Drug War Chronicle, Issue #456 -- 10/6/06
Phillip S. Smith, Editor, psmith@drcnet.org
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/456

A Publication of Stop the Drug War (DRCNet)
David Borden, Executive Director, borden@drcnet.org
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition"

AN IMPORTANT NEW DOCUMENTARY ABOUT THE MEDICAL MARIJUANA
MOVEMENT IS DRCNET'S LATEST MEMBERSHIP PREMIUM:
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/456/waiting_to_inhale_marijuana_medicine_and...

Table of Contents:

1. EDITORIAL: DO WE REALLY WANT TO HELP KIDS FIND THE DRUG
DEALERS?
Drug offender registries are a hare-brained idea that is more
likely to help young people find drug dealers than prevent them.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/446/drug-offender-registries-a-bad-idea

2. FEATURE: MORE CALIFORNIA MEDICAL MARIJUANA RAIDS: THE NEW
STATUS QUO?
DEA and local police agents have raided five California medical
marijuana dispensaries in the past 10 days, but that leaves over
200 still in operation.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/456/more_medical_marijuana_raids_in_californ...

3. FEATURE: CASES OF IMMIGRANTS DEPORTED FOR MINOR DRUG OFFENSES
HEARD AT US SUPREME COURT THIS WEEK
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in a pair of
cases involving the deportation of immigrants for minor drug
offenses.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/456/supreme_court_hears_immigrant_drug_depor...

4. BOOK REVIEW: "DE LOS MARAS A LOS ZETAS: LOS SECRETOS DEL
NARCOTRAFICO, DE COLOMBIA A CHICAGO" BY JORGE FERNANDEZ MENENDEZ
AND VICTOR RONQUILLO (MEXICO CITY: EDITORIAL GRIJALBO, 2006, 290
PP. PB)
Two veteran Mexican journalists take us on a tour of the murky
world of the Mexican drug trade.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/456/book_review_de_las_maras_a_las_zetas

5. DOCUMENTARY: WAITING TO INHALE
This important new documentary about the medical marijuana
movement is DRCNet's latest membership premium.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/456/waiting_to_inhale_marijuana_medicine_and...

6. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
We've got cops getting arrested, cops copping pleas, cops
getting sentenced this week. It's like a tour of the criminal
justice process. Let's get to it.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/456/police_drug_corruption

7. SENTENCING: FEDERAL BILL TO CREATE CRIMINAL DRUG DEALER
REGISTRY INTRODUCED
With sex offender and meth cook registries becoming all the rage
in the states, it was only a matter of time before some
congressman tried it at the national level for more people.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/456/federal_criminal_drug_dealer_registry_bi...

8. SENTENCING: CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR SIGNS BILL TO SHORTEN PAROLE
FOR OFFENDERS WHO TAKE DRUG TREATMENT
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has quietly signed
legislation that will allow nonviolent offenders to get off
parole if they undergo five months of residential treatment upon
their release.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/456/california_governor_signs_early_parole_w...

9. HEMP: CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR VETOES INDUSTRIAL HEMP BILL
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed a bill that
would have allowed California farmers to grow industrial hemp.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/456/california_governor_vetoes_hemp_bill

10. SENTENCING: ARIZONA LEGISLATIVE INITIATIVE WOULD ROLL BACK
REFORMS WHEN IT COMES TO METHAMPHETAMINE OFFENDERS
Ten years ago, Arizona voters enacted a sentencing reform
initiative that stopped judges from sending first- and
second-time drug possession offenders to jail or prison. Now,
the state legislature has crafted an initiative that would make
an exception for methamphetamine offenders.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/456/arizona_initiative_methamphetamine_priso...

11. MARIJUANA: IDAHO HIGH COURT RULES OFFICIALS CAN'T BLOCK
LEGALIZATION INITIATIVE JUST BECAUSE THEY DON'T LIKE IT
When Ryan Davidson wanted to start a marijuana legalization
initiative in Sun Valley, Idaho, local officials said no. Now,
the Idaho Supreme Court says they were wrong.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/456/idaho_supreme_court_gives_okay_to_mariju...

12. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of
years past.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/456/drug_war_history

13. ANNOUNCEMENT: NEW FORMAT FOR THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
Visit our new web site each day to see a running countdown to
the events coming up the soonest, and more.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/456/drug_reform_calendar

(Not subscribed? Visit http://stopthedrugwar.org to sign up
today!)

