cannabisnews.com: Feds Are Busting The Wrong `Drug Ring' Feds Are Busting The Wrong `Drug Ring' Posted by FoM on November 07, 2001 at 09:07:31 PT By Dianne Donovan Source: Chicago Tribune Whew! Californians can rest easy these days, secure in the knowledge that the U.S. Justice Department has mobilized a crack team of enforcers to protect them from the danger their midst. The Bush administration has instructed federal agents in the state to weed out a secret society of lawbreakers whose malfeasance is particularly insidious because they look so ordinary. They look like grandmas and promising young men and moms and dads and the girl next door. And they look like that because that's who they are. But the ones the feds are going after are sick. Not like "California sickos" (now that would be a project for the government to tackle), but sick as in cancerous, as in AIDS-afflicted. Sick as in throwing up after every bite, shaking, crying, excruciatingly painful chemo death-wish sick. The only thing that relieves their suffering--and there's precious little argument on this--is marijuana. A few puffs can bring blessed relief, it can mean a respite from pain, a meal digested.The problem is that these folks aren't exactly into hanging out on street corners trading Cheech and Chong jokes and anteing up for a nickel bag. So what they have done is form cooperatives to grow their own stuff or join medical marijuana clubs to keep the price down and to keep the sick and the dying off the streets. The whole thing is so wholesome that one club in Los Angeles, providing marijuana for 900 patients, is a member of the local Chamber of Commerce. Or was--until last month, when federal agents raided the joint. This was along about the same time they physically uprooted a garden of plants owned by patients, like some perverse cross between Carrie Nation and Martha Stewart run amok.So here we are, in the middle of a war against terrorists the government can't seem to find, puzzled and scared by a spreading and potentially deadly bacteria the government can't seem to stop and reeling from a recession the government still is denying. What's a federal agency to do? Go after dying people smoking pot! Kind of makes me wonder if they are looking for a fight they can win.A spokesperson for the Justice Department told The New York Times that the raids in California are proof that "we have not lost our priorities in other areas since Sept. 11." Well, that's a relief. I'd hate to think the most devastating attack on this country in its history might have put the medical marijuana raids on the back burner. Wonder what's next on the priority list? How about a mass closing of homeless shelters that aren't up to code?Meanwhile, as the feds are busting up medical marijuana groups that are legal, even encouraged, in some states, Republicans in the House were able to hold the line against federal agents manning security at the nation's airports. That would be Big Government. That would be an unwarranted intrusion into the private sector. How much more private can you get than the doctor-patient relationship? How much bigger can government get than ordering its agents to run roughshod over a state's right to do what it thinks best for the health and well-being of its citizens?And California isn't alone. Seven other states have legalized medical marijuana; Nevada went so far as to say that the state has to make sure patients can obtain the drug. So now Nevada is asking the federal government to provide the state with the stash. What if they'd put that provision in the law legalizing prostitution? It's an image I don't wish to entertain. But talk about coordination: It's now altogether possible that Nevada could get its marijuana from, say, the Food and Drug Administration and then the Justice Department could go in a confiscate it. Sort of like the CIA and the FBI work together now. Oh, and if federal agents are so keen to bust up drug rings, I know a few street corners they could hang around in Chicago.Dianne Donovan is a Senior Editor at the Tribune.Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)Author: Dianne DonovanPublished: November 7, 2001Copyright: 2001 Chicago Tribune CompanyContact: ctc-TribLetter Tribune.comWebsite: http://www.chicagotribune.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Medicinal Cannabis Research Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/research.htmThe Feds Crack Down -- on Medical Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11283.shtmlLow Times: S.F. Pot Club Closes, Fears Raids http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11279.shtmlHallinan's Pot Shot at Fedshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11276.