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Feds Blaspheme
President Bush's drug warriors must really, really want to protect their ability to throw non-violent marijuana users in jail. The White House sent at least three party crashers to a press conference Wednesday with Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), who has introduced a pot-decriminalization bill. The Office of National Drug Control Policy's "chief scientist" and two aides who were dispatched to provide instant rebuttal to Frank and the bill's cosponsors, all of whom acknowledged that marijuana was likely to remain very much illegal in the foreseeable future. Given the bill's essentially non-existent chances of passage, ONDCP's Dr. David Murray's impassioned arguments that seemed more appropriate in Reefer Madness were greeted with plenty of puzzled glances. Why did the White House feel it necessary to send at least three staffers to Capitol Hill to place in every reporter's hand a copy of its 20-page, color-copied "2008 Marijuana Sourcebook?" RAW STORY posed this question to Murray. "It is our responsibility to be aware of policy developments," said Murray, who clarified that he had a PhD and was not a medical doctor. He explained that Frank's attempt to modify the controlled substances act was very much of interest to the Bush administration's pot prohibitionists. The Marijuana Policy Project's Rob Kampia, who stuck around to listen to Murray's post-press conference diatribe, said he suspected ulterior motives behind the propagandistic pontificating. "Nothing's going to happen on this before he loses his job," the decriminalization advocate said, acknowledging that Frank's bill won't move forward until at least next year, when President Bush -- and his appointees -- would be out of office. "This is him emptying the clip." To its defenders, Frank's bill is a common sense move aimed at protecting letting states institute marijuana policies as they see fit, protecting patients in the dozen states that have legalized medical marijuana and generally telling the government to butt out of people's private lives. To its opponents... "I don't think that it is the government's business to tell you how to spend your leisure time," Frank said of his bill, which would eliminate federal penalties for individual possession of up to 100 grams (about 3.5 ounces) of marijuana. Frank's proposal is aimed only at decriminalizing individual possession, so it alone would not end raids by the Drug Enforcement Agency on medical marijuana dispensaries in states like California. Frank said he's authored separate medical marijuana legislation that he would introduce in concert with the individual bill. Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-MO) criticized the government for wasting billions of dollars on a "phony war on drugs" that's done virtually nothing to actually stop anyone from using drugs. One presumes that some of those billions were spent on the glossy Office of Drug Control Policy report with the Dr. Strangelovian title, "Marijuana: The Greatest Cause of Illegal Drug Abuse." Naturally, if marijuana were decriminalized, that wouldn't be the case, but such nuance is lost on drug war defenders. The press conference also featured marijuana defenders pointing out that the drug has caused none of its users to die, unlike alcohol and tobacco -- both of which are legal. "We do not arrest and jail responsible alcohol drinkers; this should be our policy with marijuana as well," said Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. The NORML representative was sporting a small gold marijuana leaf pin on his lapel, where miniature American flags are a more common Capitol Hill accessory. Frank, who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, said his decriminalization bill would fall under the purview of the House Judiciary Committee, which he hoped would hold hearings on the proposal next year. A Judiciary Committee spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Asked specifically if he thought his bill would become law, Frank said more shifts in perception were needed first. "The chances are not high at this point," the lawmaker said, a knowing chuckle letting the audience know his pun was very much intended. The following video and the above photos were taken Wednesday by Nick Juliano.
 
Incomprehensible

Police seize medical marijuana, patient records

Co-op searched after officers smelled the drug

By MOISES MENDOZA
P-I REPORTER

Police searched a medical marijuana cooperative in the University District on Tuesday evening, seizing 12 ounces of marijuana and more than 500 patient medical records, medical marijuana advocates said.

The search was carried out after police officers smelled the odor of marijuana on the street, entered the Life Vine cooperative on Northeast 50th Street and University Way Northeast and later obtained search warrants.

A spokesman at the King County Prosecutor's Office confirmed that a search was conducted but said a case hadn't been filed with the office.

Police declined comment and referred questions to prosecutors.

At least two patients were in the cooperative when officers showed up, but nobody was arrested, said Martin Martinez, who runs the cooperative and is the director of a local chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Nobody was smoking inside the cooperative when police officers arrived, said Douglas Hiatt, a lawyer representing the cooperative.

He speculated that officers might have smelled marijuana leaves because the building's ventilation system is inadequate.

