DEA Raids Dispensary, Exploits Transition as President Obama Takes Office

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Tr1p

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Oakland, CA -- The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) raided a medical marijuana dispensary today in South Lake Tahoe, California, in the first days of the new Obama Administration. Even though President Barack Obama had made repeated promises during his election campaign to end federal raids in medical marijuana states, many high-ranking Bush Administration officials have yet to leave office. For example, still at the helm of the DEA is acting Administrator Michele Leonhart, who has been responsible for numerous federal raids in California, following in the footsteps of her predecessor Karen Tandy. Neither Eric Holder, President Obama's pick for U.S. Attorney General, nor a new DEA Administrator, have taken office yet.

"Whether or not this unconscionable raid on a medical marijuana provider is the fault of federal officials from the previous administration, President Obama has an opportunity to change this harmful and outdated policy," said Caren Woodson, Director of Government Affairs for Americans for Safe Access (ASA). "We are hopeful that these are the last remnants of the Bush regime and that President Obama will quickly develop a more compassionate policy toward our most vulnerable citizens."

Medical marijuana and an unknown amount of cash was seized during the raid today from Holistic Solutions, but no arrests were made. This first DEA raid under the new Obama Administration is another example of more than 100 raids on medical marijuana providers that have occurred in California over the past two years. While the greatest federal enforcement has occurred in California, the DEA has been active in other states as well. Federal agents raided the Washington State offices of a medical marijuana advocacy group that was supplying starter plants to hundreds of authorized patients. In Oregon, a federal grand jury was used by the DEA to obtain the medical records of several patients, an effort that was later rejected by a federal court. The DEA also went as far as to threaten New Mexico officials for planning to implement that states medical marijuana distribution program.

"I would not have the Justice Department prosecuting and raiding medical marijuana users," Senator Obama said in an August 2007 statement. "It's not a good use of our resources," he continued. This statement was followed up by Obama in other public events in the run up to the election. "President Obama must rise to the occasion by quickly correcting this problem and by keeping the promise he made to the voters of this country," said Woodson. ASA has been working with the new Administration on changing federal law around medical marijuana, which has included providing a comprehensive set of policy recommendations.


http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=5654
 
Everytime a dispensary is shut down, a police station should be burnt to the ground.
Everytime a dope dealer is locked up, a squad car should get flipped.
Everytime a politician lies about ending the reefer madness, they should be shot.
 
Wow this shit pisses me the FUCK off, these people need it for legit medical reasons and shit. Wow way to fuck over cancer patients you heartless fucks.
 
Tr1p said:
Medical marijuana and an unknown amount of cash was seized during the raid today from Holistic Solutions, but no arrests were made.
Click to expand...

Makes me think they just took that for their own use or to sell.
 
They went over the dispensaries in California, they talked about this older man who used to smuggle marijuana in the 70s, then they talked about the growing of Marijuana within the United States and how the amount of plants found each year by the DEA and such continues to increase. I may be missing a few things.


NOTE: It's on again tonight at 10PM Eastern time on CNBC.
 
^Watched it, was pretty disappointed. A very surface level look at weed in Cali. Didn't really attempt to explain why there is violence associated with the drug trade (duh, prohibition). Don't think it did anything to change minds on either side. Its main point seemed to be that there is a boatload of $ to be made (also due to prohibtion itself, also not pointed out). Perhaps at best it shows how there is tremendous economic potential here.

Oh yeah, fuck Obama for his treachery and current silence in this matter.
 
I posted this article very disheartened because it looks like nothings going to change at all.
 
I expect the drug law changes to proceed in baby steps. Maybe Obama will set up a presidential commission to study it for six months and make recommendations.
 
A lot of responses to this thread have been very angry.
I understand this anger, since I consider what the FDA did to be illegal theft of medicine from people with serious medical conditions.
However, answering with anger and violence ( e.g. "Everytime a politician lies about ending the reefer madness, they should be shot") cannot make things go in the right direction.
If we use compassion and love, we can understand the politicians' ignorance, and closed-mindedness, and we can work toward educating them.
They will not open their minds and hearts to a bunch of furious hippies with dry mouth who reek of pot smoke.
If we can persistently reason with them, taking our case to the broader public using logic, science, and a loving compassionate attitude, we can win this in the long run.
Just like educating your own children, we have to be strong but loving, and above all, persistent. We have to correct the same fallacies again and again, but if we can do it with a good attitude, eventually we will win.
 
As former President Reagan told us in his first inaugural speech. “Government isn’t the answer to our problems. Government is the problem.”

