cannabisnews.com: San Mateo Pot Shops Raided





San Mateo Pot Shops Raided
Posted by CN Staff on August 30, 2007 at 07:06:07 PT
By Michael Manekin, Staff Writer
Source: San Mateo County Times
San Mateo, CA -- In the largest Bay Area raid of medical marijuana dispensaries in nearly a year, federal agents stormed three medical cannabis outlets in downtown San Mateo on Wednesday afternoon and shut them down. The DEA, accompanied by members of the San Mateo County Narcotics Task Force and the San Mateo Police Department, seized 50 pounds of processed marijuana, hashish, cannabis-laced edibles and approximately $30,000 in cash, according to a statement by the U.S. Department of Justice. No arrests were reported.
The raids occurred in the middle of the afternoon, and the three dispensaries were located in busy, commercial districts of the city — including one site in an office building in the city's commercial center on Third Avenue. "A bunch of guys with drawn guns dropped into the building and bashed the door down, shock-and-awe style," said Josh Snyder, an employee of an Internet startup in the Third Avenue office building. A DEA spokesperson refused to identify the dispensaries, and the search warrants issued for the raids remain under seal, but the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws lists on its Web site three San Mateo dispensaries: Patients Choice Resource Cooperative, at 164 South Blvd.; Peninsula Patients Local Option, at 397 S. Claremont St.; and MHT, at 60 E. Third Ave. All three dispensaries were reportedly raided, according to Kris Hermes of Americans for Safe Access, an Oakland-based medical marijuana advocacy group. A fourth dispensary named Holistic Solutions closed voluntarily as a result of the raids, he said. Federal agents did not say whether the raided dispensaries had violated the state's medical marijuana laws. However, they were all "in violation of federal law," said Cmdr. Mark Wyss of the county's Narcotics Task Force. The use of medical marijuana with the recommendation of a doctor is legal in California under Proposition 215, passed by state voters in 1996. In San Mateo County, 66 percent voted in favor of the measure. However, federal law prohibits the possession of cannabis, and the city of San Mateo does not have local regulations pertaining to the distribution of medical marijuana. According to NORML, which only lists dispensaries compliant with state and local marijuana laws on its Web site, the raided dispensaries had not violated state law. Medical marijuana advocates and law enforcement officials said that the raids essentially wiped out the county's medical marijuana dispensaries. "Of course, that's going to impact access for the patients who live in San Mateo and surrounding areas," said Hermes. "You're talking about the vast majority or all of the facilities in a particular region." That the DEA would devastate one county's supply of medical marijuana is not "unprecedented," Hermes said. Last year, federal agents raided two dispensaries in Stanislaus County, which essentially cut off patients' access in that region. "The federal government has been coming in and undermining the state's medical marijuana law," Hermes said. "There is an unrelenting amount of harassment currently going on by the federal government." Hermes called the DEA's collaboration with San Mateo police and Narcotics Task Force "very distressing." San Mateo City Councilman Brandt Grotte said that he was not aware that local police were working with federal agents on a nine-month investigation of the city's medical marijuana dispensaries. "If it turns out that the activities that were being undertaken (at the dispensaries) were in compliance with the state law, then I would prefer that police were not involved locally, aside from being informed the raids were occurring. "I have a lot of compassion for people who are suffering," said Grotte. "If they're in cancer treatment or something like that, I honestly believe that (marijuana) can have therapeutic value." Outside the shuttered dispensaries in San Mateo on Wednesday afternoon, that seemed to be the prevailing view among the eyewitnesses to the raids. Michael Gilbert was standing across the street from the Patients Choice Resource Cooperative when "the DEA just came down like a ton of bricks," he said — an operation he emphatically disagreed with. "I don't smoke dope," said Gilbert, "but that's what I think." "Oh, man, that's not dope — that's medical marijuana," said Glenn Owens, the owner of a lawn-mower repair shop next to the dispensary. "There are people who actually use it for medical purposes — and to deny them that is wrong." Jason Marshalla, a 19-year-old college student from Mountain View, was one of a handful of patients who attempted to stop by the Peninsula Patients Local Option on South Claremont Street late Wednesday afternoon. Standing outside the shuttered dispensary, he said he smokes medical marijuana to treat his Attention Deficit Disorder — a treatment which helps him do his homework better, he said. His aunt, he said, takes THC pills (a distillation of the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana) to treat her cancer, and a friends' mom uses marijuana to ease her arthritis. Marshalla traveled all the way from Mountain View to San Mateo, he said, because the city harbors the closest dispensaries to his home in the South Bay. Now, he said, he would have to travel to Hayward, the next-closest location — a prospect he called "inconvenient." "Now, I have to go really far to get it," he said. "It's probably going to be the same now for a lot of people." The last large-scale raids of Bay Area medical marijuana dispensaries by the DEA came in October 2006, when federal agents stormed about a half-dozen locations in San Francisco and Oakland, seizing about 13,000 plants and arresting 15 people. Note: Three medical cannabis dispensaries shuttered in joint action by DEA and local police.Source: San Mateo County Times, The (CA)Author: Michael Manekin, Staff WriterPublished: August 30, 2007Copyright: 2007 MediaNews Group, Inc.Contact: http://tinyurl.com/39f8bxWebsite: http://www.sanmateocountytimes.com/ Americans For Safe Accesshttp://www.safeaccessnow.org/CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml 
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Comment #24 posted by Hope on September 01, 2007 at 13:45:03 PT
Unkat27
Glad to see you posting.
