Pubdate: Wed, 28 Dec 2005
Source: San Francisco Bay Guardian, The (CA)
Copyright: 2005 San Francisco Bay Guardian
Contact:  http://www.sfbg.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/387
Author: Ann Harrison
Cited: Americans for Safe Access http://www.safeaccessnow.org
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Hope+Net (Hope Net)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

IN THE DARK

Crowds Repelled a Raid on a Popular Cannabis Club, but the Feds 
Returned That Night, Busted Down the Door, and Left the Place Open to Thieves

Days before new regulations for San Francisco's medical marijuana 
dispensaries were due to take effect, the federal Drug Enforcement 
Administration targeted a popular cannabis club and found itself in 
an unexpected showdown with angry locals.

A dozen DEA agents swept into the city Dec. 20, raiding the home of 
Cathy and Steve Smith, operators of the HopeNet medical cannabis 
dispensary, and two of their cannabis grow sites.

The DEA team arrived at dawn, marched Steve Smith outside in his 
underwear, handcuffed him, and searched the house. Smith said the 
feds didn't realize he and his wife ran a dispensary until the feds 
discovered a business card during the search.

Two truckloads of DEA agents shadowed Cathy Smith's son William 
Curran as he prepared to open the dispensary later that morning. But 
when the agents weren't able to produce a search warrant, they 
returned to their trucks and sat grim faced as about 50 medical 
cannabis supporters arrived and surrounded their vehicles. Protestors 
held up signs announcing that a raid was taking place, and passing 
cars honked in support of the dispensary.

"The outrage that we see here will grow in San Francisco if they 
don't butt out of medical cannabis," Sup. Chris Daly said in front of 
HopeNet, which provided free or low-cost cannabis to 1,000 patients. 
"HopeNet, by all accounts, is a model facility, and one of the most 
prominent, most sensitive, and, most importantly, one of the most 
compassion-oriented medical cannabis facilities in San Francisco."

After a four-hour standoff, which drew a San Francisco Police 
Department tactical unit for crowd control, local police officers 
left the scene. DEA agents also retreated, and activists declared 
victory and went home. But the DEA returned to the dispensary after 
dark and broke down the door. According to DEA spokeswoman Casey 
McEnry, agents had federal warrants for all the searches.

The following evening, thieves apparently breached the dispensary's 
damaged security gate and carted off a computer, a stereo, and 
presents gathered for children who had been orphaned by AIDS.

Standing in his ransacked dispensary last week, Steve Smith showed 
how DEA agents meticulously bent the prongs of the electrical plug 
that connected his holiday lights. "There was nothing here, no 
patient records," Smith said. "They just kicked the door down and 
unplugged Christmas."

McEnry said the raids were a result of a two-year investigation 
sparked by an anonymous tip. The information led to a home in the 
Sonoma County town of Penngrove, where the DEA seized 217 marijuana plants.

That investigation led agents to the Smiths' home and adjacent grow 
room, on the 200 block of Cara Street, where they seized 122 
marijuana plants, as well as an unknown amount of processed cannabis.

Marijuana brownies and butter were confiscated from the HopeNet 
dispensary at 223 Ninth Street.

Agents also raided a warehouse on Cara Street and said they seized 
another 500 plants. Steve Smith said only 140 of the plants had 
roots, and the rest were cuttings.

"It is a clear violation of federal law to cultivate, possess, and 
distribute marijuana," McEnry said when asked why federal agents 
would raid a medical cannabis cooperative operating under California 
law. "Today, as the DEA, we enforced federal drug laws and conducted 
a lawful search of these four locations, and we seized marijuana."

Earlier in December, DEA agents shut down 13 medical cannabis 
dispensaries in San Diego. "I think they will target others," said 
Steve Smith. "This is a test to see if the community will stand up to them."

Two days after the raid, Cathy Smith and a dozen supporters visited 
Mayor Gavin Newsom's office to ask for his support. But the mayor, 
who has not commented on the raids, was not there.

"I think city officials need to provide some answers and ask why this 
is happening," Kris Hermes, legal campaign director for the medical 
marijuana patients group Americans for Safe Access, said. "Why was 
one of the most cherished dispensaries in the city raided when they 
just spent half a year developing regulations which were ostensibly 
put in place to avoid that?"

Sup. Ross Mirkarimi - who authored the legislation setting guidelines 
for medical cannabis facilities and patients in San Francisco - told 
the Bay Guardian he wants to know if the DEA is persecuting San 
Francisco for having dispensaries or some other reason.

"It seems like information is scant from the DEA to the police or the 
mayor - or they are just not sharing it," Mirkarimi said, calling on 
Rep. Nancy Pelosi to step in if the feds won't talk to city 
officials. "The elected family of San Francisco needs to be more 
vocal about our insistence that this is a Prop. 215 state, and this 
is a law we passed, and to respect that law."

District Attorney Kamala Harris reemphasized her support for medical 
cannabis. A spokesperson for Harris said that neither her office nor 
the police were involved in the raid.

No arrests have been made in connection with any of the raids. But 
McEnry says the DEA is working with the San Francisco U.S. Attorney's 
Office to review the evidence and arrests are possible.

Steve Smith says he hopes to have HopeNet open again by New Year's 
Day and that he and his wife will ask the city for permission to give 
away free cannabis to registered patients on the steps of City Hall 
on Christmas. But he says the $20,000 confiscated by the DEA was his 
life's savings and the dispensary's operating funds.

"If there are charges filed, we'll be under hundreds of thousands of 
dollars of bail that we can't possibly come up with. Bail me out or 
at least feed my dog," Smith said. "And if there are any brave souls 
out there who would like to help a couple hundred people with 
compassion [free medical cannabis], please take my place." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake