DdC

Steve Kubby: ‘First Obama DEA raid in California: Change?’
January 23rd, 2009 · 12 Comments
Steve Kubby: ‘First Obama DEA raid in California: Change?’
First Obama DEA raid in California: Change?
by Steve Kubby
Posted to IPR by Paulie

SAN FRANCISCO, 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, a California medical cannabis dispensary, complying with state law, was robbed at gunpoint by DEA officers.

“Just as Gitmo prisoners have been held without charge and then ‘tried’ in courts where they’re not allowed full rights of the accused, in medical marijuana cases, well-intentioned people are charged with activities that aren’t crimes in California, and denied the chance to present a defense. President Obama did the right thing with closing Guantanamo Bay, let’s hope he will provide similar protection to medical marijuana patients and their providers,” said Kubby.

Friday, January 23, 2009

About that DEA raid yesterday

In case you missed it, the DEA conducted a raid yesterday on a medical marijuana dispensary in South Lake Tahoe, California. That's right - in the second full day of the new administration that had promised to end the raids.

Keep in mind that Michele Leonhart is still head of the DEA. My gut instinct is that the DEA is acting on its own, ignoring Obama's campaign promises and pretending ignorance and business as usual, without anything concrete in place yet to deter them. It really shows the rank stupidity of the DEA leadership.

To conduct a raid right now does nothing but motivate the medical marijuana community in huge ways at a time when the Obama administration wants to focus on other things. It calls attention to everything that's wrong with the DEA, and puts it up in big glowing neon letters.

I could be wrong, but my guess is that Michele has already gotten a stern call from Rahm.

But just to be sure, it would be great if everyone lit up the switchboard at the White House.

I got an email from Cheryl...

I just called Obama at 202-456-1111. They have no computers and are taking hand-written notes. The VOLUNTEER who answered the phone for me said, I wasn't the only one to call him about this and there are over a dozen volunteers and the phones are ringing off the hook. I told him about the DEA raid yesterday & asked for Obama to keep his promise about ending DEA raids on medical cannabis patients and hoped he would end them for medical cannabis providers as well. He speculated that the DEA may have been trying to get one last raid in before the transition is complete. All the notes will be gathered into "subject" and given to the call-center boss and may be reported to Obama. Please call. Let your voice be heard. If you get a busy signal, try again. Leave a voicemail or speak to a real person. full story
Drug WarRant

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kameelyun

Change we can believe in!

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"The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off." - Gloria Steinem

drunken13astard

I will give Obama the benefit of the doubt, for now. He has 8 years of fuck-ups he has to fix, it sounds like some people have some unrealistic expectations.

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Champagne for my real friends, and real pain for my sham friends

Hostile

I suspect he'll stop the raids as part of his initial hope-n-change blitz, which'll help some people. I don't expect him to do anything more about medicinal marijuana though.

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OldMan&TheWeed

I don't think we can blame Obama for THIS raid. It happened right after the inauguration, and I'm sure this bust was in the pipeline for a while. Give things about six months to work themselves down to the street.

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Nintey-three percent of what I say is brilliant, factual information and seven percent is complete bullshit. Have fun deciding which is which.

DdC

Oh ya we can blame Obama and Biden and Contra Gates.
Obama is in charge, not DEAth cheer leaders...
I'll give em as long as it takes, so far he stands in Bush's shoes...
If and when things change in reality... we'll see.
For now he is totally responsible and in charge... or not.

"Mistrust those in whom the urge to punish is strong."
-- Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

Do you favor the decriminalization of marijuana use?
* 3586 responses
Yes - 97%
No - 2.3%

Politicians and their Apologists... tsk tsk
The art of ConPromise...

I hear Fleetwood Mac, its 1992, the future is bright,
after 12 years of Bush1, it seemed to be finally over...
then... more incarcerations than Nixon, Reagan and Bush1 combined.
Inhaling or not.
The Patriot Ax and Education Ax are written.
NAFTA is born, don't ask don't tell...
Police Action on Kosovarians,
dropping bombs from 30,000 feet,
Spraying Paul Wellstone with Monsanto poisons
in Plan Rand Beers Colombia,
saving Al Gore's Occidental Oil from Indian burial grounds.
Blistering kids from the new agent orange.

