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| Feds vs. S.F. on Pot |
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Posted by FoM on February 13, 2002 at 13:07:39 PT By Dan Evans and Nina Wu of The Examiner Staff Source: San Francisco Examiner 
The event was loaded -- with politics. The Drug Enforcement Agency raided at least two Bay Area medical marijuana clubs Tuesday morning -- one of them operating a mere three blocks from where DEA chief Asa Hutchinson spoke Tueday night. All told, agents seized about 8,300 plants, including seedling plants known as clones, DEA spokesman Richard Myer said. A .22 handgun and a shotgun belonging to one of those arrested also were confiscated. DEA agents arrested three men in two cases. A fourth man, Kenneth Hayes, a former executive director of the San Francisco pot club CHAMP, is in custody in Vancouver, B.C. His attorney, Bill Panzer, said Hayes has petitioned the Canadian government for political refugee status. Panzer, an Oakland lawyer who co-wrote California's medical marijuana initiative, had the more amusing take on the day's events. Since the feds are pushing the message that buying drugs aids terrorists, he said, it seemed strange they would crack down on people who are cultivating marijuana for the state's sick people -- a perfectly legal enterprise under Proposition 215. Voters approved the initiative legalizing medical marijuana in 1996, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled several months ago that its use was a federal crime. Local marijuana dispensers swore at the time that they would continue to remain open until federal officials shut them down. "Now, since they can't buy it from people producing in state, sick people have to buy it from drug dealers, who are aiding the terrorists," Panzer said. "I feel it's a shame that this administration is helping to aid terrorists." Hutchinson denied the busts had anything to do with his first official visit to San Francisco. He said the sweep was not aimed at medical marijuana clubs, but at a trafficking ring originating in Canada. He also denied the federal agency was stepping up enforcement of smaller marijuana operations in the wake of recent pronouncements by District Attorney Terence Hallinan and state Attorney General Bill Lockyer pushing for a hands-off approach to medical marijuana clubs. "Our priorities have always been the larger traffickers," Hutchinson said. Tell That To Hallinan The district attorney -- a vocal proponent of medical marijuana -- decried the action in a speech outside the Commonwealth Club offices on Market Street. Speaking in front of the building where Hutchinson spoke an hour later, The City's top prosecutor complained that neither his office nor the Police Department had been informed of the action. "Matters of health and safety are for the local government and not some federal, national agency," he said, as Board of Supervisors President Tom Ammiano got the 150 or so protesters gathered to chant "b---sh--, b---sh--." "It's a decision to be made by the voters of California," Hallinan continued. "I call on the DEA to respect the wishes of the people of California and stay out of the marijuana clubs of San Francisco." Hallinan and Ammiano were joined by Supervisors Mark Leno, Chris Daly and Matt Gonzalez, all who voted in November to make San Francisco a marijuana sanctuary. The feds, however, felt differently. Dynamiting The Door Earlier Tuesday, DEA officials dynamited the front door to the Harm Reduction Center at 52 Sixth St., cordoned off the sidewalk and cleared it of its supply of buds. The proprietor of the club, Richard "Brick" Watts, was hauled away. Agents served eight search warrants in San Francisco, Oakland and Petaluma. In Oakland, a similar scene erupted at 6:30 a.m. at the home of Ed Rosenthal, who is connected with the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Collective. Rosenthal's home was searched, and numerous papers were seized, said his wife, Jane Kline. "He does horticultural things, and I'm begging the agents to take some of the old junk away, but I guess they're not going to," she said, noting there were no illegal substances in the home. "I don't mean to be flip, but I'm angry. They should be spending their time worrying about terrorists, not sick people." Rosenthal wrote a book on marijuana cultivation and wrote an advice column on the topic for the magazine "High Times" for several years. Watts, Rosenthal and Hayes are listed as co-defendants in the criminal complaint. Hallinan testified on Hayes' behalf during his trial on charges of marijuana cultivation and sales in Sonoma County last March. Hayes and Michael Foley, a former general manager of the club, were acquitted in large part because Hallinan claimed Prop. 215 protected the two men. Feds Target Cultivators James Halloran, another Oakland resident, was arrested in a separate case Tuesday. Halloran is suspected of growing more than 1,000 plants in an abandoned movie theater. All four men are charged with cultivation of marijuana. Jeff Jones, executive director of the Oakland cooperative, said the busts were anything but a coincidence. It is a waste of time and taxpayer money, he said, to arrest people for actions that voters in California decided were not a crime. "The nerve of them coming into our state and violating our constitution," Jones said. "It's lacking in compassion and lacking in our locally supported efforts." Anger in The City This was the feeling in San Francisco, where a cluster of bystanders -- many of them members of the cannabis club -- watched in anger as the feds did their work. "This is San Francisco," said Mark Romero of CHAMP, who ran to the scene after hearing of the sweep. He stood with his arms crossed and repeatedly tore up the yellow tape surrounding the