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NORML Daily Audio Stash
“We heard some noise outside, and then the door literally burst in, and the DEA came in in full combat gear, told everybody to get on the floor and put their hands behind their heads,” Carey said. “It was like, literally, an episode of “24,” when they bust in on a terrorist cell.”

That’s the description of the Culver City DEA dispensary raid I blogged about last Friday.  Who knew that the “terrorist cell” description would have another frightening parallel.  That agent unloading DEA evidence is wearing a Blackwater t-shirt.

Blackwater is the private “security firm” with millions of dollars in no-bid US government contracts in Iraq.

This is a photo published by the LA Times as part of its photo slideshow online accompanying the news story about the raid.

Or, it was published.  If you click that photo slideshow link above, you’ll find that the seven picture slideshow has now been reduced to six.  The Blackwater man is no longer there.

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Ruling overturns Redondo medical marijuana decision - The Daily Breeze

Three justices from the 2nd District Court of Appeals decided Wednesday that state law does not require “a patient to periodically renew a doctor’s recommendation regarding medical marijuana use.”

In addition, the justices ruled that it should be left to a jury to determine if the amount of marijuana a patient possesses is related to their medical needs or exceeds the law.

[Christopher] Windus, 39, was arrested Dec. 14, 2004, after police officers searched his room at the Palos Verdes Inn and found approximately 1.6 pounds of marijuana.

Before his trial began, Windus tried to convince Torrance Superior Court Judge Andrew Kauffman that he should be allowed to present a defense based on California’s Compassionate Use Act of 1996.

In 2003, the state Legislature clarified the law to allow qualified patients or caregivers to have no more than 8 ounces of dried marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation.

Dr. William Eidleman told the judge that he consulted with Windus in 1999 and 2001, and gave him written recommendations for the medical use of marijuana for chronic back pain.

Eidleman said Windus ingested marijuana, which requires four to eight times more of the drug than smoking it. He said it would be appropriate for Windus to have 3 to 6 pounds of marijuana in his possession.

After hearing from the witnesses, the judge said he found Windus was legitimately a medical marijuana patient, but that no physician had recommended he possess more than 8 ounces of the drug at any time.

This week’s decision overturned Kauffman’s ruling and sends the case back to the trial court level

The California courts decided earlier this year that SB 420, the bill that limited patients to eight ounces, was unconstitutional because the legislature does not have the authority to amend an initiative passed by the people.  They’ve also given quite a bit of deference to the doctor-patient relationship and resisted attempts by lawmakers to thwart medical marijuana, like we saw in the decision last week in San Diego forcing that county to issue state-mandated medical marijuana ID cards.

If only our federal courts were so understanding…

More typical Reefer Madness in this article from Alabama, repeating the story of the Potency Monitoring Project’s findings that seized marijuana potency has risen to 9.6%.  But there were a few tasty morsels of cannabis control craziness that I thought deserved special attention:

Marijuana’s potency increasing rapidly, along with its demand | TimesDaily.com | Times Daily | Florence, AL
DEA spokesman Garrison Courtney agrees that the demand to get high and the desire to make larger profits are driving potency levels.

“You’re not dealing with people who are just trying to get people high,” he said. “You can charge more when you have a higher THC count.”

This just in from the Department of No Duh! - people will pay more for good weed.  However, it is the prohibition that causes the most potent weed to be the most desirable.

During alcohol prohibition, consumption of beer and wine dropped and consumption of more-potent liquor increased.  When a product is outlawed, the risk of being caught requires the sellers of the product to produce it in smaller quantities to maximize profits.  Why would you smuggle a trunk full of 3.2 beer when you can make ten or twenty times the profit with the same trunk full of 150-proof rum?

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The Associated Press: SWAT team kills 2 dogs in raid on Md. mayor’s home
BERWYN HEIGHTS, Md. — A SWAT team raided the home of a Washington, D.C.-area mayor, killing his two black Labrador retrievers and seizing an unopened package of marijuana delivered there.

