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DEA Terrorizes the Sick in Need of Medicinal Marijuana, by Veronica Horn
By Hempology | January 8, 2008
Since June 2007 there has been a huge upsurge in asset-forfeiture cases against medical marijuana providers in California. In one instance, the bank accounts of a dispensary proprietor’s daughter, who had nothing to do with the dispensary, were seized.
By early July 2007, the DEA has sent letters to approximately 150 landlords in Los Angeles alone, advising that they had rented to cannabis dispensaries. To date, many of these landlords have been forced to evict compassion clubs by the US government’s scare tactics. The landlords will have their properties seized if they do not comply.
DEA raids closed eight Los Angeles dispensaries in one week. Proprietors of dispensaries face federal cultivation-for-sale charges. DEA spokeswoman Sarah Pullen has characterized the raided clubs as “the most egregious traffickers.” Meaning they were serving the most people.
Some of the raids evoked militant responses. In Los Angeles a crowd of more than 200 supporters assembled outside the California Patients Group on Santa Monica Boulevard. Their presence has not convinced the raiders not to arrest the staff and customers being detained within. In Corona, as DEA agents were taking down the “Healing Nations” dispensary, there was an outpouring of support on the street outside.
A DEA raid had closed the Bakersfield’s largest dispensary on July 16, and five smaller clubs quickly shut down in fear.
While the DEA was terrorizing medical-marijuana users in Southern California, Drug Czar John Walters flew into Redding to publicize an eradication program called “Operation Alesia.�? Operation Alesia involves 17 agencies, including the California National Guard. The crews arrive in Black Hawk helicopters and the campesinos fade into the forest, resulting in no arrests as of July 18, the date of Walters visit. The Redding Record-Searchlight reported that Walters said “the people who plant and tend the gardens are terrorists who wouldn’t hesitate to help other terrorists get into the country with the aim of causing mass casualties. ‘Don’t buy drugs. They fund violence and terror,’ he said.�?
Takes one to know one, they say.
Over 400 clubs are still open in California.
Topics: Articles, CD-16th, Winter 2008 | Comments Off
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