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Comment #23 posted by unkat27 on September 01, 2007 at 13:22:18 PT
Wayne. #20
>> OK, maybe its just my sensitivity to small details, but I'm seeing a blatant question here that someone in the media, someone in power, or maybe even one of us needs to be asking:WHERE ARE ALL THE DRUGS AND MONEY GOING?? Normally, they would be admitted as evidence. Since no one is being arrested, that means no one is being charged. If no one is being charged, no one is going to court. If no one is going to court, the seizures are not being admitted as evidence. Where is it all going??------------------------------------------------------You're exactly right, Wayne. When I saw that "No arrests were made," the same point occurred to me. IMO, what the DEA has been doing with the dispensaries in CA is nothing less than "LEGAL THEFT". The DEA are legal thieves with badges and what they are doing is no different that what organized criminals do when they visit local businesses and extract protection money (actually, it's much worse).The money they take gets divied between them and put into their own pockets, and the pot is probly resold on the blackmarket elsewhere for even higher prices.
The DEA in CA
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Comment #22 posted by The GCW on August 30, 2007 at 21:54:12 PT
Bush takes medicine from sick people.
Taking candy from a baby is not low enough.Bush takes medicine from sick people.
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Comment #21 posted by The GCW on August 30, 2007 at 21:52:30 PT
Gestapo SWATSTIKA Terrorist 
Gestapo SWATSTIKA Terrorist Hurt sick people...Bush stoops low.
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Comment #20 posted by Wayne on August 30, 2007 at 20:25:43 PT
one question for everyone
"The DEA, accompanied by members of the San Mateo County Narcotics Task Force and the San Mateo Police Department, seized 50 pounds of processed marijuana, hashish, cannabis-laced edibles and approximately $30,000 in cash, according to a statement by the U.S. Department of Justice. No arrests were reported."OK, maybe its just my sensitivity to small details, but I'm seeing a blatant question here that someone in the media, someone in power, or maybe even one of us needs to be asking:WHERE ARE ALL THE DRUGS AND MONEY GOING?? Normally, they would be admitted as evidence. Since no one is being arrested, that means no one is being charged. If no one is being charged, no one is going to court. If no one is going to court, the seizures are not being admitted as evidence. Where is it all going?? Chances are, the cannabis is being "destroyed" (read: smoked up at some cop's house poker game on Friday night), but who is getting the money? $30,000 here and $30,000 there just disappears?? Oh yeah I forgot, we lost $11 billion in Iraq. I guess anything is possible.Someone needs to be asking the DEA and the police departments that question. And if they try to use that "ongoing investigation" mumbo-jumbo, you can look them in the eye and yell "BULLSHIT!!"
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Comment #19 posted by Hope on August 30, 2007 at 17:54:32 PT
The people that do those raids
think they're doing a good thing for society. They really do. Obviously.Of course other people who have despised other people throughout history, before the pot laws even... and have managed to pass new laws and found ways to enforce those laws, rigorously even, without seeming like they were out of control oppressors. They didn't seem out of control to themselves, anyway. They could explain why they were doing the right thing, too. It was legal, too. It was their job, too. They were helping a cause, too.They can't see. They won't see. They dare not see. So, they don't see.
