Massive DEA Raids in San Diego! Protest TODAY



The Drug Enforcement Administration raided at least 13 medical marijuana dispensaries Monday throughout San Diego, seizing patient records, computers, files, and medical marijuana.

In response to the federal government’s failure to respect the state laws that permit the use of medical marijuana for the seriously ill, patients and supporters will engage in protest and a press event at 12 noon at the San Diego Federal Building, 880 Front Street.

WHO: Americans for Safe Access
WHAT: Protest against DEA Raids on Medical Marijuana Caregivers
WHEN: Tuesday, Dec. 13 at noon
WHERE: The federal building in San Diego is located at 880 Front Street.

Dozens of additional protests are planned around the country on Wednesday, Dec. 14 in front of federal buildings. Since federal raids on dispensaries started in 2001, thousands of people nationwide have participated in protests at DEA offices in over 50 cities.

A national coalition of 12,000 patients, doctors and advocates, Americans for Safe Access is the largest organization working solely on medical marijuana. To learn more, see www.safeaccessnow.org

For more information, contact Hilary McQuie at 510-333-8554.
Americans for Safe Access
510-251-1856

NORML: Protest At Department of Justice Tomorrow
December 13, 2005

The following is a message from our friend Eric Sterling at the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation about a protest being organized for tomorrow in Washington, DC in response to this week's federal raids on medical marijuana buyers cooperatives in San Diego. We hope you will make an effort to show up.
- NORML

Friends,
US drug agents simultaneously raided thirteen medical marijuana dispensaries in San Diego, CA on Monday, Dec. 12. San Diego is the seventh largest city in the country, and the second largest city in CA with 1.3 million people. They seized patient files, computers, and marijuana destined for patients.
http://mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1949/a06.html

This is the latest and largest set of raids by the Federal government designed to block operation of California's nine-year old medical marijuana law, and to frustrate the medical treatment of thousands of desperately ill people.

We must not sit by and let persecution of patients and providers become "business as usual."

Please join us for a short but important protest at the entrance to the U.S. Department of Justice at NOON, December 14, 2005 at 10th St. and Pennsylvania Ave. NW. We will wind up by 12:20 p.m., so don't be late.

We will have signs, and a bull horn. Please bring your outrage, your friends and co-workers. Our goal is to have 50 people at the protest!

These raids were staged the same day that DEA's Administrative Law Judge began hearings to force DEA to allow the University of Massachusetts at Amherst to start growing research-quality marijuana to enable impartial research into the medical benefit of marijuana in the U.S. Right now DEA and NIDA use their monopoly on the supply of research quality medical marijuana, due to their control of the University of Mississippi marijuana farm, to distort the nation's research agenda, and block studies designed to find potential medical benefits.
http://mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1945/a07.html

We will be joining hundreds of Americans across the nation protesting the Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration's raids at other noon-time rallies.
Please make every effort to come.
Eric

rally in opposition

On Monday December 12th, federal agents raided thirteen medical cannabis dispensaries in San Diego with the help of the local police and sheriff. Today, hundreds of patients and advocates are rallying in San Diego to tell the DEA to stop harassing patients and caregivers!

We are asking all medical cannabis supporters to rally in opposition to these raids at noon on Wednesday, December 14th in front of your local federal building. So far, organizers in a dozen cities have stepped forward to plan rallies. Please join them tomorrow in solidarity with medical marijuana patients and advocates nationwide!

Please contact Rebecca immediately at rebecca@safeaccessnow.org if you plan to organize a rally in another city so we can post the information on our website.

Confirmed Cities for Emergency Response Actions

Chicago, IL: contact Matt matt@ssdp.org
Dallas, TX: contact Meghan arg_me_mateys@yahoo.com
Denver, CO: contact Brian brianvicente@sensiblecolorado.org
Grand Junction, CO: contact Rex towerpaint@abctower.com
Los Angeles, CA: contact Amanda amanda@safeaccessnow.org
Providence, RI: contact Nathaniel nathaniel_lepp@brown.edu
Riverside, CA: contact Lanny lannyswerdlow@earthlink.net (tentative)
Sacramento, CA: contact Aundre aundre@safeaccessnow.org
San Francisco, CA: contact Sarah sarahsmile@37.com
Tuscon, AZ: contact Mary mmackenzie2@juno.com
Washington, DC: contact Eric esterling@cjpf.org
Wichita, KS: contact C.A. criley2@cox.net

These demonstrations are a vital part of our grassroots opposition to the federal crackdown. Please make plans to attend and encourage others to do so. Please check our web site later today for locations of federal buildings and information on additional rallies.

Our web site is http://www.safeaccessnow.org
You can reach the ASA office directly at (510) 251-1856.
Thank you for your active support and participation.

Rebecca Saltzman Field Coordinator Americans for Safe Access
p (510) 251-1856 f (510) 251-2036 http://www.safeaccessnow.org

U.S. Drug Agents Raid 13 Medical Marijuana Sites By Jeff McDonald
Source: SignOnSanDiego.com San Diego, CA December 12, 2005  
Federal agents fanned out across San Diego County on Monday, executing simultaneous search warrants on 13 medical marijuana dispensaries that have been selling pot to sick and dying patients. No one was arrested on suspicion of drug-dealing, officials said, but agents seized dozens of pounds of high-grade marijuana along with equipment, computers, patient files and other materials inside the storefront offices.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21376.shtml



Warrant Served After Drug Bought Without Paperwork By Jeff McDonald
Source: SignOnSanDiego.com December 13, 2005 San Diego, CA 
Federal agents fanned out across San Diego County yesterday, executing simultaneous search warrants on 13 medical marijuana dispensaries. A task force headed by the San Diego office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration seized approximately 50 pounds of high-grade marijuana along with equipment, computers, patient records and other materials.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21378.shtml

Authorities Raid 13 Area Marijuana Dispensaries
ssheriff


Authorities in San Diego raided 13 marijuana dispensaries on Monday
in what is being described as an investigation into federal drug trafficking.



Misha Piastro, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration, said that agents served 14 warrants on Monday at the 13 dispensaries in San Diego, San Marcos and one private residence.





According to Piastro, federal agents worked with state and local counterparts
to make seizures of marijuana and potentially other drugs.





He said that several arrests were made for outstanding warrants
that were not the subject of the ongoing investigation.



Prohibition vs. Democracy: The County of San Diego By Kenneth Michael White
Source: Village News December 01, 2005 Calif.
The County of San Diego recently announced that it would not implement a California law that requires counties to create a medical marijuana identification program. First county supervisors said medical marijuana patients would have to sue them to get identification cards, but then the county changed its position after the local newspaper suggested the county should sue the state for declaratory judgment, which is what they decided to do. As we wait for this litigation to start, now is a good time to consider the merits and demerits of the position of the County of San Diego regarding medical marijuana.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21349.shtml

County To Sue over Prop. 215 in Federal Court By Daniel Strumpf
Source: San Diego City Beat December 07, 2005 California

County To Sue To Overturn Medical Marijuana Law By Gig Conaughton
Source: North County Times December 07, 2005 San Diego, CA 



United States' Answer To Drug War Proves Harmful
War Against Marijuana is Crackpot
Anti-Ganja Laws Archaic, Says Doctor
Spoils of Drug War Forfeitures Prove Too Lucrative
Government Property Seizures out of Control

"John P. Walters is the United States Drug Czar, also known as the Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. He is the governments minister of drug policy disinformation, insuring that historical experience and scientific data do not interfere with the propagation of government poliicies on select drugs."
Pete Guither



Follow the money. When the government spends $10 billion arresting cannabis smokers each year, someone is also profiting on that $10 billion. Perpetuating the war is what profits. Not common sense ending it.
DdC

Stop the War - A Former Police Chiefs Plea to the New Drug Czar
America's Plague of Bad Cops
Cops on the Dole
Cop's View of the Drug War

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.
-- Upton Sinclair, "The Jungle"

End the War by Anthony Lewis
Has the Drug War Created an Officer Liar's Club?
cops against the drug war
police chiefs question merit of drug policy
Slave Labor Means Big Bucks For U.S. Corporations



Who is the DEA? by anonymous
Answer: The Geheime Statspolizei of Amerika. [The Amerikan Gestapo] Identical inevery way. The Gestapo was decared a criminal organization at the Nuremberg Trials. A police organization directing medicine and medical research. Sound familure? Rousting people out of their beds in the middle of night for their political beliefs. Sound familure? Shooting and killing unarmed nonviolent people in their homes. Sound familure? Hauling people off to be tried in a kangaroo court and sent to prison. Sound familure? The DEA is as American as vinershnitzel. This is not my America.

'Virtues' of Ganja

Shitttttttyyy..............


I always hear from people, "America, love it or leave it" here in the U.S.
Anyone willing to contribute to my travel expenses is welcome to PM me for details in regards to donations. Thanks ever so much.
I had so many hopes for California.
Peace.

