Feds seize medical marijuana taken in Seattle raid
Friday, August 1st, 2008 at 8:37 am | By: Radical Russ
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?