People got to be free. Peace.
 
slimvictor said:
A lot of responses to this thread have been very angry.
I understand this anger, since I consider what the FDA did to be illegal theft of medicine from people with serious medical conditions.
However, answering with anger and violence ( e.g. "Everytime a politician lies about ending the reefer madness, they should be shot") cannot make things go in the right direction.
If we use compassion and love, we can understand the politicians' ignorance, and closed-mindedness, and we can work toward educating them.
They will not open their minds and hearts to a bunch of furious hippies with dry mouth who reek of pot smoke.
If we can persistently reason with them, taking our case to the broader public using logic, science, and a loving compassionate attitude, we can win this in the long run.
Just like educating your own children, we have to be strong but loving, and above all, persistent. We have to correct the same fallacies again and again, but if we can do it with a good attitude, eventually we will win.
Click to expand...

Tell that to the founding fathers of this country. Sometimes violence is necessary to bring about change (I'm not saying its necessary in this particular instance mind you)
 
JDizzle says that "Sometimes violence is necessary to bring about change".
But violence will not bring about the kind of change you want (unless you are looking for more violence).
Violence can only lead to more violence.
The Israelis and the Arabs have been trying to bring about change through violence for a thousand years. Sometimes one wins some land, then the other wins it back. Is that real change?
America fought England for "freedom". Many people died. The Americans won. But 85 years later, they killed a million other Americans, again for "freedom". Were the slaves freed? Blacks still were treated as inferior until Rosa Parks and MLK fought with dignity and love, without violence. It still took more time for some Americans to open their hearts, but when Obama ran for president under a platform of peace and ending the war in Iraq, that helped tremendously. It took peace and love to win against the hate-mongers.
If you take a longer-term view, only change achieved through loving compassion will be the real kind of change that we all deeply want. If you can get 1000 people to march through Washington shooting guns, they will just end up dead or in jail. But get 10 million to march peacefully, and real change can be achieved.
In the "war against terror", the US is not fighting "terror". It is fighting human beings, using violence. Only more violence can result. Terror is in the human heart - to really fight terror, we must remove this terror from the human heart. The roots of terror are misunderstanding, intolerance, and hopelessness. These roots cannot be fought with guns or military. They can only be treated through love and compassion.
A similar situation holds with the "war on drugs".
The government uses violence to attack people who use drugs. If people who use drugs use violence to attack them back, we will be caught in a never-ending cycle of violence. Only peaceful loving compassion can change the unfair situation we find ourselves in. This does not mean weakness, but a deeper strength, one that does not tire despite momentary setbacks, one that is able to see the long-term picture and remain strong while we continuously and tirelessly work toward that goal.

"Darkness cannot be dissipated with more darkness. More darkness will make darkness thicker. Only light can dissipate darkness. Violence and hatred cannot be removed with violence and hatred. Rather, this will make violence and hatred grow a thousand fold. Only understanding and compassion can dissolve violence and hatred." (Thich Nhat Hanh)
 
slimvictor said:
JDizzle says that "Sometimes violence is necessary to bring about change".
But violence will not bring about the kind of change you want (unless you are looking for more violence).
Violence can only lead to more violence.
The Israelis and the Arabs have been trying to bring about change through violence for a thousand years. Sometimes one wins some land, then the other wins it back. Is that real change?
America fought England for "freedom". Many people died. The Americans won. But 85 years later, they killed a million other Americans, again for "freedom". Were the slaves freed? Blacks still were treated as inferior until Rosa Parks and MLK fought with dignity and love, without violence. It still took more time for some Americans to open their hearts, but when Obama ran for president under a platform of peace and ending the war in Iraq, that helped tremendously. It took peace and love to win against the hate-mongers.
If you take a longer-term view, only change achieved through loving compassion will be the real kind of change that we all deeply want. If you can get 1000 people to march through Washington shooting guns, they will just end up dead or in jail. But get 10 million to march peacefully, and real change can be achieved.
In the "war against terror", the US is not fighting "terror". It is fighting human beings, using violence. Only more violence can result. Terror is in the human heart - to really fight terror, we must remove this terror from the human heart. The roots of terror are misunderstanding, intolerance, and hopelessness. These roots cannot be fought with guns or military. They can only be treated through love and compassion.
A similar situation holds with the "war on drugs".
The government uses violence to attack people who use drugs. If people who use drugs use violence to attack them back, we will be caught in a never-ending cycle of violence. Only peaceful loving compassion can change the unfair situation we find ourselves in. This does not mean weakness, but a deeper strength, one that does not tire despite momentary setbacks, one that is able to see the long-term picture and remain strong while we continuously and tirelessly work toward that goal.

"Darkness cannot be dissipated with more darkness. More darkness will make darkness thicker. Only light can dissipate darkness. Violence and hatred cannot be removed with violence and hatred. Rather, this will make violence and hatred grow a thousand fold. Only understanding and compassion can dissolve violence and hatred." (Thich Nhat Hanh)
Click to expand...

In this situation violence will not be a solution it will only worsen the problem. But saying violence in general will only cause more problems is some real hippy bullshit (no offence <3). Violence has solved lot's of problems like the Hitler/Japan problem in WWII.
 
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