Prince George’s County Police said Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo brought a 32-pound package of marijuana into his home that had been delivered by officers posing as delivery men. The Tuesday evening raid was conducted by county police narcotics officers and a sheriff’s office SWAT Team.

Sheriff’s office spokesman Sgt. Mario Ellis says deputies “apparently felt threatened” when they shot the dogs.

Calvo said officers entered about 7:30 p.m., first shooting 7-year-old Payton. They then pursued 4-year-old Chase, who ran away and was shot by police from behind, he said.

It takes a special kind of man to shoot a fleeing dog in the back.  Especially a black lab.  Everybody knows what a vicious reputation that breed has… if you’re a duck.  The worst thing that dog would probably have ever done to a decent human being not participating in a SWAT raid is lick him to death.

Obviously the first shot at the older dog made such a noise that the second dog was scared off.  Could you have not just fired a warning shot to scare both the dogs off?

Local News | Feds seize medical marijuana taken in Seattle raid | Seattle Times Newspaper
The federal government has gotten involved in the case of a medical marijuana patient support group that was raided recently by Seattle police.

According to the Seattle Police Department, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration has taken control of the marijuana seized during the raid on the Lifevine cooperative two weeks ago.

That raid made headlines largely because police seized hundreds of medical marijuana patient files. King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg declined to press charges against the man who runs the group, Martin Martinez, and had the files returned to him. But Seattle police didn’t immediately return the 12 ounces of dried marijuana bud or several pounds of less-potent leaves, and the DEA took that last Friday.

Martinez’s lawyer, Douglas Hiatt, had asked the police department to return the marijuana, arguing that Martinez had a legal right to it under Washington’s medical marijuana law. However, because marijuana is illegal under federal law, U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan asked the DEA to take it and destroy it.

“Accordingly, the DEA has seized and processed the marijuana for destruction; that concludes this matter,” the agency said Wednesday in a statement released by Seattle-based spokeswoman Jodie Underwood.

The city of Seattle has voted to make enforcement of marijuana laws the lowest priority for law enforcement, and yet Seattle police raided a legal medical marijuana group.  The state of Washington has voted to make medicinal use of marijuana protected under law and yet Seattle police turns over patients’ medicine to the DEA for destruction.

What’s the point of having a representative democracy if the local police force feels it can overrule the will of the people?

DEA agents raid Culver City medical marijuana dispensary - Los Angeles Times
Federal agents raided a Culver City medical marijuana dispensary where they spent more than four hours this afternoon, serving a search warrant that resulted in no arrests but left the shop in disarray.

The federal operation came on the same day an appellate court in San Diego ruled that federal law does not preempt the state’s law allowing the use of medical marijuana — a ruling touted by supporters of California’s medical marijuana law as a significant win.

At the dispensary agents left behind trash, counters strewn with open and empty glass jars, piles of receipts thrown on the ground, upturned couch cushions, bits of marijuana on the edges of counters and an ATM with its doors torn open and emptied.

In the residents’ rooms a safe was cut open, dresser drawers pulled open, and rumpled clothes and knickknacks thrown on the ground. An outdoor vegetable garden had plants uprooted, along with marijuana plants removed by the agents.

Brian V. Birbiglia, 35, sat handcuffed next to DEA agents on a tattered couch outside the dispensary for more than four hours during the raid. Next to the couch sat a box marked “DEA evidence,” about a dozen black trash bags and two Trader Joe’s paper bags. Some agents wore protective chest gear, black sunglasses and guns in leg holsters.

After the raid was over and he was released, Birbiglia was visibly enraged. An employee and friend of the dispensary’s owner, Jeff Joseph, Birbiglia said he is a disabled former Marine who has a prescription to smoke marijuana for a foot injury.

“We follow the law,” he yelled, his face red and his eyes teary. “We might as well have just got robbed by a bunch of thugs downtown.”

Clyde Carey, 50, of Marina del Rey was at the store Friday visiting a friend when agents burst in through the locked front door, he said.