It's 'Warfare' Medi-Pot Activists are Mad as Hell By David Rolland
Source: San Diego, CA City Beat December 14, 2005 
Already steaming mad about the county Board of Supervisors’ decision to sue the state in federal court to overturn the law that allows sick people to use marijuana as medicine, activists who gathered in University Heights Monday night were furious about the raids on pot dispensaries that occurred earlier in the day—and vowing not to back down in the face of what they called federal law-enforcement intimidation.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21382.shtml

The Right To Feel Better
Pot or Politics? - Good Times
Why I'm Fighting Drug Laws From City Hall

"fascism - A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism."
American Heritage Dictionary, 1983

Blindness of the Prohibitionists Paradigm
Bush Crimes Against Humanity
Bush:Timeline of Treason



Marijuana Arrests For Year 2004
Source: NORML October 17, 2005 - Washington, DC, USA
Pot Smokers Arrested In America At A Rate Of One Every 41 Seconds
Washington, DC: Police arrested an estimated 771,608 persons for marijuana violations in 2004, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's annual Uniform Crime Report, released today.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21198.shtml

Even though investigators plan to scrutinize the patient records seized yesterday,
the DEA said medical marijuana users are not targets of the ongoing investigation.

"The bottom line is the prices that these people are charging
is three to four times higher than you buy from a seedy drug dealer in a back alley,"

"These people are not helping the medically infirm. They're out to make money."
Jack Hook, the DEA's acting special agent in charge.



Conflict of Interest? By Kelly Davis 
Source: San Diego, CA City Beat December 14, 2005  
A month ago, it was only going to be SB 420, the 2004 state Senate bill that ordered counties to provide ID cards to medical-marijuana patients. What a difference a few weeks makes. On Tuesday, Dec. 6, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted to step up their attack on the Senate bill with a concurrent legal challenge that seeks to overturn Proposition 215, also known as the Compassionate Use Act, a 1996, voter-approved initiative that says chronically ill people with a doctor’s recommendation can use marijuana for medicinal purposes. Prop. 215 won by a 12-point margin statewide and even garnered majority support in traditionally conservative San Diego County.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21383.shtml

Government defends medical marijuana monopoly
GOPerverted Officials
Bushladen and the Terrorists Carlyles Groups

Freedom from fear and injustice and oppression will be ours only in the measure that men who value such freedom are ready to sustain its possession - to defend it against every thrust from within or without.
Dwight Eisenhower 
American statesman (34th US president: 1953-61),
Supreme Allied Commander in WW II, Europe



New DOJ Report: “Indicators of School Crime and Safety, 2005”
Shows That State Laws Have No Impact On Student Marijuana Use.
Posted by Richard Cowan on 2005-11-22 16:20:00
Actually, these numbers show that we are arresting millions of Americans to support a prohibition that is actually counterproductive. However, I would never have guessed which states have the highest rate of teen use.
Read Full Story... http://www.marijuananews.com/news.php3?sid=867



Council To Allow Marijuana Clinics Pot Centers By Mike Sprague
Source: Whittier, CA Daily News December 14, 2005 
The City Council has voted 3-2 to allow medical marijuana dispensaries in certain industrial areas of the city. If the council approves the second reading of the ordinance at its Jan. 10 meeting, Whittier will be one of 21 cities in California that have laws allowing such establishments. Fourteen cities in California have banned them.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21385.shtml

He who allows oppression shares the crime.
Erasmus Darwin English physiologist & poet, grandfather of Charles R. Darwin 



Supervisors Wrong on Medical Marijuana 
Source: North County Times December 13, 2005 
San Diego County supervisors made a bizarre choice last week to waste time and money suing the state to overturn its medical marijuana laws. The decision just doesn't pass the common-sense test. State and county voters nine years ago decided that people suffering from a variety of diseases can obtain legal access to marijuana if a doctor decides the drug can help. Yet the five folks who run county government have refused to implement the law.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21377.shtml

A Time for Patriots To Rebel By John Calvin Webster
North County Times December 16, 2005 San Diego, CA
Today is the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. In a legendary act of defiance, Massachusetts patriots donned feathers, blankets and face paint, and boarded a cargo ship in Boston Harbor loaded with 342 trunks of dried and processed leaves from the Camellia sinensus plant ---- British East India tea. In an act of defiance that was repeated in five other ports, they dumped the entire shipment into the harbor and helped spawn the revolution that founded our nation.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21390.shtml