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #13 posted by John Markes on November 10, 2001 at 03:10:56 PT It's All About Jurisdiction... Don't just blame the feds. Blame the idiot lawyers who screwed up at the US Supreme Court. They chose the wrong path and they knew it. Federal enforcement is based on the Commerce Clause and an assumption. It is assumed that because recreational marijuana usually crosses state lines, they have authority over it as interstate commerce and presume, that because you usually can't tell where it came from, it's all iterstate commerce. It should be fairly easy for any of these cannabis buyers clubs to prove their marijuana was produced and sold only within the state and therefore the federal government has no authority and no jurisdiction. Disabuse them of this notion and the court has to throw it out. Never allow the enemy to dictate your defense, unless you're sleeping with the enemy, so to speak... ARDPArk [ Post Comment ] Comment #12 posted by FoM on November 07, 2001 at 21:15:14 PT dddd What you say is what many of us wish we had the nerve to say. If you don't have people who look at this drug war, and the general war now, differently then we wouldn't learn anymore and then we would get set in our ways and then we become old. I never want to get old at least in my mind. Always wonder! [ Post Comment ] Comment #11 posted by dddd on November 07, 2001 at 20:53:49 PT Outstanding Article ...and from a major paper...I'm pleasantly suprised that they published it....I wrote a letter also....thanx Lookinside,,I appreciate,,and am flattered by your complimentary comment.....I sometimes feel that people are getting tired of my offbeat,and somewhat wrecklessly outspoken comments....I really appreciate the appreciation....sincerely..dddd [ Post Comment ] Comment #10 posted by E_Johnson on November 07, 2001 at 20:31:28 PT Medical marijuana didn't pass without Republicans! I think the Republicans in Congress need to realize that not all Democrats voted FOR medical marijuana in these state initiative ballots, and that means that a lot of Republicans DID vote FOR it, because it wouldn't have paased any states at all if it had only getting support from people commonly classified as "liberals".So this DEA raid is, I am sure, going to leave a sour taste in the mouths of many voters who are currently registered as Republicans.The Republican Party, in the minds of those voters, is supposed to be a party defined by its commitment to the course of honoring the rights of the states and having confidence in the ultimate wisdom behind greater local control and less reliance on the behemoth of federal government.Yet here is a Republican administration coming through with giant federal steamroller, squashing the voters at state level with the message that their desires and intentions as expressed at the ballot box are not to be honored by the folks who live inside the Beltway in Washington, DC.What's going on in the Republican Party?Where is that commitment to greater local control? Where is that trust for the people at state and local level to run their communities in the way they see fit?It's when people stop honoring their own values that they get into trouble and lose the support of the voters. [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by lookinside on November 07, 2001 at 18:13:16 PT: i love it! dddd...i think she's been reading your stuff...she shoved the DEA's stupidity right up their collective noses.... [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by mayan on November 07, 2001 at 15:53:06 PT I mean... Dianne!!! [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by mayan on November 07, 2001 at 15:51:59 PT Thanks Diane!!! I just sent a lengthy LTE to the Cicago Tribune. I hope they print it! Thank you Diane Donovan for shedding some much needed light on this topic! [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by Jeaneous on November 07, 2001 at 15:39:45 PT: I agree Diane Donovan must be receiving more pat's on the back than she imagined. I sent mine to her too.Excellent article.. [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by E_Johnson on November 07, 2001 at 12:17:05 PT Thank you thank you thank you Dianne Donovan, you are blessed!We shall overcome. We shall overcome. We shall overcome some day. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by wades on November 07, 2001 at 11:08:54 PT: My LTE To the editors:Thank you for publishing Dianne Donovan's Nov. 7 column, "Feds are busting the wrong 'drug ring.'" This scandalous story has been getting far too little attention. The Federal Drug War bureaucracy is making full use of the public's distraction with terrorist threats to pursue a vicious and brutal policy, one opposed by an overwhelming majority of the American people. If this is the best the Drug Warriors can do, I suggest we take their $20 billion budget and apply it to fighting real threats to our people. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by Patrick on November 07, 2001 at 11:00:31 PT Hi FoM Nice picture indeed! Think I'll try and visit the "museum" this weekend. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by FoM on November 07, 2001 at 10:55:13 PT Check out the picture Hi Everyone, I saw this protest picture so I put it on my What's New page. I think it says a lot!http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/whatsnew.htm [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by Patrick on November 07, 2001 at 09:19:53 PT Three cheers to the Chicago Tribune Than you Diane for spelling it out!!!!!!!!!!!!! [ Post Comment ] Post Comment