Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2002
Subject: DEA Destroys 20 Plants In Latest California Raid
DEA Destroys 20 Plants In Latest California Raid
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DrugSense FOCUS Alert #255 Wed Sep 25, 2002
On Tuesday morning, Sept 23 in San Diego, the DEA conducted yet
another raid on a medical marijuana provider. This time the victim was
Steve McWilliams and his Shelter From the Storm garden, which provides
legal medical marijuana to six patients in the SoCal area. Agents
arrived to seize the plants from his modest garden which had already
been trimmed and the useful medicine distributed.
This action comes on the heels of the Feds previous arrests of
McWilliams for growing in larger quantities and following a warning
last week by letter to McWilliams from the local U.S. Attorney.
Any of the federal raids on legal California medical marijuana
dispensaries are reprehensible, but this latest is likely the most
audacious and heartless move yet by John Ashcroft and Asa Hutchinson’s
agents. With the U.S./Mexico border just miles away providing an
entry point for literally millions of dollars per day in illegal
drugs, the DEA decided to divert agents and valuable resources to
shutting down the Shelter From the Storm garden.
As shown in the article below, this raid is still another direct and
overt attempt by the Feds to punish anyone who might be publicly
critical of U.S. policy.
Additionally, this action took place less than a week following an
extremely strong opinion column in the San Diego Union-Tribune by the
Drug Policy Alliance’s Ethan Nadelmann. In his column, archived at
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02.n1804.a11.html Nadelmann astutely
and accurately demonstrates why any such raids by federal agents are
foolhardy practice and a sad waste of valuable federal law enforcement
agents.
These DEA actions against medical cannabis users and those who help
them are far from rare, as shown by the list maintained here
http://www.canorml.org/news/fedmmjcases.html
Please contact the San Diego Union-Tribune today and let them know how
you feel about this latest raid. Further, let them know how you feel
about Nadelmann’s column and thank them for their continued coverage
of this very urgent topic.
Thanks for your effort and support.
It’s not what others do it’s what YOU do
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CONTACT INFO
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Contact: letters@uniontrib.com
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FOLLOWING is the story of the raid from the San Diego Union Tribune
published today, Wednesday, 25 September:
POT GARDEN UPROOTED IN RAID
Federal warrant used to search home of marijuana activists
By Jeff McDonald and Marisa Taylor, Staff Writers
One week after Steve McWilliams handed out medical marijuana outside
San Diego City Hall, drug enforcement agents uprooted his Normal
Heights pot garden and said he may face cultivation charges in federal
court.
The first of its kind ever in San Diego, the raid began at around
11:20 a.m. yesterday when about 10 members of a regional drug
enforcement task force used a federal warrant to search the property.
They confiscated 26 maturing plants – some as tall as 8 feet – and
about 10 pounds of loose marijuana cultivated by McWilliams under a
state law that permits medicinal use of the drug. Officers also carted
away irrigation equipment, fans and other marijuana-growing tools.
No arrests were made. Agents said the decision to bring charges
against McWilliams or his partner, Barbara MacKenzie, would be made by
the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“He claims this is medicine,” said Donald Thornhill Jr. of the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration, which sought the warrant. “From our
perspective, there’s no medical use for this.”
U.S. Attorney Carol Lam said her office is reviewing the case to
decide whether to pursue charges. She declined to comment further.
Medical-marijuana activists across the state contend that the federal
government is cracking down on activists such as McWilliams so that
more people do not attempt to grow marijuana under California’s
Proposition 215.
Thornhill said the seizure had nothing to do with McWilliams’ protest
outside City Hall last Tuesday. “This has been on the agenda for a
while,” he said. “It’s the politics of the time.”
McWilliams had staged his protest to support a similar demonstration
in Santa Cruz, where elected officials joined 1,000 or more people
criticizing the DEA for an earlier raid on a marijuana cooperative
there.
Neither McWilliams nor MacKenzie was home when the narcotics team went
to the Wilson Avenue residence. Agents climbed through an open window
before taking an inventory of the home’s contents.
Television news crews taped the raid as it unfolded, while neighbors
came out of their homes to watch.
McWilliams arrived about 10 minutes later and was told that if he
entered the property he would be detained. He left soon afterward but
not before sharply criticizing the government’s action.
“I don’t know why this is happening,” he said. “I’ve had police
officers out here, probation officers out here, even the city
attorney’s office out here I don’t know how many times.”
The search warrant was executed at the height of the annual harvest.