“We heard some noise outside, and then the door literally burst in, and the DEA came in in full combat gear, told everybody to get on the floor and put their hands behind their heads,” Carey said. “It was like, literally, an episode of “24,” when they bust in on a terrorist cell.”

Another smash-and-grab federal robbery.  Another raid where there are no arrests.  Another example of state-sponsored terrorism in action.  No, the DEA doesn’t equal al Qaeda — they’re not killing anybody — but these raids do not stop dispensaries and they do not arrest so-called “criminals”, so their only purpose is to terrorize the proprietors and customers of the dispensaries.

Even if I take the prohibitionist’s view, however, I can’t see how this helps their cause.  All you are doing is creating more dedicated activists and martyrs and making your side look arbitrary and capricious.

Marijuana takes on colon cancer - health - 01 August 2008 - New Scientist
The chemicals in marijuana could put the brakes on colon cancer, according to new research. That doesn’t mean smoking a joint will help, though, as the chemicals only form part of the process.

Raymond DuBois and colleagues at the University of Texas in Houston discovered that a key receptor for cannabinoids, which are found in marijuana, is turned off in most types of human colon cancer.

Without this receptor, a protein called survivin, which stops cells from dying, increases unchecked and causes tumour growth.

To better understand the role that the receptor, called CB1, plays in cancer progression, the researchers manipulated its expression in mice that had been genetically engineered to spontaneously develop colon tumours.

“When we knocked out the receptor, the number of tumors went up dramatically,” says DuBois. Alternatively, when mice with normal CB1 receptors were treated with a cannabinoid compound, their tumours shrank.

When medical science fully understands the anti-cancer properties of cannabinoids and medicines based on marijuana become a regular part of cancer treatment, we will look back on marijuana prohibition as one of the cruelest policies in the history of public health.

Ariz. ruling finds no religious right on marijuana | www.azstarnet.com ®
There’s no constitutional right to use marijuana for religious purposes, according to a new Arizona court ruling.

The state Court of Appeals’ ruling upholds the conviction and sentences of Danny Ray Hardesty in Yavapai County for possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Hardesty’s appeal contends that he’s entitled to use marijuana under religious freedom protections of the state and federal constitutions.

The Court of Appeals acknowledges that courts have ruled that use of peyote for a bona fide religious belief is a defense to prosecution.

But the court’s ruling says marijuana use is more pervasive and that the uniform ban on possession and use is a legitimate restriction imposed by government.

Wow.  So, if too many people use a particular sacrament, it can’t be holy anymore and protected under religious freedom?  Whoops, tough for you, Rastafari, your God told you to use the wrong sacred plant!

If enough people began using peyote, then, that would be reason enough to enact a uniform band and rescind the rights of Native American worshippers to use it?

This insane hair splitting over “sincere” or “bona fide” religious uses of ganja miss the whole point.  The meaning of “freedom of religion” in our Constitution is really a measure of Freedom of Thought - the sovereignty over your own free will, your soul, your spirit, whatever you call it.  It doesn’t matter whether you believe a divine Creator made that burning bush for your sacred enlightenment or whether you believe this fantastic plant co-evolved in a symbiotic relationship with humanity or whether you believe you’ll just wake’n'bake today, reasons be damned!

The point of freedom of religion is that it is your right to believe what you wish; no one is master of your mind but you.  How you alter your consciousness, whether you call it “communing with God”, “alleviating stress”, or “gettin’ high, dude!”, is your business so long as you don’t interfere with others’ rights.

SAN DIEGO: Court upholds medical marijuana law : North County Times - Californian
A San Diego appeals court handed medical marijuana users a victory Thursday, upholding a voter-approved law legalizing such uses and rejecting arguments that the law flies in the face of federal pot prohibitions.

The purpose of the federal law “is to combat recreational drug use, not to regulate a state’s medical practices,” wrote the 4th District Court of Appeals Associate Justice Alex McDonald.