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Comment #18 posted by FoM on August 30, 2007 at 16:24:20 PT
Toker00
Where there's life there's hope. We must always believe that or they win and win very quickly. The problem with religious doctrine is it becomes the most important thing in some people's life. I remember we were to occupy until he comes it says. When people become so spiritually minded they become no earthly good. That's where the trouble starts and wars start too.
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Comment #17 posted by Toker00 on August 30, 2007 at 15:56:18 PT
Is this being pessimistic or realistic?
The neo-cons are designing our Reality to go right along with the Religious Christian, Jewish, Muslim (Roman) Fantasy of Armageddon. That design scares everyone, even the non-believers. Yep, we're headed toward Monsters rising up out of the Earth and descending from the Heavens and straddling rivers and led by the Superstars of this one big massive Spiritual War, Jesus Christ, and uh...what's the other guy prefer, Lucifer or Satan? Anyway...when the NuCuLar bombs go off, all that Religious (But not Righteous) stuff will be put to rest and we will all begin dieing of Radiation poison (like some of us are today from the DU weapons being exploded all over Mother Earth, including soon, Amerika) and are faced with the Reality that Man is Evil and needs to start BEING Good. The air that is over there, will be over here in 48 hours, complete with the radiation injected into our Mother Earth's Atmospherical lIfe bReath. (AIR) Breath it in, people. Like you have a choice. Watch all the young people, even children, even newborns, breath it in. Watch as "Satan" belches forth more from his Military Industrial Complex. Next, the AIR in IRAN, (yes there is AIR in IRAN, the I the R and the A, put in proper order, AIR.) :p will be saturated with even more of the Dark Sorcerer's Dust for the Children of the Earth to breath. It's only purpose, in being Co-Created, this Dark Sorcerer's Dust, is to Destroy. And it will. Forever, as far as Humanity is concerned, or until a way of De-Radiation is Created. (wishful thinking) The Rich Kids wanted it all, and by God and Bush, they'll have it. Unfortunately, there may not be a Prize at the End of this Game. Even the Winners will Lose. We will all become Have Nots. Done Fors. Adios M***F***. (Too Much? Sorry!)But then on the Bright Side, they could Legalize Cannabis and end All Wars as a way of doing Business. That would cause a landslide of Good Things to happen. There's still Hope, right? RIGHT?!?Toke.     
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Comment #16 posted by FoM on August 30, 2007 at 14:56:55 PT
BGreen
I remember prostitution, gambling and cannabis possession were thought of as victimless crimes. 
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Comment #15 posted by FoM on August 30, 2007 at 14:43:13 PT
BGreen
I did a google search for prostitution and gambling and I asked if there was a federal law against them. I couldn't find anything that was concrete one way or the other. I guess I always thought they were against Federal Law and I didn't know how Nevada got away with it. People buy lottery tickets so that is gambling too. 
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Comment #14 posted by BGreen on August 30, 2007 at 13:54:45 PT
Nevada violated Federal Laws for decades!
Gambling and prostitution were against federal law for decades but Nevada flaunted the fact that their State laws superseded Federal laws. That's why Las Vegas is one of the top tourist destinations in the world resulting in billions of dollars in profits.Nevada is our legal precedent that State laws trump (no pun intended) federal laws, even if the feds want to rewrite and/or ignore the Constitution.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #13 posted by FoM on August 30, 2007 at 13:15:43 PT
museman
I understand what you are saying. Maybe because we live in the country and have for many years we've learned how to survive if we have to. It's not going to be easy for people who need the system. 
