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| Feds Clash with San Francisco Over Marijuana |
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Posted by FoM on March 14, 2002 at 17:26:33 PT By Martha Mendoza, AP National Writer Source: Associated Press 
"Liar! Liar!" came the voices from the crowd. Drug Enforcement Administration chief Asa Hutchinson stopped short, caught midsentence. He had started by saying: "Science has told us so far there is no medical benefit for smoking marijuana ..." Hutchinson pushed on with his message, reiterating President Bush's newly aggressive anti-drug policy, which links casual drug use to terrorism and objects to state laws like California's that allow the medicinal use of marijuana. Just hours before Hutchinson's appearance Feb. 12, federal agents -- with no help from San Francisco police -- seized more than 600 pot plants from a medicinal marijuana club. They also arrested the group's executive director and three suppliers, including pot guru Ed Rosenthal, author of "Ask Ed: Marijuana Law. Don't Get Busted." The federal raids have angered and alarmed local officials in San Francisco. On the day Hutchinson spoke, a half-dozen city officials joined a boisterous street protest against the DEA. Even District Attorney Terence Hallinan grabbed a bullhorn and criticized the raids, as demonstrators, some in wheelchairs and on crutches, chanted, "DEA, Go away!" and pot smoke wafted through the air. Opponents of Washington's stand on marijuana said the raids may be a precursor to showdowns in at least seven other states that have also passed laws in conflict with the federal ban on pot. "I think the goals here are to stomp out this emerging political movement once and for all," said Keith Stroup, director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "The way they're trying to do that is to come into San Francisco, at the heart of the legalization movement, and arrest, prosecute and jail the major players." DEA spokesman Richard Meyers in San Francisco countered: "You know, personally my heart goes out to someone who has cancer or AIDS, and I'm sure they're just trying to alleviate their pain, but federal law does not make a distinction between medical marijuana and marijuana, and the DEA has a commitment and duty to the public to enforce the law." In recent months, federal agents have raided three other cannabis clubs in California, seizing a garden of marijuana grown for sick people in Hollywood and taking away the records of 5,000 medical marijuana users from a doctor's office near Sacramento. But for nine months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last May that there is no medical exception to the federal law against marijuana, federal agents had avoided San Francisco. Now that the United States is facing unprecedented challenges to homeland security, Hutchinson said the time is right to crack down on drugs. "History teaches us that in a time of national emergency, and we have seen that since Sept. 11, a nation's moral values are clarified," he said during a recent debate with New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, who advocates legalizing marijuana. Under a law passed by California voters in 1996, marijuana clubs can dispense pot to people with cancer, AIDS or other chronic illnesses to relieve pain and nausea. But the Supreme Court ruled that federal anti-drug laws supersede laws allowing medicinal marijuana in Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said DEA officials are being "asinine and disingenuous" when they say they cannot back off the federal law. He has gathered 25 co-sponsors for a bill to give states the right decide their own medical marijuana policies. But he conceded there is little chance the bill will even make it out of committee. "It's going nowhere because politicians are afraid of being seen as soft on drugs," Frank said. "The people are way ahead of the politicians here." As for Hutchinson, he said he was not surprised by his reception in San Francisco. "Maybe it is not such a bang-up idea to defend our nation's drug policy in the city of San Francisco," he said, "which has such an extraordinary tradition of toleration toward drug use, from the popularity of the opium dens of the late 19th century to the drug culture thriving in the Haight Ashbury district of the '60s to the cannabis buyers club of the new century." Complete Title: Feds Clash with San Francisco Authorities Over Medical Marijuana Law Source: Associated Press Related Articles & Web Sites: DEA Raids Medical Marijuana Club Ex-Petaluman Says He's an Attractive Target Pot Activists Claim Innocence Federal War Against The Sick Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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| Comment #16 posted by Patrick on March 16, 2002 at 06:15:46 PT |
| It is the deliberate dissemination of information to gauge its affect on people rather than deal with the effect the information would have in "real time." And now... the REAL CULPRIT: the drug testing and busting industry....... sorry to steal your line 4q but I couldn't resist. Outstanding title for a book, a paper, a study!!! Readers, your mission should you choose to accept it... is to infiltrate, expose, and disassemble this awful industry that would steal from you the right to your own body. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #15 posted by mayan on March 15, 2002 at 16:29:05 PT |
| Also, the Fed's know that the citizenry might not like the idea of DEA raids on cannabis clubs while the nation is under a "terrorist alert"! The bozos knew their priorities would be percieved as very questionable & their timing as very suspect. I gave up on the mainstream media also. Until they report the truth I won't go back. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #14 posted by xxdr_zombiexx on March 15, 2002 at 09:42:39 PT |
| medical pot is far more of a threat to America than terrorism as evidenced by the Raids being on the day of an official Terrorist Advisory from the FBI. The DEA has more than enough manpower resources to escalate the Federal Governments crusade against the Weed. see link below. [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #13 posted by kaptinemo on March 15, 2002 at 09:04:51 PT:
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| Yes, look at the timing. Odd how when Asa and his bully boys (who dynamited one club's doors!) 'visited' SanFran and were treated to a very obviously enraged public, it was not front page news. A government official...one who plays a very high profile role in national and international policy...was called a liar. And therefore, the validity of the entire thrust of the Administration regarding the DrugWar dimension to operations in the part of the world we are bombing into pre-history was called into question. Very dangerous, that. Can't let the sheep on the East Coast know that people are now speaking up. Can't have that, noooooo. The sheep out here might get the same ideas. Might start thinking the same thing...namely, that the government is lying, not only about cannabis, but lots of other things, too...like the Afghan War. Can't have the implication of falsehoods determining US policy, nope, can't have that. But it also points out one thing that the Feds really don't want to bring up. Presumably, we will install a puppet regime at the cessation of hostilities. This puppet regime will pay lip service to the trappings of democracy. Trappings of democracy trod underfoot by Federal jackboots at home. Rather hypocritical, isn't it? To say you are 'making Afghanistan safe for democracy' when you do your level best to urinate upon it at home with the actions of the DEA in California? You think the Republican-Party-contributing buddies, owners of major newspapers, want that kind of thought pattern being established? Of course not; they must appear to be major league, patriotically driven 'good Americans'. So, Asa being proclaimed a liar gets shovelled under until next month. This is why I don't read newspapers, anymore. Nor watch very much commercial television. The 'Net has scooped them every time. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #12 posted by Morgan on March 15, 2002 at 08:05:17 PT |
| ...the same thing el toonces. I looked at my local paper this morning (Santa Fe New Mexican) and this story was on the front page. With photos. As this event they were relating happened over a month ago, why were they printing it now? On the front page where 'news' (events that are happening NOW) usually go. Why now? Why not then? Knowing that most small papers usually pick up their news stories straight from the New York Times or the Washington Times, I looked on the New York Times web page... and sure enough, there it is. What's going on? The Major Media outlets usually pick up on a story and play it out as long as they figure it will hold the attention span of the public (examples: Monica Lewinsky, Sharks, Gary Condit, etc.). Is this the start of a Media campaign? They know what's happening in England, Canada, Jamaica, and the rest of Europe, and haven't really given it much coverage. (At least not as much as I think it all deserves) and the disconnect is readily apparent to the ever growing number of people who are going to the Internet for their news. Is this an attempt to play catch-up... to salvage what little credibility as a 'news' organization they may have left? Or is it 'political' timing? One can only hope. Let us see, as future 'news' unfolds. [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #11 posted by kaptinemo on March 15, 2002 at 07:21:10 PT:
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| many of you may be interested in viewing the Master's interview on C-SPAN yesterday. the link is still available. The entire Master's interview can be had by going here: http://video.c-span.org:8080/ramgen/ndrive/wj20020314.rm?start=2:01:16&end=2:32:06 You need RealPlayer to run it: http://www.real.com/welcome/postdl.html?src=rpdl [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #10 posted by kaptinemo on March 15, 2002 at 07:19:32 PT:
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| many of you may be interested in viewing the Master's interview on C-SPAN yesterday. the link is still available. The entire Master's interview can be had by going here: http://video.c-span.org:8080/ramgen/ndrive/wj20020314.rm?start=2:01:16&end=2:32:06 You need RealPlayer to run it: http://www.real.com/welcome/postdl.html?src=rpdl [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #9 posted by kaptinemo on March 15, 2002 at 05:40:52 PT:
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| The Feds may may be insane when it comes to cannabis...but there is method to their madness. They claim over and over again that the raids were not spawned as an attempt to 'gild the lilly' by using the patriotic fervor they presently enjoy to attack internal 'enemies'. By cloaking their asinine 'crusade' by wrapping it in The Flag, they think they can buffalo anyone who opposes them in their efforts. (In Muslim countries, the word for 'crusade' is 'jihad'. Isn't that what crazy Muslims are supposed to be doing to Americans, Mr Hutchinson? Jihad? We aren't supposed to be doing that to ourselves, are we?) But, here it is, in black and white: "Now that the United States is facing unprecedented challenges to homeland security, Hutchinson said the time is right to crack down on drugs. "History teaches us that in a time of national emergency, and we have seen that since Sept. 11, a nation's moral values are clarified," he said during a recent debate with New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, who advocates legalizing marijuana. The question here is, what moral values are clarified...when the targets of this approach are the sick and the dying? More importantly...whose moral values? Those of the community which voted for the right of their sick neighbors to use their medicine in peace? Or Federal DrugWarriors, whose paychecks are dependent upon maintaining cannabis prohibition? And who must ruthlessly crush anything that threatens those paychecks? In the end, George Washington's admonition about government not being composed of reason or eloquence, but force is being illustrated perfectly by the thuggish actions of Asa and 'his' boys (I still contend that it is the DEA running Asa, not the other way around). The people of the State of California have exercised their sovereign franchise as voters...and the Feds have nullified democracy with their actions. In many other countries I know of and have lived in, that would be grounds for a bloody revolution. Good thing for the Feds most Americans are sheeple. But the question is, for how long? [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #8 posted by el_toonces on March 15, 2002 at 05:34:53 PT:
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| This is the first mainstream media article in any detail I have seen since the fed's assault. Why did it take 32 days to make the NEWS? In my mind's concert hall, I hear Bruce Springsteen singing "32 Days" instead of "41 Shots":(. Here in D.A.R.E-ville -- the suburban Midwest -- attitudes on medical cannabis are antediluvian or worse (at least before the flood, I think the herb was legal), so it's hard to let people know how much the herb helps. When you're losing weight at a high rate due to physical illness as I have been, they get you lots of doctors. On Tuesday, I told the psychologist (who is supposed to help me "cope" with this illness) and he was cool, even supportive and will see me only as needed for issues I have relating to the fact that the medicine that helps me is being vilified and suppressed. He did advise I tell the psychiatrist (who prescribes the anti-depressants that are supposed to enhance the pain relievers and sends the patient to the psychologist because the psychiatrist is too busy writing 'scripts to actually do psychotherapy) because a lot of the crap the psychiatrist has been writing for is now unnecessary since I started using the herb medically and because it is the right thing to do if he will hear me out "off the record". In this Midwest culture, you don't want any kind of notation on the chart (which will likely end up being on file on the insurance company information "clearinghouse" databases) that the herb helps you eat and thus live. The wonderful group Patients Out of Time -- www.medicalcannabis.com -- says 80% of folks who are sick and need this medicine to be able to eat or live a normal life don't tell their healthcare providers out of fear or shame or other assorted propaganda evoked "willies." Imagine if everyone who feels they get significant medical benefit from this mentions it -- either "off the record" or on -- to their doctors? At least the good-hearted ones would be won over. And the patient might benefit directly too, for only after such disclosure and discerning of the care provider's response -- an "acid test" so to speak -- can the patient know which docs are in truly his or her corner versus those that just like writing 'scripts, doing procedures, and sweetest of all, billing the insurance company. Enough ranting for today, but 32 days? You'd think something like a politburo committee had to approve the piece first? Oh no, I am sounding like E_J:) I better go chill. Be well all. El [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #7 posted by dddd on March 15, 2002 at 02:20:26 PT |
| ...The feeling is mutual.......dddd [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #6 posted by Robbie on March 14, 2002 at 22:14:59 PT |
| Good to see ya! [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #5 posted by DdC on March 14, 2002 at 19:33:46 PT |
| Science has told us so far there is no medical benefit for smoking marijuana ..." Feds Need One Million Joints Staff Will Pay $4 Million to U of Mississippi The USA Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy 1987 George McMahon, 1968 UK ROYAL COMMISSION, THE WOOTTON REPORT Comments from Elvy Musikka, Researchers at the University of California (UCLA) School of Medicine have announced the results of an 8 - year study into the effects of long-term cannabis smoking on the lungs. In Volume 155 of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Dr. D.P. Tashkin reported: "Findings from the present long-term, follow-up study of heavy, habitual marijuana smokers argue against the concept that continuing heavy use of marijuana is a significant risk factor for the development of [chronic lung disease. ..Neither the continuing nor the intermittent marijuana smokers exhibited any significantly different rates of decline in [lung function] as compared with those individuals who never smoked marijuana. Researchers added: "No differences were noted between even quite heavy marijuana smoking and non-smoking of marijuana." 99.28% ditchweed Proven : Cannabis is a safe medicine by Ian Williams Goddard The Drug War Gravy Train By Daniel Forbes The Economist March 28th 1992 [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #4 posted by FoM on March 14, 2002 at 19:32:27 PT |
| I only saw a few minutes on the news and changed the channel. I saw them asking the mother weird personal questions and I didn't like it since she isn't the one who murdered her child and turned it off. Am I wrong or have I missed something. They have the person under arrest don't they? If they do why was she being asked those questions? [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #3 posted by dddd on March 14, 2002 at 19:12:05 PT |
| ...I just saw the local evening news,,and today in court,the parents of that Van Dam girl who was kidnapped and murdered,,testified that they were smoking pot the night their daughter dissappeared.......just watch as the antis turn it into some tasteless commercial on next years superbowl.....dddd [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #2 posted by Patrick on March 14, 2002 at 18:48:37 PT |
| DEA spokesman Richard Meyers in San Francisco countered: "You know, personally my heart goes out to someone who has cancer or AIDS, and I'm sure they're just trying to alleviate their pain, but federal law does not make a distinction between medical marijuana and marijuana, and the DEA has a commitment and duty to the public to enforce the law." Speeding is against the law too but you don't haul people off to jail for it. So they justify their public paycheck chasing the sick and dying instead of the sick and perverted bastards responsible for the missing children in this country. Cowards. We need more real cops like Bill Masters not more preppy DEA agents chasing pot smokers. "It's going nowhere because politicians are afraid of being seen as soft on drugs," Frank said. "The people are way ahead of the politicians here." Seems we are getting ourselves on the path of pointing out politicians it is far worse for you to not be compassionate than to be soft on drugs. Education works its just a slow process. Free the Weed. Peace. [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #1 posted by Jose Melendez on March 14, 2002 at 18:22:58 PT:
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| "History teaches us that in a time of national emergency, and we have seen that since Sept. 11, a nation's moral values are clarified," That's right, sir. Clarified. Not just Claritin. [ Post Comment ] |
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