(Contra Costa Times) Sheriff’s deputies from Marin County attempted to confiscate records of pot sales from growers to medical marijuana dispensaries in Berkeley and Oakland Tuesday, but came up empty-handed, a lawyer for the dispensaries said.
After leaving the East Bay, the eight investigators planned to execute a search warrant for digital records at a third dispensary in San Francisco, called the Divinity Tree, said William Panzer, an attorney for all three dispensaries.
NORML Board Member and Legal Committee Member William Panzer, Esq.
Bill Panzer is also a member of the NORML Board of Directors and the NORML Legal Committee. He will be leading the Thursday “Medical Cannabis” Day at the upcoming NORML National Conference in San Francisco on September 24. If you want to know anything about the legality and operation of medical marijuana dispensaries and collectives in California and elsewhere, this is the seminar you don’t want to miss. (Bill’s also known for his guitar playing and has invited me to “jam” with him on my bass that weekend. Talent abounds in this community…)
Brad Senesac, a spokesman for the Berkeley Patients Group on San Pablo Avenue, said officials there told the deputies they don’t keep those records.
“They never entered the building,” Senesac said. “They shook our hands and left.”
Panzer said the same thing happened minutes later at Harborside Health Center near Jack London Square. The warrant seeks sales information from six alleged pot growers to the dispensaries.
Panzer said state and local prosecutors are now going after suppliers of medical marijuana dispensaries, since it is illegal to sell to them even though it is legal to buy marijuana with a prescription. This is in the wake of the Obama Administration’s remarks that it would back off on DEA raids at some dispensaries in the state.
Senesac said the deputies probably knew they would come up empty-handed.
“Most dispensaries don’t keep records like that,” Senesac said. “It’s all in the brain. You know who your growers are.”
We,as patients taking care of patients, need clarity and better rules for transportation of medicine to non-collective members, to collectives and donations made/given to collectives from any patient who is not a member of a collective. for example – like a state identification card or a legal state license as proof.
thank you