scene, much to the ire of the DEA officers. "It's a public sidewalk. Get out of my house," he yelled. "If they want to, why don't they go after the drugs over there?" he said, pointing across the street. "DEA, Go away!" yelled Clark Sullivan from the League of American Marijuana Patients & Supporters. He continued to ride around on his bike, yelling "Boo! Go back to your federal land, idiot. We don't want you here. Leave us alone and go after the terrorists." Lucifer T. Cheshire, a 6-foot-tall man clad in a leather jacket who said he smokes marijuana because he has AIDS, also joined in. "We're here to make sure they know how we feel," he said. "Pot is one of the few things that kept me alive." Another man, Patrick Hughes circled around the police squad units -- sent as backup -- intermittently standing up and raising his arms in the air. "I have brain damage," he said. "I can stand up, but I can't walk." Hughes said he smokes marijuana morning, noon and night to ease the pain "This sucks. I just got my card yesterday," said John Stone, a neighborhood resident who has AIDS. "I kind of understand why they're doing this because people abuse it, but then there are people like me." Stone estimated that about 50 percent of those with cards probably abused the system. "If it's going to happen here, it's going to happen all over The City." James Railback, another member of the center, said he was drinking at a nearby bar when he heard the dynamite go off. When he went out to see what it was, he discovered the sweep. "They took my weed and they took my pipe," he said. "F------- DEA. It's the state against the feds." At the Market Street Cannabis Club, reaction to the raids was nonchalant. Jim Green, who runs the club, said he does his business as honestly and above-the-board as possible. There are risks, he said, but everyone knows that -- or at least should -- going in. "When you're engaged in civil disobedience, you can't expect soft or fair treatment," Green said. "It's not easy to deal with, but I've been so concerned about the inevitability of this for so long I'm almost numb." Source: San Francisco Examiner (CA) Related Articles & Web Site: DEA Raids Medical Marijuana Club Pot Raids Stir S.F. Protests DEA Chief Faces Protests After Agents Bust DEA Chief Faces Protests After Agents Raid Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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| Comment #14 posted by freedomtoker on February 14, 2002 at 11:35:52 PT |
| From: Dave Champion Don't we all wish we had a sheriff with this much integrity working for us! Dave ___________________________________________________________________________________________ Sheriff Dave Mattis of Big Horn County, Wyoming, said this week that as a result of Case #96-CV099-J, U.S. District Court, District of Wyoming, he now has a written policy that forbids federal officials from entering his county and exercising authority over county residents unless he is notified first of their intentions. After explaining their mission, Mattis said he grants them permission to proceed if he is convinced that they are operating within the legal parameters and authority limitations set forth in the U.S. Constitution. The sheriff grants permission on a case-by-case basis only. When asked what, if any, repercussions he had gotten from the Feds, he quickly and confidently replied, "None whatsoever." He explained by saying, "They know they do not have jurisdiction in my county unless I grant it to them." Mattis clarified his position by saying the federal court had ruled that the state of Wyoming is a sovereign state and the state constitution plainly states that a county sheriff is the top law enforcement official in the county. Additionally, Sheriff Mattis contends that the U.S. Constitution, Article 1, Section 8, clearly defines the geographic territories where the federal government has jurisdiction. Amendment X, he said, states that "the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Therefore, Mattis thoroughly believes the Feds have very limited powers in any state unless the local high-sheriff allows them to exercise power beyond that which the Constitution provides. "Put another way," Mattis said, "If the sheriff doesn't want the Feds in his county, he has the constitutional power and right to keep them out or ask them to leave." Accompanied with other legal interpretations Mattis stands on the definition of the world "sovereign," which is defined by Webster's as "paramount, supreme. Having supreme rank or power. Independent: a sovereign State." Mattis said he grew weary of the Feds coming into his county and running rough-shod over county residents: i.e., illegally searching, seizing property, confiscating bank accounts, restricting the free use of private lands and other abuses, without a valid warrant and without first following due process of law as guaranteed by the Constitution to every citizen. As long as Mattis remains sheriff he says he will continue to see to it that the citizens of his county get their day in court. Mattis went on to say that, to his knowledge, even the IRS has not attempted to seize any citizen's real property, bank account or any other private-owned possessions since he ran the Feds out of his county. Sheriff Mattis emphasized that he is not a radical man. He said he is only dedicated to protecting the constitutional rights of the citizens of his county. He added that ordinary citizens are not the only ones bound by and expected to obey laws. Elected officials and government employees at all levels of government are also bound by and should be expected to obey certain laws. As long as Sheriff Mattis is the high-sheriff of Big Horn County, he seems determined to make sure private citizens and government officials alike act within the law and their designated powers. Sheriff Mattis came across as a soft-spoken, polite man whose only interest is protecting the citizens he was elected to serve. That being the case, he might be the sheriff for as long as he wants to be. Sheriff Mattis is hopeful that other sheriffs will assume the same stance. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #13 posted by freedomtoker on February 14, 2002 at 11:15:49 PT |
| I don't know why Terrance Hallinan doesn't know this, or isn't using it to his advantage, but the Sheriff, who is the highest law enforcement officer in the land, can kick the feds out of the county, and have them never return. The Sheriff did this in another county. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #12 posted by Zero_G on February 14, 2002 at 09:50:21 PT |
| >>Eventually the talk ended, and we were asked to stay seated until he was escorted out by a gaggle of cops ( same way he came in ). This might be the only way drug warriors could walk into and out of a room in the future.<< I look forward to the day this crowd is escorted out by a gaggle of cops... Just like Pinochet... [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #11 posted by john wayne on February 13, 2002 at 22:56:17 PT |
| Yeah Jose, he means that he "knows" that pot users are bad and that tobacco users are good. No further information is needed, sought, or even concieved of from where he sits. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #10 posted by E_Johnson on February 13, 2002 at 21:53:52 PT |
| The title of Hutchinson's talk was "Let's Don't Punt on the Third Down "[sic], and he started out with some analogies to how his favorite college football team, the Razorbacks, had lost an important title game by repeatedly punting on the 3rd down, blah blah. It sounds like some old Soviet speech on the importance of fulfilling the latest five year plan in the name of attaining full Communism in the next decade. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #9 posted by MikeEEEEE on February 13, 2002 at 18:13:26 PT |
| Jose, you wrote: Eventually the talk ended, and we were asked to stay seated until he was escorted out by a gaggle of cops ( same way he came in ). This might be the only way drug warriors could walk into and out of a room in the future. [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #8 posted by Jose Melendez on February 13, 2002 at 17:51:21 PT:
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| from:
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02.n238.a08.html
We were fortunate enough to get hold of two tickets from our friends at the Berkeley cannabis club. So we got to hear Hutchinson speak. About 80% of the crowd ( 100 or so, total? small room ) was reformers--I'm surprised that the "pro-Hutchinson" side was as much as 20%, but anyhow there were quite a few people who never cheered or jeered at the appropriate moments, so... 8^ ) The title of Hutchinson's talk was "Let's Don't Punt on the Third Down "[sic], and he started out with some analogies to how his favorite college football team, the Razorbacks, had lost an important title game by repeatedly punting on the 3rd down, blah blah. But we can't "just give up" on the War on Drugs like that. Various generalities about the ties to terrorism, broken families, people coming out of successful coerced-treatment programs and thanking the arresting officer, etc. The audience got gradually more boisterous--a few of us, myself included, had particular trouble keeping our mouths shut when he explained how carefully the DEA is listening to the scientific community on the question of medical benefits to pot. ( And as soon as we reformers are able to show even the slightest shred of evidence that pot has medical benefits and isn't dangerous--the DEA will be happy to talk. ) (SNIP) The questions that got read were generally quite well-put. ( I think the moderator was on our side. ) Each one of them did a fine job of putting him on the spot. Stuff like, "I am a Vietnam veteran, have a pot prescription from my doctor for this condition, get great relief from it. Can you tell me what I'm supposed to do now?" Or, "Given the 400,000 to 0 yearly fatality ratio, plus the established benefits of THC, why isn't tobacco a Schedule I drug?" ( Asa mumbles something about how Congress has seen fit to establish certain drugs as legal, others as illegal, within certain "parameters of social mores". Audience chuckles, grumbles, scratches its collective head in befuddlement. "PARAMETERS OF SOCIAL MORES??" ) There were two times when it got a little rougher. There was a question about what kinds of DEA enforcement med-mj users can expect in the near future. Hutchinson wandered rather badly here, talking about various heavily-armed criminal groups that would be the DEA's *main* focus, but eventually ( with some cajoling to get to the point ) he claimed that the DEA's focus in marijuana issues would be on the big traffickers. A wave of ten or more people yelled: "Ed Rosenthal". Not a big trafficker, right? They got him at 6:30am today. ( Chris Conrad says Ed was indeed arrested, not sure what the charges were exactly. ) Later, he was asked a direct question about scientific evidence for medical use of pot, and he again indicated that there was so far no evidence whatsoever for that. I yelled, "The Institute of Medicine report." He paused, then continued with more false statements, so I did it again. Then he decided to comment on the IOM report, and said that while "there were a few statements in there", the main thrust of the report was about how bad the carcinogens were in pot smoke, etc. Very skeptical audience reaction. Eventually the talk ended, and we were asked to stay seated until he was escorted out by a gaggle of cops ( same way he came in ).
Note: To request proof of medical marijuana's safety and efficacy, email Dr. Ethan Russo at: The Montana Nuerologist is a recognized and published expert on the issue, ask for:
"The Role of Cannabis and Cannabinoids in Pain Management," from Weiner, R.S., Pain Management: A Practical Guide for Clinicians, 6th ed., CRC Press, 2002. I especially ask people here to request the file and forward it (or a link to it) to every media outlet you can find. Perhaps if they get swamped with the truth, maybe they will not be able to deny it. [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #7 posted by Richard Lake on February 13, 2002 at 17:21:04 PT:
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| eco man wrote: CannabisNews.com has many newspaper and wire service reports. All of which can be commented on by anybody. http://www.cannabisnews.com Thank you for pointing folks to our sister news clipping website, eco man. We are all very proud of Martha (FoM) and her work. You may not have noticed that all 73 thousand plus items in the www.mapinc.org archives can also be commented on by anybody. Just go to the bottom of the webpage and press the "Comment" button. You will see comments made by others before you, if any, and be at the form to make your comments. Yes, this is on a different page than the news items, and is actually a different database which is tied to the news items. But since it is a different window, you can easily move between the comment system and the article. Richard DEA RAID Breaking news, photos, personal reports and action alerts are being compiled at: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02.n238.a08.html For the stories from the media, click these links: http://www.mapinc.org/area/California http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal) [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #6 posted by The GCW on February 13, 2002 at 17:04:28 PT |
| Zac. 8:16-17; (NASB) "These are the things which you should do: speak the truth to one another; judge with truth and judgment for peace in your gates. "Also let none of you devise evil in your heart against another, and do not love perjury; for all these are what I hate,' declares the LORD.'' Pr 3:29-33; Do not devise harm against your neighbor, While he lives securely beside you. Do not contend with a man without cause, If he has done you no harm. Do not envy a man of violence And do not choose any of his ways. For the devious are an abomination to the LORD; But He is intimate with the upright. http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=all [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #5 posted by goneposthole on February 13, 2002 at 14:49:55 PT |
| There were no crowds of people standing outside or inside yelling "Go DEA, give those pot smokers hell and more of it" now were there? You just do not see those kinds of crowds, now do you? I wonder why? In fact, where are they? Fact of the matter is: They are nonexistent. Which leads to the next question, how much support does the government really have when it comes to this drug war? Fact of the matter is: Not much. So, there you are and there you go. The drug war? There it was, gone. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #4 posted by eco-man on February 13, 2002 at 14:20:20 PT |
| DEA Raids Medical Marijuana Clubs.
http://freedomtoexhale.com/raid.htm Links below are newspaper and wire service articles listed at the link above where more such links will be added as they are found. Feds vs. S.F. on Pot http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread12002.shtml Pot Raids Stir S.F. Protests http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread12001.shtml DEA Chief Faces Protests After Agents Bust http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread11999.shtml DEA Chief Faces Protests After Agents Raid http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread11998.shtml San Diego Council Approves Pot ID Cards http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread11996.shtml Medical Pot Club Raided as DEA Leader Visits S.F. http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread11995.shtml Four Arrested in Connection with Pot Cultivation http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread11994.shtml Agents Raid Calif. Medical Marijuana Club http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread11993.shtml DEA Busts Pot Club Operation; Four Arrested http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread11990.shtml SF, Oakland Cannabis Clubs Raided http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread11988.shtml Also check CannabisNews.com for the very latest. http://www.cannabisnews.com [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #3 posted by eco-man on February 13, 2002 at 13:59:54 PT |
| Please copy and distribute this list: RAIDS. San Francisco and Bay Area medical cannabis club raids. News sources. More reports. Oftentimes far better and far sooner than from the corporate mega-media: San Francisco Indymedia (part of the international Indymedia network) for ongoing reports on the DEA raids. Anybody can post info there: http://sf.indymedia.org/ and http://sf.indymedia.org/news/search/ --Fast search engine for site archives. CannabisNews.com http://www.cannabisnews.com FORUMS. Drug War, etc.. Message boards, Indymedia, etc.. http://corporatism.tripod.com/forums.htm Email lists. Drug war, etc.. Yahoo Groups, Usenet, etc.. http://corporatism.tripod.com/lists.htm NEWS sites. Drug war, etc.. Fair Use, Public Domain laws. http://corporatism.tripod.com/fairuse.htm [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #2 posted by Sam Adams on February 13, 2002 at 13:43:31 PT |
| "Hutchinson denied the busts had anything to do with his first official visit to San Francisco. He said the sweep was not aimed at medical marijuana clubs, but at a trafficking ring originating in Canada." Could've fooled me! [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #1 posted by Jose Melendez on February 13, 2002 at 13:21:34 PT:
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| At the bottom of the newspaper ads from the White House Campaign is a toll free number for treatment: 800 662 HELP.
Maybe we should flood them with calls... [ Post Comment ] |
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