McWilliams said most of the marijuana seized was not yet useable.
“It might have been 10 pounds with the branches and leaves, but it was
totally unmanicured,” he said.
The action was not entirely a surprise.
McWilliams was hand-delivered a letter from Lam last week warning him
that his plants violated federal drug laws – even though they are
allowed by city and state officials under Proposition 215.
MacKenzie and McWilliams said that over the weekend they trimmed their
plants and delivered marijuana to patients. They said several of the
patients returned the marijuana Monday because they feared reprisals
from the government.
Both marijuana activists have been working closely with local
officials to abide by guidelines being drafted by a city task force.
Those recommendations are scheduled to be debated by a City Council
committee next month.
“I trusted the political process,” said MacKenzie, who was angry after
arriving home to find federal agents searching her home.
“They don’t want to prosecute. They just want to take the
medicine.”
San Diego Councilwoman Toni Atkins, who helped organize the city task
force, called the seizure “unfortunate.”
“It’s a tragedy that the will of the voters of the state of
California, who overwhelmingly passed Proposition 215 in an effort to
help sick people, continues to be subverted,” she said.
The city will push ahead with plans to issue identification cards to
medical-marijuana patients, Atkins said. San Diego attorney Patrick
Dudley is representing McWilliams and MacKenzie for free. Outside the
home yesterday, he said there was little he could do but wait to see
whether his clients are charged.
“I’ve never seen a case with such a small amount (of marijuana),” he
said. “It’s getting ludicrous. They’re being targeted because they’re
speaking out.”
The question now is whether McWilliams will be charged with any crime.
In Santa Cruz, federal prosecutors declined to charge several
activists who were arrested by federal agents earlier this month.
Peter Nunez, San Diego’s U.S. attorney under President Reagan,
predicted that the Justice Department would pursue criminal charges,
especially because McWilliams has refused to back down.
“This guy is begging to be prosecuted,” Nunez said. “I’m sure there
are people who are quietly growing 10 plants in their back yards but
they won’t be prosecuted because they aren’t publicizing the fact.”
Stephen G. Nelson, a former assistant U.S. attorney of 25 years who
headed the office’s drug division, agreed that a prosecution is likely
but said he hoped the U.S. attorney would turn down the case.
“If it’s a small number of plants and they are being grown consistent
with California law, it’s obviously a waste of federal resources to
prosecute this guy,” he said.
McWilliams said medical-marijuana activists are rallying to help him
and are planning protests for today at federal buildings around the
state.
“Everyone knows what kind of place we ran,” he said. “There was no
large amount of patients and no large amount of plants. People are
very upset.”
Copyright 2002 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
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EXTRA CREDIT
Every day more stories appear in the press about medical cannabis that
could also make superb targets for Letters to the Editor. Please use
this link to review the articles often, and please, write your letters
http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm
To learn about the frequent protests please visit the Americans for
Safe Access website – and consider signing up for their action
announcement list http://www.safeaccessnow.org/
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SAMPLE LETTER
(Please note: If you choose to use this letter as a model please
modify it at least somewhat so that the paper does not receive
numerous copies of the same letter and so that the original author
receives credit for his/her work.)
To the editors of the San Diego Union-Tribune:
Thank you for running the astute commentary of Ethan Nadelmann (The
Hospice Raid and The War On Drugs, Sep 19), which accurately decries
continuing federal raids of legal California medical marijuana
dispensaries. How sad and tragic to read less than a week later of
yet another raid, this time on the Shelter From the Storm garden of
Steven McWilliams in San Diego, which provides legal medical marijuana
to a whopping total of six patients. DEA agents stormed McWilliam’s
garden to seize a hand full of plants?
With the U.S./Mexican border just miles away being an entry point for
literally millions of dollars per day in illegal narcotics, the DEA
chose to waste valuable resources and manpower on this petty and
terroristic raid. Considering McWilliams’ history of publicly
criticizing the federal government’s policies on medical marijuana,
such an operation can only be seen as utterly vindictive and yet
another slap in the face to California voters and their law which
permits him to operate legally.
Where are your governor and attorney general? Why are they not on the
front page of every newspaper in the state demanding the end of this
federal harassment and terrorism against your citizens?
Respectfully submitted,
Stephen Heath Clearwater FL (ALWAYS INCLUDE your address and phone
number so the newspaper can verify. Most papers will not print your
letter otherwise.)
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Prepared by:
Stephen Heath,
Focus Alert Specialist,