DEA RAIDS L.A. CANNABIS RESOURCE CENTER
More Raids Expected in N. California
WEST HOLLYWOOD, Oct. 25. On the very afternoon that the Bush administration assumed new powers against terrorism, it launched a major new war on medical marijuana in California. Scores of DEA agents descended on the L.A. Cannabis Resource Center, seizing all of the center's computers, patient files, bank records, plants, gardening equipment, and medicine.
The raid effectively shut down the largest, best organized and most respected cannabis center in Southern California, depriving its 1000 members of the medicine they need to treat AIDS, cancer, and other serious illnesses. The LACRC had prided itself on providing its members with a safe, secure supply of home-grown medicine without recourse to illicit criminal dealers and smugglers.
The L.A. bust represents a major escalation of the feds' war on medical pot. Unlike their previous action against six clubs in N. Cal, the feds did not seek a civil suit in the courts, but rather came in and wiped out the club's facility with no prior warning. Also unlike the previous federal suit, the feds did not execute undercover buys to bust the club, whose admission standards were notoriously rigorous, but relied entirely on newsclippings and information publicly provided by the club (in particular an application for a DEA license to manufacture marijuana) to show probable cause that the club was violating federal law. "Everything we did to try to be legitimate they used against us," said Scott Imler, director of the LACRC.
The raid on the LACRC is believed to be the first step towards a wider federal crackdown on medical cannabis in California. In the S.F. Bay Area, the DEA has been conducting surveillance on clubs, raiding patient gardens, and trying to generate undercover buys and informants. The feds have also undertaken a major medical cannabis case in the Eastern District of California against Dr. Marion "Mollie" Fry and Dale Schafer, whose 7,000 client records have been seized for further investigation.
The DEA cited no justification for its action other than the recent Supreme Court decision re-affirming the illegality of medical marijuana. A new constitutional challenge to the law has been filed in federal court, arguing that the federal government has no authority to interfere with medical marijuana in California under the interstate commerce clause, and that the federal law violates the 9th, 10th, and 5th Amendments.
The warrant against the club was not signed by a California judge, but by a 70-year-old Nixon appointee from Florida who happened to be serving temporarily on the circuit. Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia is said to have called on the Department of Justice to attack the club.
The feds' new aggressiveness dates from the assumption to power of DEA chief Asa Hutchinson in August. His tenure has also brought a crackdown on paraphernalia suppliers, a number of whom have been busted or forced to close by DEA after conducting business peacefully for years.
California NORML condemned the raid as an outrageous abuse of government power: "At this time of national crisis, the enemy is anthrax, not medical marijuana, " said California NORML coordinator Dale Gieringer, "It's disgraceful that the DEA is waging war on thousands of sick Americans instead of foreign terrorists." Contacts: LACRC - Scott Imler, Director, (323) 874-0811 .