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Comment #12 posted by museman on August 30, 2007 at 12:43:23 PT
FoM
Yes, I know. It is getting rather 'biblical' these days. Realisticly speaking (though I know some people don't consider there to be any spiritual 'real') the only hope is 'Divine Intervention' of some kind.However, there is a spiritual babylon which is manifest in false beliefs and values held (as prophesied) by the majority. There are those of us who have been crying "Come out of Babylon" to our brothers and sisters for a long, long time. The fact is, every now and then, one or two look up and listen, then they get the message and make the effort to get out of the mind-set and lifestyle which is Babylon. That is why we keep trying.If a building is on fire, you don't yell 'chocolate' even if you know most people won't make it out, you yell 'FIRE!!' at the top of your lungs hoping that some will get out.I've known the situation since I had my own visionary indoctrination way back when I was a teenager (non-substance related), and have seen one fulfillment after another. I have been outside of Babylon crying to my people ever since. It hasn't been very profitable in the worldly sense, but then there is no real profit in worldy things anyway.When the dust of Divine Earthly Justice clears, those who are left standing are going to have to re-design civilization. If there are no people left who have embraced the truth without the compromises of materialism, there will be only chaos and ruin. Every one that is 'called out' will be called upon at that time to re-dispense the truth that is now being obfuscated and obscured by the status quo-which is Babylon.We are told not to 'hide our lamp under a bush' (nothing about the Bush smothering it -except as a right-hand man of abomination) and compromise with the truth -politics- is only the way of perdition, and an error of extreme import.It is true that the majority will keep on feeding the beast all the way to the point where the beast is destroyed, so I consider it my duty to wage truth and righteousness against the majority, in the hopes that some few will get the message and take steps in their lives to clean the filth of this contemporary society off of their spirits.Those who deny the truth are fit only to be indentified as the losers they are, then given a wide berth. "Cast not your pearls before swine, lest they should turn and rend you with them."
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Comment #11 posted by FoM on August 30, 2007 at 12:14:08 PT
museman
I try to step back and look at the big picture. I honestly don't know if the direction we are going can be stopped. The Democrats might slow it down a little but the direction is a one world government. The first President Bush said it's a New World Order. I came to that conclusion during my bible research days. It seems to be falling together the way I thought it would. That doesn't mean that we should quit but we shouldn't be shocked by our direction either.
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Comment #10 posted by Dankhank on August 30, 2007 at 12:12:51 PT
in their faces ...
It's voting time again, the best time to catch a politician out and about, they're harder to find other times...Ideally, three or four or many more should go to see each politician. Every one should dress nice and smile a lot waiting for question-time to begin. someone really clean looking up front should attempt to ask the question ... like ... Why do you vote to allow DEA to attack sick people in wheelchairs and steal their medicine? How the pol answers will help the others to smile wave a hand, if lucky... ask a followup, or ask ... you didn't answer the question earlier could you explain again your position regarding ...This is hard to do alone, but something can be done solo, you will find strength in numbers ... good luck, all 
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Comment #9 posted by museman on August 30, 2007 at 11:46:14 PT
Eichmann, Himmler, Mengele,
The Gestapo. Our illustrious democratic candidates for furhrer have mentioned their 'concern.' They are out there right now doing every thing but, and absolutely nothing to stop it or slow it down. Our government is corrupt. Simple. They bought their power with money they invented, and ripped off from the rest of the world.When the SS began to raid the shops and homes of the Jews in the 30's, the german bigots who blamed the wealthy Jews for the wealthy german-british-american crimes were right there throwing rocks and insults while the various corps of SS were destroying the shops and beating people up. The rest of Germany sat in their homes with the doors shut, and curtains drawn, their radios and phonographs turned up so they didn't have to see or hear what their neighbors were doing.The people have no real political power. All the power they actually have is given away to the wealthy americans who have sworn allegiances to demons and false authority. Is there going to be change after the next election? Change of faces maybe, but not policy or attitude. How long after Hobama (Hillary-Obama) gets 'elected' do you suppose it will take before the discussion of the modern SS tactics actually gets real? Hey Mr. Bill made some very strong hints and allusions that his administration would bring some sanity into the cannabis question. What did he actually do? Nothing except a glib remark about 'not inhaling.' Is his wife going to be any different?Oh sure, like any of the other candidates, especially the ones like Kucinich, have a chance in hell of getting the nomination.People think that it is their votes that determines the outcome. Folks, if your 'vote' doesn't have a significant dollar amount or promisary amount attached to it, it's relatively worthless.Go Underground? I've been 'underground' for 35 years. Personally I've grown quite claustrophobic, and long for the light of day. Underground is basicly HIDING! No action, no change except a buildup of fear and loathing.I urge every MMJ person to get vocal and in somebody's (who deserves it) face. We can't be like the apathetic germans were when the SS started their DEA tactics, and 
close our doors and windows to the truth. The truth has got to be proclaimed from the rooftops. Give me a 'bonghits for jesus sign' any day over the alternatives of doing nothing.