================

2. Feature: More California Medical Marijuana Raids: The New
Status Quo?
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/456/more_medical_marijuana_raids_in_californ...

At least five California different medical marijuana
dispensaries have been raided in the last ten days, bringing the
total so far this year to more than 30, according to medical
marijuana supporters. But that means nearly 200 existing
dispensaries have not been raided, suggesting that what is
occurring is more like a low-level battle of attrition than an
all-out assault by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
and its allies among recalcitrant state and local law
enforcement and elected officials.

Here is the latest casualty list:

Last Wednesday in Modesto, one day after the city of Modesto
voted to repeal a municipal provision exempting nonprofits from
its ordinance banning dispensaries, DEA agents raided the
nonprofit California Healthcare Collective, one of only two
remaining dispensaries in the area. A DEA spokesperson told Drug
War Chronicle this week the Modesto Police Department began
investigating the dispensary, then handed the case over to the
feds. Four people were arrested on federal marijuana
distribution charges.

The following day, DEA and local law enforcement agents raided
the North Valley Discount Caregivers dispensary in Grenada Hills
and seized all the medicinal cannabis at the site. The two
operators were arrested on state marijuana charges.

That same day, Stanislaus County Sheriff's deputies raided the
2816 Collective in a rural area near Modesto using a state
search warrant. Police seized about two pounds of dried
marijuana and patient files. The collective had closed the day
before because of the Modesto raid. With both California
Healthcare in Modesto and the 2816 Collective gone, the entire
region is now destitute of dispensaries, leaving hundreds of
patients in the lurch.

On Tuesday, the DEA raided at least eight locations in the San
Francisco Bay area, seizing more than 12,000 plants, $125,000
cash, and a fancy sports car. Despite somewhat hysterical
initial reports in the local media, all the raids were connected
with the New Remedies dispensary in San Francisco, which
involved the same people involved in Compassionate Caregivers,
which was raided by the DEA in Los Angeles in May 2005, when the
feds found more than $300,000 in cash, sparking the
investigation that culminated in the Monday raids.

On Wednesday, DEA and local law enforcement officers raided the
Palm Springs Caregivers dispensary in Riverside County, seizing
medicinal cannabis, but not making any arrests at the time. The
raid came one day after the Riverside County Board of
Supervisors voted to ban dispensaries in unincorporated county
areas, which does not include Palm Springs, and one month after
Riverside County District Attorney Grover Trask issued a white
paper
(http://www.thedesertsun.com/assets/pdf/news/2006/0919_damarijuana.pdf)
arguing that dispensaries are illegal under both state and
federal law.

The raids triggered the Emergency Response Project of the
medical marijuana defense group Americans for Safe Access
(http://www.safeaccessnow.org), which brought out protestors
last Friday at DEA headquarters in Los Angeles, as well as
Modesto, Oakland, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco and Santa
Ana. Demonstrators also greeted the Tuesday raids in San
Francisco, and more actions are set for today.

"With our emergency response program, every time there is a
federal raid -- and we can usually find that out in a matter of
hours -- we activate our local response, as we did in San
Francisco this week," said ASA's Caren Woodson. "But now, we're
activating the national emergency response for Friday. It's a
call-in day. We are urging everyone to call in to DEA
administrator Karen Tandy and let her know how they feel about
these raids. Karen Tandy has a lot of discretion, and she needs
to exercise it."

While ASA is leading the immediate battle, it is not alone among
movement groups in trying to figure out just what is going on.
According to the DEA, it's nothing special, just enforcing the
federal marijuana laws. "The two cases in which our office was
involved, Modesto last week and here in the Bay area this week,
were both the culmination of long-term investigations," said San
Francisco DEA public information officer Casey McEnry. "In
Modesto, the Modesto police began investigating and then passed
it on to us, and with New Remedies, we had served warrants on
them as Compassionate Caregivers in LA in May 2005, and we
learned in December 2005 that they had changed their name and
set up shop in Oakland," she told Drug War Chronicle.

"We can't read the DEA's mind, but there is no sign of an
all-out offensive," said Bruce Mirken, director of
communications for the Marijuana Policy Project
(http://www.mpp.org). "These guys in San Francisco were already
in the crosshairs -- they were victims of their own success --
but there are certainly plenty of other places operating openly.
If the DEA wanted to, it could go after them with little effort,
but it seems like a decision has been made not to do that."

