Drug War Issues
Politics & Advocacy
DEA agents raided three Los Angeles medical marijuana dispensaries Wednesday afternoon, according to a preliminary report from Americans for Safe Access California director Don Duncan. More details were not forthcoming by press time.
The federal government has unleashed the DEA on dispensaries under both the Bush and the Obama administrations, although there was a respite between 2009 and late 2011, when the Justice Department had a policy of generally leaving them alone. But that policy shifted again in 2011, and both the DEA and federal prosecutors have been busy going after dispensaries since then. One Southern California dispensary operator, Aaron Sandusky, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison just this Monday.
The policy has not been limited to California. While hundreds of California dispensaries have been forced out of business by raids, asset forfeiture threats and/or prosecutions, so have dozens of dispensaries in Colorado, and a series of statewide raids in Montana in the spring of 2011 virtually wiped out that state's dispensary scene.
The LA DEA raids come as the city grapples over what to do about dispensaries. An effort by the city council to shut them all down was blocked by popular opposition. Now, the council, and perhaps city voters, will have to consider two different municipal initiatives, one of which would limit the number of dispensaries in the city to about 100, the other of which would allow most existing dispensaries to stay open.
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Comments
LEGALIZE
LEGALIZE , LEGALIZE, LEGALIZE, LEGALIZE, LEGALIZE, LEGALIZE, LEGALIZE, LEGALIZE, LEGALIZE
Decriminalization does not take you from the prying eyes of U.S. States Attorneys now does it.. and .. seems like California's want to make a point about going after all the big distributors and then where are the patients going to get their Meds on the street corners illegally just like before?
waste of tax money
Over a 3-year period,
Over a 3-year period, marijuana was the top cash crop in the state of North Carolina. Tobacco, more than $100 million behind. Cotton is third on the list.
Marijuana is the top crop in 12 states and ranks among the top three in 30 states.
It does not take a banker to see that this is a great business.
shut them all down
They should shut down every single one. The marijuana smoked today is not the same marijuana the Natives smoked and not the same marijuana they had decades ago. This marijuana is harmful. No it does not kill you directly but you can die as a result. I lost 2 cousins because they were stupid driving under the influence. My friend died losing his coordination and falling down 2 flights of stairs. People say we can make a lot of money off of marijuana but does the money mean more than peoples lives. They show our kids documentaries and statistics based on those who approve of marijuana being legalized. They say alcohol is worse but what is the difference with someone driving tipsy and driving high both being impaired and crashing into vehicles killing an innocent person. I think the only place someone should be able to get their "legal marijuana" is a doctors office.
In reply to shut them all down by crystalinamcphee (not verified)
Alcohol
If that is your argument, it would be better suited as to why we should make alcohol illegal. Plus, I have never heard of anyone dying from marijuana poisoning.
Closed Market
I think the drug companies are behind this, they are out of the loop on their huge racket they have with 800% mark up on "legal drugs" take Vicodin for example, it rots your liver while giving a few hours relief and is the most prescribed drug ever, they are making a fortune off this stuff, and others like it, and you want to talk about accidental overdose due to the "legal" drugs? remember Michael Jackson? and about another hundred movie stars and musicians? which not one has been killed by Marijuana, and I bet they used that from time to time as well. Any idiot can smoke up a storm and then get behind the wheel, its not just the weed it was the persons choice to drive impaired. It is sad indeed but if you examine the stats there is probably much less drug related deaths due to the evil smoke. This is still the stigmata left over from the 50's campaign to smear marijuana, due you remember an old 50's movie called Refer Madness? Strong weed has been around for centuries, take Thailand, Jamaica, Africa, India, Istanbul, Northern Europe, South America, China, Hashish in the Middle East, Weed is everywhere, when it started in the US back in the forties they simply had weaker strains, but believe me in other parts of the world it was just as strong as it is today. This mind set of the USA being the only place on earth is foolish, these other countries have thousands not hundreds of years of weed history. We barely have 50 years of weed strain variety. In the Middle East they have 5000 years of proven Hashish cultivation, not to mention Opium. Just 1 and I mean 1 drop of Hash, and you will be high for 12 straight hours. So do the math, theres a whole world out there and all continents do weed, end of story.
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