DEA's Pot Raid Draws Protests By Robert D. Dávila
Source: Sacramento Bee December 15, 2005 
Rallies in Sacramento and at least 11 other cities nationwide support medical marijuana as legal under Proposition 215 and criticize this week's federal action against San Diego area dispensaries. Medical marijuana patients and advocates demonstrated Wednesday in Sacramento and other U.S. cities to protest a major federal raid on cannabis dispensaries in the San Diego area.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21388.shtml

The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie,
deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth,
persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.
John F. Kennedy

Guide to the Upcoming Rebellion
Part 1: Clinton's Last Lesson
Part 2: Spoils of The Civil War
Part 3: Public $upport of Religion
Part 4: Hemp Through A Lucid Lens
Part 5: McVeigh's Blunder
Part 6: Snitches, Junk Science and Big Business

"How many murders, suicides, robberies, criminal assaults, holdups, burglaries and deeds of maniacal insanity it causes each year, especially among the young, can only be conjectured... No one knows, when he places a marijuana cigarette to his lips, whether he will become a joyous reveller in a musical heaven, a mad insensate, a calm philosopher, or a murderer..."
-- Harry Anslinger, 1930-1962
Commissioner of the US Federal Bureau of Narcotics



Dispensary Raids Slammed By Kimberly Trone
Source: Press-Enterprise December 15, 2005 Riverside, CA
Medical-marijuana users rallied Wednesday outside the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration building in downtown Riverside to protest the agency's recent raids on 13 Southern California marijuana dispensaries. Federal agents seized large quantities of marijuana, records and small amounts of psychedelic mushrooms and hashish from the San Diego-area dispensaries on Monday. No dispensaries in Riverside or San Bernardino counties were raided.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21386.shtml



A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.
John F. Kennedy

Ole Miss Marijuana Monopoly Under Fire By Andy Kanengiser
Source: Daily Journal December 17, 2005 Oxford, MS
University of Mississippi leaders are battling a legal challenge that threatens
to end the school's legal monopoly to grow marijuana for research purposes.

If a ruler hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked. (Prov. 29:12)

Government defends medical marijuana monopoly



The Economics of Fascism October 7-8, 2005
Supporters Summit 2005
Whenever the fascists came to power in Europe, they banned the work of the Austrian economists. The reason: the Austrians wrote as vehemently against "right-wing" central planning as against old-fashioned left-wing socialism. While many are alert to the dangers of socialism, far fewer know of the danger of fascism, which might be defined as economic regimentation toward monopolized state capitalism.

School of Pharmacy Office of the Dean
The following GRANTS/CONTRACTS have been awarded: Dr. Mahmoud ElSohly

CCRMG ... Dr. Mahmoud ElSohly, who has devised a test
that can distinguish between traces of Marinol and natural cannabis in the urine.

"We will not give up without a fight," said Andy Mullins, executive assistant to Ole Miss Chancellor Robert Khayat. Critics of the Ole Miss research are just trying to get the federal contract, he said Friday.
Andy Mullins, executive assistant to Ole Miss Chancellor Robert Khayat

MAPS

Prof. Questions Gov't Monopoly on Marijuana

Federal Marijuana Monopoly Challenged

DEA To Argue Against Growing of Cannabis

A revolution is coming - a revolution which will be peaceful if we are wise enough; compassionate if we care enough; successful if we are fortunate enough - but a revolution which is coming whether we will it or not. We can affect its character, we cannot alter its inevitability.
John F. Kennedy

Pot Clubs Call Raid Warrants Illegal By Jeff McDonald
Source: SignOnSanDiego.com December 19, 2005  
The warrants federal drug agents relied on to search 13 medical marijuana dispensaries last week were signed by a San Diego County Superior Court judge, not a judge from U.S. District Court. That's no small distinction for some dispensary operators and medical marijuana activists. They note that marijuana is legal under California law if it's recommended by a doctor, and state judges are bound by state law.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21395.shtml

California NORML
DEA's Pot Raid Draws Protests
Warrant Served After Drug Bought

Marijuana Groups Survey Says Voters Oppose Lawsuit By Gig Conaughton
Source: North County Times January 10, 2006 San Diego, CA  
Most county voters support California's 9-year-old medical marijuana law and oppose San Diego County supervisors' plan to sue to overturn it, according to a survey released Monday. In addition, the survey said most respondents would vote to replace the supervisors over the issue. The $15,000 telephone survey of 500 randomly selected county voters ---- 100 from each of the county's five districts ---- was commissioned by the Marijuana Policy Project, a national nonprofit group that wants to decriminalize all marijuana use.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21467.shtml


