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Marijuana dispensaries raided countywide
At least three locations targeted in North County
"It's a hate crime against the sick and dying..."
www.nctimes.com - Law enforcement authorities raided a number of medical marijuana dispensaries ---- one official put the number at 13 ---- in San Diego County on Wednesday, including at least three in North County, where one person was arrested on suspicion of selling the drug.
Medical marijuana has long been a contentious issue in San Diego County, with local governments fighting state laws that approve and regulate the use of the drug by sick people, as well as the dispensaries that provide the herb.
The reason behind the raids was unclear Wednesday afternoon, and officials mostly remained mum.
Amy Roderick, spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement Agency's San Diego office, referred questions to the San Diego County district attorney's office. District attorney spokesman Paul Levikow said his office would address the matter at a news conference Thursday.
On Wednesday afternoon at the Movement in Action dispensary at 1050 S. Santa Fe Ave. in Vista, police wearing dark, knit masks that showed only the tops of their faces guarded the door of the white building. Inside, members of the Narcotics Task Force and Vista deputies worked after serving a federal search warrant, said Sheriff's Sgt. Scott Miller, who is assigned to the multiagency Narcotics Task Force. The Narcotics Task Force is made up of a number of local, state and federal agencies, and is headed by the DEA. A half-dozen unmarked cars sat in the building's small lot. Other people who tried to park in front of the building were instructed to keep off the property.
Miller said one person working at the business was arrested on suspicion of selling marijuana. He would not confirm whether that person was James Stacy, the operator of the business, which opened about a month ago.
Craig McClain, a disabled Vista businessman, said he showed up at the dispensary about 2:30 p.m. to talk to Stacy and saw the raid. He said he watched police carry out pot plants and black trash bags and load them into an unmarked vehicle. McClain, 53, held a sign for passing motorists to read. On one side it said, "215, will of the people," referring to the ballot initiative that legalized medical marijuana in California. The other side said, "Stop attacking sick and dying people."
McClain, who uses an electric scooter, said he suffers from constant, debilitating spinal cord spasms because of an accident on a construction site more than a decade ago. He said only marijuana gives him some relief, but he has had little access to it until a month ago, when Stacy's business opened. He took the raid personally. "It's a hate crime against the sick and dying," he said.
Stephen Wheeler, a biopharmaceutical consultant from Escondido who also protested outside the business, said he was angry at what he believed was District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis' decision to take enforcement action against the dispensaries. "This is a patient-medicine, safe-access issue, and it boils my blood that these types of things are going on right now," he said of the raids.
Authorities also raided a second Vista dispensary on South Santa Fe Avenue and one on Los Vallecitos Boulevard in San Marcos, Miller said.
As of Wednesday afternoon, a Fallbrook medical marijuana cooperative had not been hit in the raids, according to Bob Riedel, who answered the phone at the shop about 4 p.m. Riedel said he is a member of the co-op, Mother Earth Alternative Healing Cooperative Inc., and that he learned of the raids earlier in the day. Riedel said medical marijuana is a small slice of the nonprofit cooperative's services, which include acupuncture, massage therapy and other treatments.
Word of the raids spread quickly, and by the afternoon, a number of people used the messaging network Twitter to send warnings to medical marijuana patients and local dispensaries.
Advocates for medical marijuana said they were scrambling to learn more about what was happening. "All we know is that there was a series of raids," said Margaret Dooley-Sammuli, deputy state director for the Drug Policy Alliance. She also criticized Wednesday's raids, saying they appeared politically driven in a county she said has a history of trying to quash the efforts of dispensaries and medical marijuana patients trying to act within the law. "It is clear that San Diego County is hostile to medical marijuana laws," Dooley-Sammuli said. "People are walking on eggshells. This (news of the raids) is a real shock and major disappointment."
Dooley-Sammuli said her organization had confirmed raids at six locations in the county, including five in the city of San Diego and one in Vista. San Diego police spokeswoman Monica Munoz confirmed there had been raids in the city.
There are no exact figures on how many medical marijuana establishments are in San Diego County, though the Web site for the marijuana advocacy group National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws lists about 30 cooperatives or collectives operating in the county, with at least four in North County.
The number of such establishments in the region has surged, driven primarily by two recent events ---- the county's failed attempt to overturn the state's 1996 medical marijuana law, and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's March statement that federal agents will target marijuana distributors only when they violate both federal and state laws.
County officials sued the state in 2006, arguing that federal prohibitions against marijuana should trump a 1996 California law legalizing it for patients to use with a prescription. Patients who use marijuana say it helps them treat chronic pain. After a series of courtroom losses, the county asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case. In May, the justices declined to do so.
San Diego County has yet to draw up local guidelines to regulate dispensaries. Last month, the county became one of several local governments in the region, including Escondido and Oceanside, to enact temporary bans on medical marijuana dispensaries while they draft new laws regulating the establishments.
The issue has come up in the city of San Diego as well. Wednesday's raids came a day after the San Diego City Council voted 6-1 to take steps to come up with regulations for dispensaries. Medical marijuana advocates said they consider that vote a victory.