Under a state law passed by voters in 1998 and amended last year, patients are allowed a 60-day supply of marijuana if a physician allows it.

The cooperative, one of several similar organizations in the Seattle area, helps seriously ill patients get together and locate medical marijuana.

It's rare for patients to be able to maintain a 60-day supply on their own, Hiatt said.

Most then return home to smoke because the law specifies that medical marijuana must be used in private.

Martinez says the cooperative collects patients' medical histories in order to produce identification cards for them. They can show those cards to police if officers confront them for possessing marijuana.

"Here, patients grow together and teach each other. It's just patients helping patients," Martinez said. "We don't buy marijuana and resell it; we comply with all the laws."

Hiatt and Martinez said they begged police not to search the property, but officers did it anyway after consulting with a prosecutor.

"I'm speaking with (the) King County Prosecutor's Office about this, and I don't expect that this is going to turn into a case," Hiatt said. "There was no reason to do what they did."

Patients' medical records, especially those of medical marijuana patients, deserve special protection because of their sensitivity, said Doug Honig, an American Civil Liberties Union spokesman. He said the ACLU was looking into the situation.

From a legal standpoint, medical marijuana exists in a strange gray area. Although some states, such as Washington, allow its use in limited circumstances, marijuana is technically illegal under federal law.

Nevertheless, cooperatives such as the Life Vine have proliferated where medical marijuana has been legalized, including Washington and California.

P-I reporter Moises Mendoza can be reached at  206-448-8247  or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .
 
Stop the DEA

Powerful Congressman Challenges DEA Tactics

House Judiciary Chair Questions Federal Attacks on Medical Marijuana

Federal attacks on medical marijuana patients have drawn the notice of a powerful congressman whose committee oversees the Drug Enforcement Administration.

US House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) has demanded that the DEA explain the raids and intimidation tactics it has been orchestrating against medical marijuana patients and caregivers in California and elsewhere.

John Conyers Rep. John Conyers

On April 29, Conyers (D-MI) sent a letter to DEA Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart challenging her interference in state medical marijuana programs. Conyers' action resulted from months of nationwide activism by Americans for Safe Access and other patient advocates, as well as concerned elected officials.

Conyers first voiced his concerns about DEA interference after a series of coordinated California raids in December. He is the highest ranking elected official to challenge the DEA's tactics since medical cannabis raids in California escalated dramatically in 2007. The congressman's letter is the first step towards Congressional hearings of the DEA by the House Judiciary Committee.

Conyer's letter questions the DEA's heightened raid activity across California and its intimidation of property owners with threats of prosecution and asset forfeiture because they rent to medical cannabis dispensaries.

In reference to letters the DEA has been sending landlords, Conyers pointedly asks, "is the use of civil asset forfeiture, which has typically been reserved for the worst drug traffickers and kingpins, an appropriate tactic to employ against individuals who suffer from severe or chronic illness and are authorized to use medical marijuana under California law?"

Conyers letter also recognizes how the State of California benefits from the estimated $100 million in sales taxes medical marijuana dispensaries pay annually. He asks Leonhart whether she has considered that the DEA's actions are "negatively impacting the ability of state and local officials across California to collect tax revenue, which they are entitled to under California law."

Over the past several months, ASA and advocates all over the country have lobbied Congress to convene hearings on the DEA's attacks on medical marijuana patients. Dozens of legal, tax-paying dispensaries have been shut down from DEA raids or evictions by their landlords, and many more face the same fate if Congress does not intervene.

"Chairman Conyers' letter to DEA has emphasized the greater need to seek effective solutions that will advance safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic use and research", said Caren Woodson, ASA Director of Government Affairs, who has been lobbying the offices of Conyers and Subcommittee Chairman Robert C. Scott about this issue for months. "However, before we can begin to develop a sensible national policy on medical marijuana, we must end federal attacks on patients and their care providers."

ASA's work with the House Judiciary Committee was bolstered by a statewide effort to get California's elected officials to call for an end to the harmful tactics of the DEA. ASA and its allies were successful in garnering strong letters of support from several elected officials, urging Chairman Conyers to hold hearings. Among those who spoke up were Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby, Los Angeles City Councilmember Dennis Zine, and the mayors of Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, and West Hollywood.

Visit AmericansForSafeAccess.org/ConyersLetter to read the letter from Chairman Conyers.
 
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