Medical Marijuana of San Diego.com

Scam DEAgo Dispensary Pilaged

Conflict of Interest? By Kelly Davis
Source: San Diego, CA City Beat December 14, 2005
A month ago, it was only going to be SB 420, the 2004 state Senate bill that ordered counties to provide ID cards to medical-marijuana patients. What a difference a few weeks makes. On Tuesday, Dec. 6, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted to step up their attack on the Senate bill with a concurrent legal challenge that seeks to overturn Proposition 215, also known as the Compassionate Use Act, a 1996, voter-approved initiative that says chronically ill people with a doctor’s recommendation can use marijuana for medicinal purposes. Prop. 215 won by a 12-point margin statewide and even garnered majority support in traditionally conservative San Diego County.



Did the Feds Frame Brian Epis?
Counterpunch December 17, 2005
The judge who sentenced Bryan Epis to 10 years in federal prison now realizes that Epis was the victim of prosecutorial misconduct, Assistant U.S. Attorney Samuel Wong misled the jury and U.S. District Judge Frank Damrell about a crucial piece of evidence. Epis is now 38. At 17 he was in a near-fatal car crash that left him with two compressed vertebrae. Prescription painkillers sapped his energy; marijuana enabled him to function. Damrell sentenced Epis to 10 years, the mandatory minimum, and denied him bail pending appeal.

Ganjawar Monger "DEAth" Cunningham Busted 4 Fraud

San Diego Billboard Campaign
Attacks Federal War on Medical Marijuana, Prop. 215
SAN DIEGO - February 3, 2003
Elvy Mussika, a glaucoma patient who is one of seven legal patients provided marijuana by the Federal government, appeared at a press conference in San Diego today. She stood in front of a billboard that featured 8 year-old Ashley Epis, daughter of a federal prisoner who was sentenced to ten years for growing medical marijuana that he believed to be legal under California's medical marijuana law, Prop. 215. She noted: "Marijuana saved my sight, it relieves illnesses for tens of thousands in California, it is a misuse of power for the DEA to incarcerate people trying to provide medicine to the ill."

San Diego Fights Medical Marijuana Law  
Source: Associated Press January 19, 2006 San Diego, CA  
San Diego County will file a lawsuit that challenges a voter-approved California law allowing marijuana use for medical purposes, county officials said Thursday. County Counsel John Sansone said the county will file a complaint Friday in U.S. District Court in San Diego against the state of California. It will ask a federal judge to decide whether federal law outlawing marijuana use for any purpose trumps the state’s decade-old Compassionate Use Act that allows sick people to smoke pot.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21499.shtml

Protest Massive DEAth Raids in San DEAgo!

"How can there be peace when drunkards, drug dealers,
communists, atheists, New Age worshipers of Satan,
secular humanists, oppressive dictators, greedy money changers,
revolutionary assassins, adulterers, and homosexuals are on top?"
--Pat Robertson, The New World Order, p.227



The Marijuana Policy Council is a united a team of local authorities and advocates dedicated to raising awareness in the community about the social, health, and economic consequences of marijuana use. The Marijuana Policy Council monitors current trends in drug policies and mobilizes resources to address the threat of permissive changes at the federal, state and local levels of government.


The Invisible Prohibition

Five Arrested, Marijuana Dispensaries Raided By Angelica Martinez
CN Source: SignOnSanDiego.com July 06, 2006 San Diego, CA  

Five people were arrested and 13 marijuana dispensaries were raided Thursday in an investigation into what authorities say was the manufacture and distribution of the drug under the guise of medicinal purposes.

Federal officials unsealed two indictments Thursday morning after conducting undercover investigations at businesses suspected of illegally dispensing the drug, officials said.

The first indictment states that the operator of “The Purple Bud Room” on Garnet Avenue and of “Tender Holistics Care” or “THC,” illegally distributed marijuana.

The second indictment mentions five individuals who owned and operated “Co-Op San Diego” and distributed marijuana and marijuana plants. The individuals are also suspected of growing marijuana plants at various homes in San Diego to support their operations.

Four doctors are also being investigated on suspicion of selling medical marijuana recommendations for people who officials said did not legitimately need the drug. Federal and state officials have reported the doctors to the state Medical Board in a complaint letter. The board is responsible for taking action against the doctors and is investigating their conduct, officials said.

At least five individuals suspected of selling the drug were arrested Thursday, and more arrests are expected, said Damon Musler, chief of the District Attorney's Office Narcotics Division.
Officials said patients involved in the sales will not be arrested.

The investigation was conducted by both local and federal officials.

San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne said officers received hundreds of complaints in the past 18 months about burglaries, assaults and armed robberies in areas near the dispensaries.

During the investigation, undercover officers were able to talk to several doctors and obtain open-ended marijuana prescriptions based on vague complaints of illnesses, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis said.

The officers were then able to buy marijuana several times at the dispensaries. At some of the locations, she said, the marijuana was packaged into cookies and candy bars.

The District Attorney filed charges of illegal marijuana sales against five of the dispensaries that were searched. They are:

Ocean Beach Dispensary and Utopia, both on Voltaire Street in Ocean Beach
Native Sun Dispensary on Rosecrans Street, in the Midway District
THC Dispensary, no longer in business, in Pacific Beach
The California Medical Center, on La Jolla Boulevard in La Jolla.

“Our office has no intention of stopping those who are chronically ill with AIDS, glaucoma and cancer from obtaining any legally prescribed drug, including medical marijuana, to help them ease their pain,” Dumanis said.

But the law that allows for the use of medical marijuana in the state is “being severely abused and it has led to the neighborhood pot dealer opening up storefronts from La Jolla to Ocean Beach to North Park,” she said.

Contact: angelica.martinez@uniontrib.com * Website

CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archives

Protest Massive DEAth Raids in San DEAgo!



Another article dealing with this.

Related Article from News 8
DEA Raids Medical Marijuana Facility, Indictments Made July 6, 2006

U.S. Attorney Carol Lam announced indictments Thursday charging six people with trafficking marijuana while posing as medical marijuana providers.

"These defendants were not caregivers, and they did not run medical dispensaries," Lam said. "These defendants are drug traffickers who were illegally selling marijuana in the middle of our commercial districts."

John Sullivan, 38, is charged with one count each of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute marijuana, and one count of manufacturing marijuana.

According to the indictment, Sullivan operated Tender Holistics Care, or THC, which distributed marijuana and products made with marijuana.

The second indictment charges Wayne Hudson, 42, Christopher Larkin, 34, Ross McManus, 39, Scott Wright, 40 and Michael Ragin, 34, with one count each of conspiracy to distribute marijuana and conspiracy to manufacture marijuana.
Watch News 8 at 5 and 6:30 for more details in this developing story.

Medical Marijuana Profiteers Targeted By Jeff McDonold
Source: San Diego Union Tribune July 07, 2006 San Diego, CA

With dozens of medical marijuana dispensaries doing a brisk business across San Diego County, and many patients showing no signs of serious illness, state and federal prosecutors decided they had seen enough.

Yesterday they conducted a multi-agency sweep that snared what officials said were the worst offenders: dealers capitalizing on California's loosely drawn medical marijuana law to make a profit.

The pot dispensaries have become “magnets for crime in San Diego,” Police Chief William Lansdowne said. The operators “have taken the compassionate use of marijuana and convoluted it into a million-dollar business.”

Drug agents showed up at dispensaries in La Jolla, Ocean Beach, North Park and elsewhere across the city, detaining patients, running warrant checks on employees and arresting previously identified dispensary owners.

Of the 15 people arrested, six face federal charges related to a grand jury indictment handed down late Wednesday, and 10 were charged by county prosecutors. One suspect, John Sullivan, 38, of San Diego, faces both federal and state charges.

“Their motive was not to better society,” U.S. Attorney Carol Lam said at a news conference announcing the arrests. “But rather to make a profit by breaking the law.”

Prosecutors took the unusual step of filing official complaints with the California Medical Board against four physicians who they said sell an inordinate number of recommendations for medical marijuana.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that doctors cannot be targeted for recommending that their patients use marijuana.
The raids followed a December sweep by the same joint-agency narcotics task force. In that sweep, agents confiscated equipment and thousands of patient records but made no arrests.

Snipped: Complete Article: http://tinyurl.com/otnol

Contact: letters@uniontrib.com * Website

CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archives



Pictures from NBCSanDiego.com

Video: Feds Raid Medical Marijuana Dispensaries
Prosecutors Say Drugs Were Sold To Healthy People July 7, 2006


One of the locations raided was Native Sons Dispensary in La Jolla.


Investigators said the dispensaries were selling marijuana in many forms, including candies and baked goods.


"He actually bought it for his German shepherd," Dumanis said. "It's just gotten out of hand.