---
Also see: Medical marijuana shop raided in Spokane
At least three locations targeted in North County
"It's a hate crime against the sick and dying..."
www.nctimes.com - Law enforcement authorities raided a number of medical marijuana dispensaries ---- one official put the number at 13 ---- in San Diego County on Wednesday, including at least three in North County, where one person was arrested on suspicion of selling the drug.
Medical marijuana has long been a contentious issue in San Diego County, with local governments fighting state laws that approve and regulate the use of the drug by sick people, as well as the dispensaries that provide the herb.
The reason behind the raids was unclear Wednesday afternoon, and officials mostly remained mum.
Amy Roderick, spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement Agency's San Diego office, referred questions to the San Diego County district attorney's office. District attorney spokesman Paul Levikow said his office would address the matter at a news conference Thursday.
On Wednesday afternoon at the Movement in Action dispensary at 1050 S. Santa Fe Ave. in Vista, police wearing dark, knit masks that showed only the tops of their faces guarded the door of the white building. Inside, members of the Narcotics Task Force and Vista deputies worked after serving a federal search warrant, said Sheriff's Sgt. Scott Miller, who is assigned to the multiagency Narcotics Task Force. The Narcotics Task Force is made up of a number of local, state and federal agencies, and is headed by the DEA. A half-dozen unmarked cars sat in the building's small lot. Other people who tried to park in front of the building were instructed to keep off the property.
Miller said one person working at the business was arrested on suspicion of selling marijuana. He would not confirm whether that person was James Stacy, the operator of the business, which opened about a month ago.
Craig McClain, a disabled Vista businessman, said he showed up at the dispensary about 2:30 p.m. to talk to Stacy and saw the raid. He said he watched police carry out pot plants and black trash bags and load them into an unmarked vehicle. McClain, 53, held a sign for passing motorists to read. On one side it said, "215, will of the people," referring to the ballot initiative that legalized medical marijuana in California. The other side said, "Stop attacking sick and dying people."
McClain, who uses an electric scooter, said he suffers from constant, debilitating spinal cord spasms because of an accident on a construction site more than a decade ago. He said only marijuana gives him some relief, but he has had little access to it until a month ago, when Stacy's business opened. He took the raid personally. "It's a hate crime against the sick and dying," he said.
Stephen Wheeler, a biopharmaceutical consultant from Escondido who also protested outside the business, said he was angry at what he believed was District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis' decision to take enforcement action against the dispensaries. "This is a patient-medicine, safe-access issue, and it boils my blood that these types of things are going on right now," he said of the raids.
Authorities also raided a second Vista dispensary on South Santa Fe Avenue and one on Los Vallecitos Boulevard in San Marcos, Miller said.
As of Wednesday afternoon, a Fallbrook medical marijuana cooperative had not been hit in the raids, according to Bob Riedel, who answered the phone at the shop about 4 p.m. Riedel said he is a member of the co-op, Mother Earth Alternative Healing Cooperative Inc., and that he learned of the raids earlier in the day. Riedel said medical marijuana is a small slice of the nonprofit cooperative's services, which include acupuncture, massage therapy and other treatments.
Word of the raids spread quickly, and by the afternoon, a number of people used the messaging network Twitter to send warnings to medical marijuana patients and local dispensaries.
Advocates for medical marijuana said they were scrambling to learn more about what was happening. "All we know is that there was a series of raids," said Margaret Dooley-Sammuli, deputy state director for the Drug Policy Alliance. She also criticized Wednesday's raids, saying they appeared politically driven in a county she said has a history of trying to quash the efforts of dispensaries and medical marijuana patients trying to act within the law. "It is clear that San Diego County is hostile to medical marijuana laws," Dooley-Sammuli said. "People are walking on eggshells. This (news of the raids) is a real shock and major disappointment."
Dooley-Sammuli said her organization had confirmed raids at six locations in the county, including five in the city of San Diego and one in Vista. San Diego police spokeswoman Monica Munoz confirmed there had been raids in the city.
There are no exact figures on how many medical marijuana establishments are in San Diego County, though the Web site for the marijuana advocacy group National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws lists about 30 cooperatives or collectives operating in the county, with at least four in North County.
The number of such establishments in the region has surged, driven primarily by two recent events ---- the county's failed attempt to overturn the state's 1996 medical marijuana law, and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's March statement that federal agents will target marijuana distributors only when they violate both federal and state laws.
County officials sued the state in 2006, arguing that federal prohibitions against marijuana should trump a 1996 California law legalizing it for patients to use with a prescription. Patients who use marijuana say it helps them treat chronic pain. After a series of courtroom losses, the county asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case. In May, the justices declined to do so.
San Diego County has yet to draw up local guidelines to regulate dispensaries. Last month, the county became one of several local governments in the region, including Escondido and Oceanside, to enact temporary bans on medical marijuana dispensaries while they draft new laws regulating the establishments.
The issue has come up in the city of San Diego as well. Wednesday's raids came a day after the San Diego City Council voted 6-1 to take steps to come up with regulations for dispensaries. Medical marijuana advocates said they consider that vote a victory.
---
Also see: Medical marijuana shop raided in Spokane