The practical implications of Thursday’s 3-0 ruling from the appeals court panel were not immediately clear, but it could mean that San Diego County must start issuing identification cards for medical marijuana users.

San Diego County officials, however, may choose to ask the state’s Supreme Court for review.

Thus far, the county has declined to implement a 2003 directive from state legislators calling for counties to create medical marijuana identification cards.

The ruling found that the counties did not have standing to “broadly attack” the state’s law, and were only allowed to contest provisions that directed them to create the identification cards.

And, the court found, the counties would not be running into conflict with federal laws by issuing the state-mandated cards.

If the counties appeal and the state’s high court declines to take the case or sides with the lower courts, the counties could ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decisions.

It is kind of ironic - here we have a county saying that it won’t obey a state law, and that law is the state saying it won’t obey a federal law.  Now we just need the city of San Diego to sue the county, then the Mission Hills Neighborhood Association can sue the city, and then Bob from Mission Hills can sue the neighborhood association, and then Bob’s dog can sue Bob!

Or we could just make the whole thing irrelevant by rescheduling marijuana or legalizing it entirely at the federal level.

Marijuana Garden Found With Help of Researcher’s Turtle - washingtonpost.com
A Montgomery County man was arrested after a researcher tracking a radio-equipped turtle in Rock Creek Park found the animal standing in a garden of marijuana plants in a remote area of the park, police said today.

The researcher notified authorities after finding the [ten] plants — about a pound and a half of marijuana worth roughly $6,500 when sold in smaller amounts on the street, police said. Lachance said investigators covertly watched the marijuana garden until a man showed up to tend to the plants.

Isiah Johnson, 19, of Chevy Chase, was arrested Wednesday and charged with possessing marijuana with intent to distribute, Lachance said.

I wonder how long those cops were sitting there, watching a marijuana garden.  It’s a good thing that Washington DC is a nice, safe place, free enough from violent crime, muggings, and vandalism that investigators - plural - can sit in the park, getting paid, to wait for a gardener to show up.

CNN has a feture called “iReport” where you can send in your comments and video replies to their stories.   The Barney Frank press conference is the subject, and I am thrilled to note that almost all of the comments were positive for our side, or as CNN puts it, “The overwhelming majority of iReporters who responded favor legalization”.  As of 8:15pm PT they had 221 iReports submitted.  Here is CNN’s select sampling of 15:

Marijuana bill sparks debate among iReporters - CNN.com
qotsa7777: I absolutely agree with the legalization of recreational marijuana use as a means to end the damaging and unproductive war on responsible, non violent users, but if we deny individuals the right to cultivate and sell marijuana for profit (with regulation similar that of alcohol), than we continue to perpetuate the most damaging aspect of marijuana prohibition: the funneling of money to gangs.

TJ1: I have been in hiding too long on this subject. I have a medical disorder that marijuana helps…. why should I have to hide responsible use of this what I consider to be very helpful to me?

Aoman: These issues should be left up to the states to decide. Let the DEA worry about drugs that are actually harmful to society.

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Cheech and Chong News
Today, from the world famous Troubadour where they were initially discovered, Cheech & Chong announced their first tour in over 25 years, an epic cross country U.S. trek with over 22 dates confirmed; additional dates to be announced in the coming weeks. Cheech & Chong: Light Up America … tickets go on sale nationally at 4:20 PM on August 8th and are available at http://www.livenation.com/.

The Live Nation produced tour will kick off on September 12th at the Tower Theatre in Philadelphia. Other highlights include Los Angeles, Washington DC, Detroit, Atlanta, Miami, Minneapolis, Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, Austin, Seattle, Boston, San Diego and Denver to name a few. Chong’s wife and comedy partner, Shelby Chong, will open all dates on the tour.

Tour dates and times follow after the jump…

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Durango Herald Online
The Michigan wedding of Durango newlyweds Andy and Ania Somora came to an abrupt end last weekend after the bride and groom were tasered by local police and spent their wedding night in jail.

According to a news release from the Chikaming Township (Mich.) Police Department, Officer Jeff Enders responded Saturday to the Burnison Art Gallery in Lakeside, Mich., after gallery owner Judi Burnison asked for assistance with unruly guests at the Somoras’ wedding reception.

Burnison, who rented the gallery to the Somoras for the reception, told Enders the party had gotten out of hand, and there were broken glasses and spilled drinks.

Enders told the assembled guests to leave, but many became upset, police said. Enders called for backup, and 14 law-enforcement agencies responded to help clear the crowd. Police said that many of the 100 guests left peacefully, but several continued to be disorderly and to swear at the officers.

Skowron said the crowd got particularly unruly after police handcuffed Andy Somora’s father and put him in the back of a police cruiser. He said the elder Somora, whom he described as “a distinguished older gentleman,” was trying to talk to Enders to defuse the situation.

“I didn’t believe it, but I witnessed it. It was brutal, and that’s when Andy got really mad,” he said.

Skowron said Andy Somora had to be restrained by police and was tasered at least twice. His wife also received a shock because she was touching her husband during one of the incidents. Skowron said husband and wife were both arrested, but Chikaming police would not confirm that claim, and no mention of the use of a taser is included in the news release.

Snarky Observation #1:  unruly guests… broken glasses… spilled drinks… ah, so it was a room full of people intoxicated on the legal drug alcohol.  It’s good thing they weren’t all using some of that deadly potent “Pot 2.0 - Not Your Father’s Woodstock Weed!™”, or it could’ve been mass hysteria!

Snarky Observation #2:  Elderly fathers of grooms can be so extremely dangerous. Thank god Officer Enders had backup!

Snarky Observation #3:  Officer Enders only had the backup of fourteen law-enforcement agencies.  If fifteen agencies had shown up, then he wouldn’t have had to resort to a taser.

CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News

CNN is asking if we should legalize marijuana.  Last I checked the vote was at 65% - 35% in favor.  Click the link and scroll down to the botton right corner to vote.

Legislators aim to snuff out penalties for pot use - CNN.com
“The vast amount of human activity ought to be none of the government’s business,” Frank said during a Capitol Hill news conference. “I don’t think it is the government’s business to tell you how to spend your leisure time.”

CNN.com now has the video of some of the press conference.

The Raw Story | Bush drug warrior crashes pot press conference
On Wednesday, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) held a press conference to tout his pot-decriminalization bill, that even defenders admit has an almost non-existent chance of becoming law in the near future.

Frank, however, found himself alongside The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy’s “chief scientist” and two aides who were dispatched to provide instant rebuttal. Given the bill’s chances of passage, Bush Administration surrogate 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,” he said, explaining that Frank’s attempt to modify the controlled substances act was very much of interest to the Bush administration’s pot prohibitionists.

How pathetic are the government’s pot prohibitionists?  First of all, the chances that this bill will pass are slim-to-none right now.  Second, even if the bill moves forward, it won’t be heard until the next Congress, and this Dr. David Murray, appointed by George W. Bush, won’t even be around anymore.  Third, these minions of the Drug Czar are required by LAW to lie to the public about marijuana - even if Jesus himself appeared at that press conference to say that cannabis is the sacred healing herb given by God to Man and no man has the authority to deny it to another, the ONDCP would be required by LAW to say, “no, it isn’t”.

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Joplin Independent:Free picnic reward for signing marijuana petition
“Sensible Joplin” will be hosting a free picnic in Parr Hill Park from 3-9 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 9, 2008, to encourage registered voters to sign the Joplin Sensible Sentencing Initiative. Proponents of this initiative must collect 1,033 signatures from registered voters by August 15 in order to place a measure on the November ballot that seeks to amend city-wide marijuana possession penalties to a fine-only offense. They already have amassed 3,623 signatures.

The park is located off of 18th Street (approach from 15th Street) and Kansas Avenue in Joplin. Registered voters supporting this measure are encouraged to attend.