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Comment #8 posted by Hope on August 30, 2007 at 11:16:23 PT
I get the message!
You're demanding, mean, and dangerous.Deadly, even.And you're "The Boss", Boss.I get it.
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Comment #7 posted by Hope on August 30, 2007 at 11:10:57 PT
Wrong person? Wrong place? Wrong time?
But what if I am with the WRONG person?!! What if I don't know that the person I'm with is the WRONG person? Or I'm at the wrong place at the wrong time. Or my child is?If I just be good, they won't hurt me. Right?What if they jump on one of my children? What if they jump on and even kill someone's child? Yes. They already have, I know. Yet, even with that, even with "Discharging" their weapons at elderly bed ridden patients, and young children, they have proven unstoppable. Nothing will stop them. Mistakes don't matter really. It's "The Mission". They are, of course, "Kept" and "Fed" well. Their "feed stores", through their yearly budgets, are lavishly appointed. To be governed by fear and intimidation is a bad thing. We just have to accept it, though. Don't we? We are, indeed, like sheep...driven by swarms of Darth Vaders wherever they want us to go.I've more than "gotten the message". I understand it very well. Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. I heard you. You said you'd take my weed. You said you'd take my car...my house. You said you'd take my future away from me. All my money. My job, yes. Yes you said you'd take my kids. Yes. I get the message.
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Comment #6 posted by Hope on August 30, 2007 at 10:57:12 PT
DEA SWAT Dynamic Entry....Safety?
With my fairly extensive knowledge and understanding of animal nature, I fully realize that things can go wrong, really wrong and really fast.. in a room full of furious animals. Being the fairly gentle person that I am, the message, and ensuing feeling, that I get is definitely more a feeling of alarm, and rightly so. I definitely don't get a sense of how safe, warm, and cozy things are for me and my family, friends and neighbors, because we are surrounded by viciousness coiled. It's chilling. It's supposed to be.Surrounded by testosterone, adrenaline maddened "Pitt Bulls"... with the best body armor and hair trigger weaponry that modern technology can provide? I should feel safe? Feels like "Somebody's gonna get hurt here and it could be anybody." Feels like poison in the air. Feels like they don't read so well sometimes, or someone gets confused, and they "Attack" the wrong "Suspect" or "Person of interest". It's the feeling you get at a scene of carnage... and someone saying, "The weapon discharged". "I thought he was armed." "I feared for my life and safety". No. Doesn't make me feel safe at all... even if those Pitts swear their loyalty to me and are supposed to be mine, as a "gift" for me and mine...bought with my own money, of course, and they really, really do love me and they wouldn't bite me, ever. As long as I didn't do something wrong. Or even, somehow, looked like I was doing something they wouldn't like. Well.. maybe then. But that wouldn't happen. Would it? They love me. They care about me. 
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on August 30, 2007 at 10:09:56 PT
The Last Man To Die in a War
I think it really depends on how people feel about what could happen. 
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Comment #4 posted by Hope on August 30, 2007 at 10:02:48 PT
DEA
I've always thought they acted like "Terrorists". You can't tell me that they don't use terror in their tactics. Terror is very much a part of it. They have all kinds of excuses...but it's still terror tactics.They scare me.I generally don't like what scares me.
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Comment #3 posted by OverwhelmSam on August 30, 2007 at 09:42:06 PT
mykeyb420
I disagree, I think medical use should be open, notorious, in your face for all to see.The big problem is the regegade police departments that are paid by the citizens of the city to uphold the laws the citizens want upheld, such as medical marijuana. I think these renegade cops pay should be tied to their competence in abiding by the hand that feeds them. At least police chiefs should be relieved of duty for not following local laws. If they want to enforce brutal federal law, let the feds pay them.
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Comment #2 posted by HempWorld on August 30, 2007 at 08:38:10 PT
DEA is a terrorist organization!
Pure evil, stifling research and harrasing sick people...
Nobody can stop this!
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Comment #1 posted by mykeyb420 on August 30, 2007 at 08:37:26 PT
underground
It does not pay to advertise. I urge all MMJ people to go underground,,this way they cant find us,,,just like Ossama Bin Laden.
Sound like warrentless wiretapping at its finest.
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