Don't stop thinking about tomorrow...
you might accidentally pay attention today!

Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss,
Won't Get Fooled Again...



"The anti-marijuana campaign is a cancerous tissue of lies, undermining law enforcement, aggravating the drug problem, depriving the sick of needed help, and suckering well-intentioned conservatives and countless frightened parents. Narcotics police are an enormous, corrupt international bureaucracy ... and now fund a coterie of researchers who provide them with 'scientific support' ... fanatics who distort the legitimate research of others."
-- William F. Buckley, Jr. Requiescat In Pace
Commentary in The National Review, April 29, 1983, p. 495

Nixon lied to schedule Cannabis #1.

NEW CCLE REPORT:
Life Sentences: The Collateral Sanctions Associated with Marijuana Offenses
Our latest study examines the true impact of a marijuana conviction. A misdemeanor conviction for possession of marijuana can trigger automatic bars on educational aid, a bar on serving as a foster parent, denial of federal housing assistance, revocation or suspension of occupational licenses, suspension of one’s driver’s license, and much more. Read the Report



The Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics (CCLE) is a network of scholars elaborating the law, policy and ethics of freedom of thought. Our mission is to develop public polices that will preserve and enhance freedom of thought into the 21st Century.

Life Sentences:
The Collateral Sanctions Associated with Marijuana Offenses
Our latest study examines the true impact of a marijuana conviction. A misdemeanor conviction for possession of marijuana can trigger automatic bars on educational aid, a bar on serving as a foster parent, denial of federal housing assistance, revocation or suspension of occupational licenses, suspension of one’s driver’s license, and much more. Read the Report

Ganja 4 PTSD & Depression for collateral damage from being arrested for marijuana....

Marijuana Arrests Set All-Time Record

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Continuing the recent trend, marijuana arrests set another all-time record in 2007, totaling 872,720. Arrests for marijuana possession totaled 775,138, greatly exceeding arrests for all violent crimes combined, which totaled 597,447. The number greatly exceeds the 829,627 marijuana arrests in 2006, which itself was an all-time record. Arrests for illicit drugs other than marijuana declined in 2007 by over 84,000 compared to 2006. full story
http://cannabisculture.com/articles/5268.html

"All propaganda must be so popular and on such an intellectual level, that even the most stupid of those towards whom it is directed will understand it. Therefore, the intellectual level of the propaganda must be lower the larger the number of people who are to be influenced by it."

"Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way around, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise."
From Benito Mussolini,
contributing to the "London Sunday Express," December 8, 1935

Marijuana Legalization Questions Top Obama's 'Citizen's Briefing Book'
January 22, 2009 - Washington, DC, USA



Once-Secret Nixon Tapes Show Why the U.S. Outlawed Pot

"I want a Goddamn strong statement on marijuana, I mean one that just tears the ass out of them. You know, it's a funny thing, every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish."

"You have to face the fact that the whole problem is really the blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognizes this all while not appearing to." (about the War on Drugs to Chief of Staff, H. R. Haldeman, according to Halderman's diaries)

"[S]oft-headed psychiatrists who work in places like NIMH (National Institute for Mental Health) favor marijuana because they're probably all on the stuff themselves."
-- Richard M. Nixon - Former President

Renagade Cops & Ganja Props

"Not only are we here to protect the public from vicious criminals
in the street but also to protect the public from harmful ideas."
-- Robert Ingersoll - Former DEA Director (1972)

"The difference between a policy and a crusade
is that a policy is judged by its results,
while a crusade is judged by how good it makes its crusaders feel."
-- Thomas Sowell

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OldMan&TheWeed

Several marijuana law reform groups, including Americans for Safe Access, NORML, and MPP are urging concerned citizens to contact the new administration in opposition to the DEA’s actions.

E-mail the White House and tell Obama’s staff that our new President must honor his campaign pledge not to use Justice Department resources to circumvent state medical marijuana laws:


https://secure2.convio.net/mpp/site/...rAction&id=245

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Nintey-three percent of what I say is brilliant, factual information and seven percent is complete bullshit. Have fun deciding which is which.

Prophet Saddam

Thanks for the info, people!

It's going to be important to keep the pressure up. Marijuana has a long way to go...

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