The DEA's McEnry did not respond directly to questions about
whether the agency had taken a political decision to not
aggressively crack down on the state's roughly 200 dispensaries,
but she did issue a warning. "The magic plant count number is
zero, the distribution number is zero if you want to be safe
from us possibly knocking at your door," she said. "Anyone who
cultivates or distributes marijuana is at risk."

While that may be bluster given the agency's limited resources,
it is worrisome for dispensaries and their supporters. "These
state-certified legal cannabis dispensaries look to the DEA like
drug distribution havens," said Woodson. "If a dispensary is
serving 150 people a day, the operator looks like a drug kingpin
to them. They're like sitting ducks, they're listed in the phone
book. And now some of these people are facing very severe
sentences, some of up to life in prison.

It isn't just the DEA. "We have sporadic local police
involvement in raids, mostly in counties where local government
is not supportive, like Modesto or Riverside County, which is
where Palm Springs is," said Mirken. "That tells us it is really
important that local governments understand Proposition 215 and
hear from their constituents that access to medicinal cannabis
is important."

"They're picking locations where local decision-makers don't
have a friendly attitude," said ASA's Woodson.

"These raids are really a drop in the bucket when you have 200
dispensaries out there," said Dale Gieringer, head of California
NORML (http://www.canorml.org), "but we don't want to see them
spread. I fear this is going to be a battlefield for awhile here
until we come up with a regime that allows for better systems of
dispensaries and production. The lack of a legal production
system causes a lot of problems, and everybody in the dispensary
business is operating in the black or grey market and vulnerable
to legal uncertainties."

While medical marijuana dispensaries remain numerous in Los
Angeles and the Bay area, the raids are having a very real
impact on availability in some areas of the state. "In San
Diego, a few months ago there were a dozen dispensaries in
operation, but after the raids, they're gone and access to
medical cannabis is largely gone," said Woodson. "There are only
a handful of delivery services now, and they can't handle the
demand. It's a similar situation in Modesto -- there aren't any
dispensaries in the area now."

"I think it's going to continue for the short term, until
something happens politically to change the dynamic," said
Mirken. "That might not be until there is regime change in
Washington, and maybe not even then, depending on how smart the
Democrats are. It doesn't seem like anything is going to change
drastically in California in the near term. Most people in the
state government some local governments at least pay lip service
to supporting Proposition 215, but we haven't seen much strong
action from state officials with the clout to try to stop the
raids. I really don't see anything moving on the state level,"
he said.

ASA's Woodson wasn't quite ready to give up on state government.
"Here in California, we need to see more state officials
standing up and denouncing these raids," she said. "The state
legislature as a whole needs to take this issue on and create
guidelines or craft prohibitions directing state and local law
enforcement not to participate in these medical marijuana raids.
The legislature is not doing its job if it is not properly
protecting patients."

Another thing the legislature could do is restate and expand on
its support for Proposition 215. "They should re-codify it and
take a stand against the federal raids," said Woodson. "And they
should demand our federal delegation pay more attention to this
issue. All Diane Feinstein can talk about is meth; she and
Barbara Boxer haven't raised a finger to help on medical
marijuana. We would also like to see more law enforcement
officers trained on the medical cannabis issue."

"California will do nothing statewide until federal law
changes," predicted Gieringer. "I see this pattern of sporadic
raids continuing until there is a change in the federal law. Two
or three years ago, I would have said we were in mortal danger,
but in fact, we've had nothing but an increase in the number of
dispensaries even after we lost two Supreme Court decisions.
Somehow I have a hard time believing that this is going to be
reversed, especially given what happened in LA. Two years ago,
there weren't any clubs in LA, now there are a hundred. It looks
to me like the nation's second largest city is firmly infected
with dispensaries. When it was just the Bay area, I was
concerned the feds could shut it down, but they blew their
chance. Now all they can do is bust someone every once in awhile
and try to tarnish the image of the dispensaries, but they are
here to stay."

================

later
bliss -- C O C O A Powered... (at california dot com)

--
bobbie sellers - a retired nurse in San Francisco

"It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
It is by the beans of cocoa that the thoughts acquire speed,
the thighs acquire girth, the girth become a warning.
It is by theobromine alone I set my mind in motion."
--from Someone else's Dune spoof ripped to my taste.