Pubdate: Tue, 12 Jun 2012
Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)
Copyright: 2012 The Sacramento Bee
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/0n4cG7L1
Website: http://www.sacbee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/376
Author: Ed Fletcher

SACRAMENTO MARIJUANA DISPENSARY LATEST TARGET OF FEDERAL CRACKDOWN

The federal war on medical marijuana came to Sacramento again Monday 
with the early morning raid of a dispensary hailed by at least one 
city councilman as an ideal player.

Federal Drug Enforcement Agency officials would say little about 
Monday's raid other than to confirm they had executed a search 
warrant on El Camino Wellness Center near El Camino Avenue and Interstate 80.

El Camino Wellness was one of four dispensaries that had gone through 
the city's stringent vetting process and is a state and locally 
sanctioned nonprofit, said Max Del Real, a cannabis industry lobbyist 
working for El Camino Wellness.

Del Real said the center has great security, is a good neighbor and 
doesn't generate complaints.

In a letter to U.S. Attorney Ben Wagner last November, Sacramento 
City Councilman Steve Cohn went to bat for El Camino Wellness, 
calling the dispensary a leader in the city's effort to regulate such 
centers and saying he was impressed with its "overall level of 
compassion and professionalism."

Sacramento is one of at least eight cities that have enacted 
ordinances to tax and regulate local medical marijuana businesses.

But in October  saying medical marijuana operations in California had 
been "hijacked by profiteers"  the state's four U.S. attorneys 
announced a crackdown against "the illegal operations of the 
commercial marijuana industry in California."

Since then, DEA agents have carried out a number of raids on medical 
marijuana concerns from Los Angeles to Oakland and Mendocino County. 
In the Sacramento area, federal authorities filed marijuana 
distribution charges against operators of the R & R Wellness 
Collective in south Sacramento in October and raided another 
location, the MediZen Collective, on Northgate Boulevard. Several 
other Sacramento dispensaries received letters threatening federal 
seizures of the properties.

On Monday, Del Real called the 6 a.m. searches of El Camino Wellness 
and its owner's residence a raid on Sacramento's medical marijuana 
industry. "If the feds can go after El Camino Wellness  guys that 
were doing it right  they can go after anyone," he said.

Medical marijuana advocates say the raid underscores the need for 
state laws to tax and regulate the industry.

"It's time for the locals and the feds to accept medical marijuana," 
said Rich Miller, one of a dozen medical marijuana advocates who 
assembled outside the shuttered El Camino Wellness on Monday. "The 
feds need to back off and let the state regulate."

Assembly Bill 2312 by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, which 
is aimed at providing rules for the industry, recently cleared the 
Assembly and is awaiting a Senate hearing.

"The 80 percent of us Californians who support medical cannabis are 
disappointed (in the raids) and want some backing from the (Obama) 
administration to end this reefer madness," Ammiano said in an 
emailed statement.

Much of the concern among advocates Monday was for the patients. Car 
by car, several pulled up Monday disappointed to see a closed gate at 
El Camino Wellness and sign-wielding advocates outside.

One older man, speaking through a tube and driven by a younger man, 
asked what was going on. Apparently seeing someone else in need, a 
male demonstrator handed the man a small amount of marijuana.

"It's the same question over and over, 'Where am I going to get my 
medicine?' " said Courtney Sheats, a regional coordinator for 
Americans for Safe Access.

She and other advocates fear that people with legitimate medical 
needs will be forced to purchase marijuana on the black market.

"The message (the feds) are sending," said Sheats, "is the goal is to 
take away safe access to people's medicine."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom