harvest marijuana for medicinal use only. It eases their considerable pain. The marijuana is distributed to them free. This has been legal in California since 1996 when voters approved the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Since then, similar laws have been passed in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. But federal law forbids marijuana possession for any purpose, so the ever-vigilant DEA has been raiding medical marijuana farms around California, apparently just to let local officials know it's around. It's certainly not to get arrests. In not one case, including the most recent raid, has any charge been placed against anyone for growing or possessing or using marijuana at the farms. That's because federal prosecutors don't think they can get a conviction from any jury on these busts. And that's because there are no bad guys. If average citizens think it makes sense to let terminally ill people use marijuana to ease their suffering and their state's law allows it, what purpose is served by armed federal agents kicking in doors, chopping up marijuana plants and scaring sick people from their beds when the DEA has no intention of filing charges? That is not law enforcement: That is a waste of time, energy and money that could be used to go after drug pushers. It is, in fact, an abuse of power. DEA administrator Asa Hutchinson defends his raid policy and says California's law is too vague insofar as how much marijuana you can grow, or have or for what disease you can use it. That is pure nonsense. City and county law enforcement officials in Santa Cruz, who enforce state law, are upset by the heavy-handed DEA raids. Tuesday, the Santa Cruz City Council let the co-op hand out marijuana to its patients on the steps of City Hall as local police looked on. Top state officials call the raids callous treatment of sick, law-abiding people who represent a threat to no one. They're right. The raids are also an insult to California voters by a Republican administration in Washington that is supposed to value the principle of state's rights. Those rights have traditionally included deciding on health care for a state's citizens. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that state laws allowing medicinal marijuana can't be used as a defense against charges of violating federal drug laws. But that doesn't mean the federal law makes sense, or that states should not be allowed to control medical practices within their borders. Nor does it excuse abusive police practices, such as repeatedly invading private domains without any intention of filing criminal charges. If a law can't be enforced with criminal charges and convictions, it is useless. This is a dumb, wasteful, misguided, punitive, brutal, arrogant policy and the DEA ought to stop it immediately. Go catch some real drug pushers and let these sick people have some respite. Meanwhile, Congress needs to rewrite federal drug laws to follow the lead of the enlightened citizens of California and the other states that allow the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. This is one front in the drug war that could and should be closed.Newshawk: CongressmanSuetSource: Times Herald-Record (NY)Published: Friday, September 20, 2002Copyright: 2002 Orange County PublicationsWebsite: http://www.recordonline.com/Contact: http://www.recordonline.com/services/contact.htmlRelated Articles & Web Sites:WAMMhttp://www.wamm.org/Pictures From WAMM Protesthttp://freedomtoexhale.com/eventpics.htmMedicinal Pot Issue is About The Sick, Dyinghttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14193.shtmlWorld Watches Pot Handouthttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14154.shtmlMedical Marijuana Backed in Santa Cruz http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14152.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #4 posted by FoM on September 20, 2002 at 23:17:31 PT CongressmanSuet I know what you are saying. These are scary times indeed. I'm calling it a day too. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by CongressmanSuet on September 20, 2002 at 22:48:09 PT Im afraid you are right... Whatever happened to "Dont tread on me"? We will not provoke war, but we will respond, and help keep the order against brazen attempts to de-stabilise us[sure] when did we become the aggresors? What gives us the right? Oh, now I remember, we have "GOD" on ourside and not "Allah". Sorry. We were always the ones who responded[right or wrongly. mostly wrongly] to REAL threats now we are going to rally around this fool and create maybe the BIGGEST mistake ever.... I, going to bed before I burst a vessel! sel.... [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by FoM on September 20, 2002 at 22:08:19 PT CongressmanSuet Thank you for the article. The raid on WAMM is getting a lot of press. Valerie and Mike Corral have done so much good and what the government did to them is more then terrible. I hope the upcoming protests are successful and receive good tv coverage. I am very concerned that we are going to attack Iraq and it's almost like a dream and it can't be true but Bush is going to do his best to do it. That kind of power really scares me. Hopefully the Iraq issue won't overshadow these very important soon to be events. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by CongressmanSuet on September 20, 2002 at 21:23:48 PT This article... What makes this particularly interesting is that it comes from a fairly conservative, pro-prohibitionist newspaper in the Hudson Vally in Lower NY state. Out of the blue.....this stuff is getting ALOT of press. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment