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| City Directs Police To Shun DEA In Pot Busts |
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Posted by FoM on April 25, 2002 at 07:32:47 PT By Mike Meyers, Contributing Writer Source: Daily Californian 
The Berkeley City Council quietly and unanimously passed a resolution affirming the city's support for medical marijuana Tuesday night. Against the recommendation of City Manager Weldon Rucker, the council directed the Berkeley Police Department not to cooperate with the Drug Enforcement Administration in investigations of medical marijuana clubs. In a meeting dominated by the controversial "Crisis in the Middle East" proposal, few in the packed council chambers noticed when Mayor Shirley Dean moved the marijuana resolution to the front of the agenda, where it was dispatched without discussion. "We could have given a lot of speeches on how great we think (medical marijuana) is, but I'm more interested in getting things done," said Councilmember Kriss Worthington. The city's Police Review Commission drafted the measure, which is similar to a law San Francisco passed late last year. The measure directs the police department to enforce Proposition 215, the 1996 state initiative legalizing medical marijuana. But marijuana use of any kind is illegal under federal law, which supercedes state law, so the DEA has ignored Prop. 215. David Ritchie, chair of the Police Review Commission, said the DEA should give up its prosecution of medical marijuana, in light of more serious problems facing the federal government. "They don't have the moral authority and they certainly don't have the facts on their side," he said. Despite the measure's passage, the police department's relationship with the DEA will not suffer, said DEA Special Agent Richard Meyer. "We know we have the moral support of the (Berkeley police) officers," he said. "It is an inconvenience, but it's something we can live with." Meyer said the new law will not "stop us from doing our jobs." He said the DEA only busts medical marijuana clubs when evidence from other investigations leads them in that direction. The DEA has never raided a Berkeley medical marijuana club, but two months ago it made a major bust in San Francisco. The agency informed the San Francisco Police Department just before it raided the Harm Reduction Center, a medical marijuana distribution club. City police assisted only in crowd control, Meyer said. Initially an opponent of the measure, Dean said she feared it would draw the DEA's attention to the city and invite a similar bust. Dean said she changed her mind after the DEA said the measure would not affect its relationship with Berkeley police. "I was more concerned with a, 'hey, keep a low profile,' kind of thing," she said. "But once you don't have a low profile, you can't go back." As an alternative to the commission's resolution, Rucker recommended the council endorse a proposed federal bill that would leave medical marijuana laws to the discretion of states. Most of the public attended the meeting to weigh in on the controversial proposal to divest from Israel. Only one member of the public testified in favor of the medical marijuana measure. None testified against it. Councilmember Polly Armstrong called the medical marijuana debate "old news," and said she was not surprised at the measure's easy passage. "I think it's real clear Berkeley people across the board think that if you need to smoke marijuana, you ought to be able to smoke marijuana," she said. The council, however, tabled a second measure calling for the city's support for Ed Rosenthal, a high-profile marijuana grower arrested in the Harm Reduction Center bust. Note: Measure Passes Council Smoothly. Source: Daily Californian, The (CA Edu) Related Articles & Web Site: Medical Marijuana Information Links Resolution Could End Police Cooperation City Ponders How To React To Marijuana Ruling Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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| Comment #4 posted by Lehder on April 25, 2002 at 13:13:51 PT |
| I like your idea of unity - all or none. Let that be the rallying cry at all forthcoming events. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #3 posted by Elfman_420 on April 25, 2002 at 13:08:11 PT |
| I was dissapointed while attending my local 4/20 festival a few days ago. There were a number of police standing at the top of the hill looking down onto the crowd, ready for 4:20 to strike. 4:20 came and a bunch of people lit up, but it wasn't until about 10 minutes later that somebody was finally arrested for smoking cannabis. The funny thing was it was right during a musical number that was talking about how we need to stand up for our rights, against the man, etc. Everybody boo'd, and the kid was taken away. A few minutes later the organizer of the even stood up and said that "this is a protest! If they are going to take one of us they need to take us all!" I think if he had said that before they arrested that kid, or if that slogan had been popularized within cannabis culture, the large numbers we had at the event may have been able to do something huge and would have made the headlines here at Cnews. Maybe it is time for our culture, within the U.S. especially, need to start thinking like that. We have the numbers on our side. We don't need to be violent, but had 100 people gone up to the police and said "if you are going to arrest him for smoking cannabis, then you need to arrest me." then it would have been similar to the protests in the UK that made the police stop shutting down a cannabis club. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #2 posted by Duzt on April 25, 2002 at 10:27:09 PT |
| When is California (and all the other states being controlled by our new dictatorship) going to not only not support the DEA when they come in and break our laws, but when are the state police (or the people) going to step in and not allow these people to break our laws. If they come here armed and try to arrest people, they are in direct violation of our laws and we need to be protected from them. When is too much too much? If the police here (California) or the people arrest the DEA agents just one time, this all would end and states would have rights again. Imagine 200 armed citizens showing up at a cooperative that was being raided (robbed) by the DEA, things would change in a hurry. Sad thing is it happens all the tima around the world were people have courage to stand up to what is wrong and fight, doens't happen much here anymore. I'm ready to stand up. Duzt [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #1 posted by 2Spooky on April 25, 2002 at 09:57:33 PT |
| Now, if all the cities follow suit..... [ Post Comment ] |
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