Police raid medical marijuana dispensary - KXLY.com: News, Weather and Sports for Spokane, WA and Coeur d'Alene, ID | Police raid medical marijuana dispensary Posted: Sep 10, 2009 11:48 AM PDT Thursday, September 10, 2009 2:48 PM EST Updated: Sep 10, 2009 12:13 PM PDT Thursday, September 10, 2009 3:13 PM EST Story by: Rob Kauder / Internet Content Manager, KXLY.com SPOKANE - Police officers have executed a series of search warrants and arrested several people who are illegally selling marijuana out of a storefront at Maple and Northwest Boulevard in north Spokane. Several people have been arrested on charges of possessing or distributing marijuana including the arrest of one man who showed up at the store with a pound of marijuana he had brought to the store to be sold to medical marijuana customers. In addition to the raid on the dispensary at Maple and Northwest Boulevard officers also executed a search warrant on a marijuana grow operation at a home located at 3929 North Cedar. The homeowner is Chris Stevens, a one-time candidate for Spokane City Council. Officers seized 33 marijuana plants from his home. Authorities raided two additional locations: A home located at 904 E. 11th and a home north of Spokane in Tum Tum where they found approximately 100 marijuana plants. One of the co-owners of the North Spokane dispensary, Scott Shupe, was arrested several weeks ago in Oregon trying to bring four pounds of marijuana back to Washington. Shupe was already in custody on an unrelated charge at the time of the raid on his store Thursday morning. Thursday's arrests come on the heels of the arrest nearly two weeks ago of prominent local medical marijuana advocate Darren McCrea, who was arrested on five counts of delivering a controlled substance. At the time of his arrest McCrea had five pounds of marijuana in his possession. By undertaking the raids the Spokane Police Department has become the first law enforcement agency in Washington State to raid a medical marijuana dispensary, challenging the store's contention they can supply med marijuana to any patient. State law allows caretakers to purchase marijuana for medical marijuana cardholders while police here contend that it remains illegal for anyone to provide it to more than one patient at a time. Fucking Spokane police. Bastards are corrupt and only occupy themselves with busting marijuana users while other violent crimes in our area go unsolved (But who cares as long as they are able to make a quick buck and send innocent people to jail, right? /s) Edit:http://www.spokanepolice.org/news/default.aspx?ID=897 SIU Detectives shut down Marijuana Dispensary This morning, just after 10am, Spokane Police Narcotics detectives executed a search warrant at The "Change" Shop, 1514 W. Northwest Blvd. Spokane Police are the first law enforcement agency in the State of Washington to arrest medicinal marijuana distributors for Delivery of a Controlled Substance. The "Change" Shop co-owners, Scott Q. Shupe (11/27/54) and Christopher P. Stevens (6/2/73) were both arrested and booked into the Spokane County Jail for Delivery of marijuana. SPD Detectives executed search warrants at three other Spokane residences while Spokane County detectives assisting in the case executed a search warrant at a residence in Nine Mile Falls. Detectives discovered over 30 marijuana plants growing in a residence on 3900 North Cedar, and another grow operatiion at an apartment on 900 E. 11th Ave. County detectives located over 100 plants at the Nine Mile Falls house. This investigation is continuing, and more arrests may be forthcoming. The "Change" shop is currently closed and detectives were advising other area medical marijuana dispensaries within the City of Spokane to terminate their businesses as well. The investigation revealed that the "Change" shop was selling marijuana to over 1000 customers. Give the SPD a piece of your mind about their actions, they are operating outside of the law for their own personal gain. I already did http://www.spokanepolice.org/contactus/default.aspx
Seriously... Can't they find a meth lab to bust? This kind of shit is a fu*king waste of taxpayers' money.
i live in spokane this is so fucked up spokane has a MAJOR meth problem, makes me sick how they bust a harmless plant makes you think
Yeah, it pisses me off. They are threatening all other dispensaries in Spokane too and telling them to shut down. They arrested a medical patient in the dispensary for having a pound of Cannabis on him even though the legal limit is 24 ounces & they cannot prove he had the intent to sell (1 1/2 pounds) Why? When we have a huge meth problem in Spokane and people are going around to local pharmacies stealing drugs, why are they focusing on something the Washington voters made legal for MMJ patients? It really sickens me.
no shit right, this is such bullshit. the us would be a much better place if we just legalized it. instead they could be going after actual drugs
no shit. i wonder how long the government will take to realize the harmful drugs are the legal ones weed might not be the best for ya, but it sure as hell doesn't do as much damage as the legal drugs. do you see mary jane killing my liver anytime soon?
Why can't we grow all the plants that the creator gave us to use as food and medicine. Hi everyone, my name is Jody. Once again the corporate thugs known as the dea strike again. They raided our home and took our medicine, destroyed our garden, and seemed to truly enjoy killing our plants. They also went to a dealership and purchased a new hitop van to haul off my $1200 ghetto setup. A Stevens county deputy, good Christian fellow, told me how they come in and supervise their annual eradication program and spend huge amounts of tax dollars flying all these helicopters around. He flat out told me that he didn't appreciate them coming around and using our tax dollars to promote their agenda. I firmly believe that the Spokane pd got involved with shutting the dispensaries down because of federal pressure. The city of Spokane sure didn't turn down their tax money.
Obama just doesn't give a shit either way... He feels there are more pressing matters... But still we get raids and the DEA gets to do what they please. Fuck this. I'm moving.
The law is the law. I dont want to sound like the opposition, but until Marijuana becomes legal, these events will keep happening. Just the sad truth unfortunately.
" SPOKANE - Police officers have executed a series of search warrants and arrested several people who are illegally selling marijuana out of a storefront at Maple and Northwest Boulevard in north Spokane. " I am pretty sure if the dispensarys followed the guidelines they were given, none of this would have happened. Raids dont happen for no reason. And if they do then fuck the police who raided them in the first place.
Dispensarys have to be non profit, and no shady shit. But then again like I said, if the raids were happening just cause some douchebag ordered the DEA to, then fuck them.
So fucked up. The fact is though your average cop makes the same thing as the guy at mcdonalds. Guy at mcdonalds could quite likely sell but thats another story. Cop mind "Get my ass shot at a meth lab or ring the door bell on a grow op"
No tacoturd dispensaries do not have to be non profit. The city of Spokane issued them a business license and a resellers permit and took there tax money.
I live in Spokane as well and I could care less that this dispensary has been closed. I personally know the owners of it as well and it was a badly run business that didnt offer any quality herbage for outrageous prices. Its dumb they closed it down but these guys are all convicted felons and decided to open up a dispensary when WA state has no dispensary laws or regulations. They were skating on thin ice.
According to the Attorney General they should be not-for-profit in order for cooperation from law enforcement to carry on with more important business. “Nothing in Proposition 215 authorizes collectives, cooperatives, or individuals to profit from the sale or distribution of marijuana.” Furthermore, you cannot just grow some plants and sell them to dispensarys without having a medical card. On top of that, you cannot under any circumstance sell medicine to any person who has not been legally verified to be a patient. A business license allows them to hold the business legally, sellers permit allows them to sell items allowed by law, and even if they pay taxes, anything against the law will be suspicious. Meth labs arent being busted because its so easy to close down a dispensary run by idiots looking to make a few bucks. But when you have meth labs running with dogs and guns protecting the place, I would have a second thought about busting in raiding the place.
I also know both owners. I totally agree that it was a poorly run business. Poorly run is an understatement btw. Chris is my friend and a good person who was easily manipulated by Scott who set all the prices and made all the decisions. I told them from the start that I didn't see how they were going to make the one person at a time thing work. Frankly, it sounded a little silly and i laughed at them, but when Mr. obama announced the raids were to be over they went for it. All the current dispensary operators sat back and held their breath. When the city of Spokane accepted Changes tax money they couldn't stand it any more. Another topic that I want to touch on is the fact the dea was involved. There were several dea agents that lead the raid on my home. Both the Spokane county and the Stevens county sheriffs depts. stated they were there only there to observe. I have read several articles and seen several news clips and I don't believe that i have seen any mention of the feds.