the DEA raids another dispensary

Sigh....before posting stuff that is going to be inflammatory, GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT!

OTHER than the March 25 raids, which were conducted by the TEMPORARY head of the DEA as a thumb to the nose of the President, NO DEA RAIDS have been conducted. NONE.

The DEA has been present at a couple of actions because they were REQUESTED by local law-enforcement to aid actions that were legal under DUE PROCESS. The clubs that have been raided were served VALID State Search warrants, something that the DEA never did under the Bush Regime. These clubs were violating STATE law, not federal.

Craig Ruben is a snake-oil salesman who is not in it for the good of the community. He knew DAMN WELL that his opening up those clubs was illegal under the Los Angeles City Moratorium, and he opened them anyway. There are going to be many, many more clubs closed down that were opened illegally under the "hardship" loophole, and this is a GOOD thing. There are now over 500 illegally operating MMJ clubs in Los Angeles alone, these people are not in it for the community, and they certainly aren't operating under the State Attorney General's Guidelines for MMJ Collectives (they HAVE to be non-profit, which most of them aren't).

I'm not a fan of the DEA by any stretch of the imagination, BUT to say that the DEA and Obama have lied is disingenious, and untrue. Fact is since Eric Holder made that statement there has been ONE day of raids, and that was denounced by Holder and Obama.

GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT.

 

Man knows his shit

 

apparently. damn.

 

I'm very involved in the community, and I discuss these things with my friends who happen to be MMJ Collective owners, and are members of ASA and GLACA. I'm keenly interested in ensuring that SAFE, LEGAL access is provided to all MMJ patients, I've followed these stories seems like forever. Whenever there's a raid we all discuss the issues, get the information out there, and follow up.

The community has made great strides out there to keep safe access abundant. What we don't need is 500 illegal dispensaries opening up under a "hardship loophole", which gives the community a black eye. We worked HARD to get Obama elected so that he WOULD revoke the DEA's ability to raid clubs, and IT WORKED! SO WHEN I READ SHIT LIKE THIS POST I GET ANGRY. If the DEA continued it's smash-and-grab raids I would be right there with righteous indignation, but they haven't (except for that one day in March). They've been rightfully chastised by AG Holder and the Obama administration.

The most recent raids are a result of the Los Angeles City Council getting off their collective asses and fixing that loophole where anyone could submit a "hardship" application and open a club. No business license, no tax permit, etc, just a hardship application and they thought they could open. WRONG. Those hardship applications are starting to be heard by the city council. So far over 40 clubs had their applications heard by the council.

Guess how many were approved?


Zero.

There are GREAT clubs in Los Angeles that have been open since before the Moratorium, and they are doing fantastic work keeping Safe Access available to qualified patients. These guys are truly in it for the community, and are going out of business because Joe-Schmoe submitted a hardship app and is undercutting the good clubs. These guys don't care about patients, they care about profits, and I will NOT stand for club owners profiteering on the backs of patients.

 

Let me ask you this - do you actually post anything other than links to Youtube or other sites? Doesn't seem like it.

I actually KNOW Don Duncan, he's a friend of a friend of mine. I wouldn't be surprised that he said what he said, but my assessment of your initial (lack of) statement still applies. The August 12 raids in California were done by LOCAL Police with assistance by the feds, and were served with VALID State Search Warrants. My understanding is also that the California clubs were owned by the same individual who was profiteering from MMJ, and also selling other non-MMJ drugs out of the locations.

The Colorado clubs were raided as part of a sting operation against four Russian individuals, and MMj was just PART of the overall criminal enterprise they were running.

If I had flamed you, you'd damn well know it. I stated, and still assert, you were WRONG to post this thread the way you did.

 

Thanks for clearing that up

 

No, I don't care to share my ailment. It's personal, and I don't just give out my personal information to anyone. And I don't have to.

Actually my tag line is wrong, I found my original recommendation, and it's from 2005...so I have to fix that. And yes, it is nice to be an MMJ patient, which is why I'm so staunchly against disinformation in the MMJ community.

I don't know all of the details in every case...but as far as the Lake Country case goes, seems to me that he has a lot more issues than just being an MMJ provider. Which seems to be the single thread linking all these cases, there is more at issue here than just MMJ.

I don't always agree with ASA and NORML BTW - they have their agendas too you know.

 

Sort of, but not entirely. Two dispensaries in Southern California were raided on August 12 and it isn't quite clear who was in command. Additionally, the way the laws are set up, it's very easy to obscure who is really in command. Now, in these two particular cases, the warrant came from an LAPD detective, however, the question is was it done at the behest of the DEA?

Interestingly enough, the charges seem to have been dropped. Hmmm, I wonder why?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anthony-citrano/task-force-raids-la-marij_b_258751.html

 

Well, that's the thing, we're not lawyers, and we don't know all the facts. It APPEARS that the DEA was in charge, but that's probably just the way they go about doing things, we all know from TV that when the Feds are involved they just take over - Agent Smith: "When we commandeer your men, we'll try to let you know." - Die Hard.

I do fully expect that when Obama does appoint a new head of the DEA they will be tasked with leaving MMJ alone.

Though I will admit that there desperately needs to be some sort of legislation at a Federal level that would end this foolishness once and for all.

Don't forget though that MMJ is nowhere near where it should be on Obama's radar. If there were no economic issues to deal with I'm sure it'd be right up on top, but he's far too engaged in fixing the economy at this point.

It's too bad too, because all of this nonsense could be solved by just removing MJ from Schedule 1.

 

It also wouldn't surprise me to find that the DEA is actively trying to circumvent the AG's statements and continue to do what they're doing in spite of the President's directive. Remember, there is no permanent head of the DEA, and the woman in charge was a Bush appointee.