News: Rifle-toting DEA agents raid marijuana store | adams, orange, agents, city, going - OCRegister.com
ORANGE–A medical marijuana dispensary in the middle of a legal battle with the city of Orange was raided again by federal agents.

Nature’s Wellness Collective owner Bob Adams said the dispensary was raided by approximately 14 DEA agents armed with assault rifles and accompanied by members of the Orange Police Department just after 1 p.m. Tuesday. Adams said agents took all of his medicinal marijuana supply, money from the store’s register and ATM machine, computers, cameras, smoking pipes and his city-issued business license and detained him and his three employees.

Nature’s Wellness was first raided by agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency and Orange police officers in March. Adams said the latest raid was much the same.

Kamis Day, another employee, spoke from his cell phone from a holding cell in Santa Ana: “They kicked in the door, smashed everything, handcuffed me and threw me in the back of the car. They didn’t read me my rights.”

Adams, Day and the other employees were released after about two hours and said they were not charged.

This is the continuing pattern with these DEA raids — they’re little more than a smash-and-grab robbery.

Note that the feds never charged anyone in this case. This is becoming part of the pattern, too. Strange, you’d think with so many people involved in a conspiracy to cultivate and market hundreds of pounds of marijuana, there would be an arrest or two.

But that doesn’t benefit the DEA. What they want to do in California is disrupt dispensary businesses and make photo-ops. They get to seize all that cash and they get to show piles of marijuana alongside cash and guns on the evening news. That’s good PR for their psy-ops game to intimidate and terrorize the cannabis community and to try to convince others that medical marijuana is a sham and a front for mass criminal activity.

If they make an arrest or two, however, now they have to spend the time and resources to present a case. The public is treated to a drawn-out spectacle of trials and appeals. That brings the case around to the issue of medical marijuana and real suffering patients, and the DEA then gets cast as the stormtroopers who would take a joint out of a cancer patient’s trembling hands.  The dispensary owners get cast as compassionate caregivers and become martyrs.  That’s bad PR for the psy-ops game.

In other words, the DEA is a little like one of Paulie Walnuts’ crews from The Sopranos.  “Nice pot shop ya got here, paisan, it would be a shame if anything were to happen to it…”

Cass County man kills himself as police investigate marijuana plants at his home- mlive.com
CASSOPOLIS — A Cass County man apparently shot himself as police came to his door during a drug investigation Monday, authorities said.

Nels Wilson, 51, was found dead inside his mobile home after Michigan State Police approached his home to question him about marijuana plants found growing outside, according to a news release. Police had flown over Wilson’s property as part of Operation Hemp, a joint venture of the Southwest Enforcement Team and State Police, and spotted more than 130 marijuana plants, including some 8 feet tall, near his trailer and garage, Prosecutor Victor Fitz said.

An officer heard a gunshot from inside the Jefferson Township residence, south of Cassopolis, as they approached, the news release said. They went inside to find Wilson was found dead with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, it said.

One hundred thirty marijuana plants will get you up to 7 years in a Michigan prison and a half million dollar fine.  If he was charged federally (and for more than 100 plants, that’s likely), he’s subject to 20 years, minimum and a million bucks.  If his trailer is within 1000′ of a school, 40 years and 2 million.

Rather than face life as a fifty-year-old in prison, Nels Wilson became the latest victim of marijuana prohibition.

[UPDATE: Courtesy of Sister Sativa, another news report on the story with this illuminating paragraph:

“I would note that there was some indication from family history that we’ve obtained since the investigation began that he did have some history of depression which may have contributed to the tragic results,” says Cass County Prosecutor Victor Fitz. “This is just another sober example that marijuana brings nothing but tragedy.”

Hmm, do ya think knowing about that history of depression would be good information to have before you go serve that warrant?

As for the tragedy, it seems that Mr. Wilson was living fairly tragedy-free with his 130 plants until prohibition of marijuana brought officers to his door and the threat of two decades behind bars.]