24/07/2007 00:00:00
US: DEA Raids LA Medical Marijuana Clinics
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LOS ANGELES -- Federal agents raided 10 marijuana clinics Wednesday, the
same day city leaders introduced a measure calling for an end to the
crackdown on the dispensaries allowed under state law.
The bust netted five arrests, large quantities of marijuana and cash,
and was the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's second-largest since
California voters approved medical marijuana sales in 1996. The drug
remains illegal under federal law.
DEA spokeswoman Sarah Pullen said the timing of the bust and the city's
action was "purely coincidental."
The agency has maintained the clinics are distribution points for
illegal drugs and earn their owners big profits. Those arrested
Wednesday included clinic owners and managers, though no patients, for
investigation of marijuana distribution.
Councilman Dennis Zine, who earlier in the day wrote a letter to DEA
Administrator Karen Tandy asking the agency to stop the raids, called
the federal agents "bullies."
"Instead of using resources to go after drug dealers ruining
neighborhoods and poisoning school kids, they're going after individuals
dying of cancer and suffering from AIDS who need cannabis to have any
type of appetite," Zine said.
The clinics are largely unregulated, which Zine and others said invites
illegal pot use and sales.
He said he and the council support a congressional bill that would
prohibit new clinics from opening until the city finds a way to better
regulate its more than 100 dispensaries. It also calls for withholding
funding for DEA raids on medical marijuana clinics.
The council proposed Wednesday requiring existing dispensaries to obtain
a city tax registration certificate, a seller's permit, a property
lease, business insurance, proof of dispensary membership and a county
health permit within 60 days.
DEA agents raided 11 Los Angeles-area dispensaries in one day in
January, the largest-ever such crackdown by the agency.
Earlier this month, the DEA sent letters to at least 30 landlords of
marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles County warning their property and
assets could be seized. Agency officials said at the time the letters
were not a threat.
Source:
http://www.ukcia.org/news/shownewsarticle.php?articleid=12737
Author:
Myfox Tampa Bay via UKCIA
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