Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2000
Subject: Laguna Beach Police Ignore Law, Threaten SWAT Raids
DrugSense FOCUS Alert # 158 January 31, 2000
Laguna Beach Police Refuse to Uphold Prop. 215, Threaten SWAT
Raids
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DrugSense FOCUS Alert # 158 January 31, 2000
Prop 215 co-author Anna T. Boyce, R.N. will join Steve and Michele
Kubby for an emergency meeting with Laguna Beach Mayor Kathleen
Blackburn at 4:30 PM on today. Several other patients will also be
attending, to lodge a protest against the threats made by the Laguna
Beach Police Department that they will order a SWAT raid on any
citizen who attempt to grow even one medical marijuana plant.
Andy Kinnon, Regional Director for AMMA arranged the emergency meeting
with Mayor Blackburn specifically to discuss threats and civil rights
violations made against Steve Kubby by the Laguna Beach Police
Department. The AMMA group is currently considering taking the LBPD
to the Orange County Grand Jury for felony violations of the
Compassionate Use Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, Unruh Act, and
especially the Bane Act which provides enhanced penalties where an
officer of the law threatens a disabled person who is attempting to
exercise rights granted by the state.
AMMA also calling for an investigation of the Laguna Beach Police
Department for violating their oath of office to uphold the law,
violating the California Constitution and endangering the public safety.
It would be very helpful if you could fax a letter sometime this week,
on your official stationary, to Mayor Blackburn, explaining your
frustrations about this issue and urging the implementation of the
Compassionate Use Act. Please make the point that there is no reason
to vote anymore if the laws that we pass are so blatantly ignored by
police.
The Laguna Beach City Council Fax is (949) 497-0771. The Laguna Beach Home
Page: http://www.scag.org/homepages/laguna_beach/frmain01.htm
As an alternative to faxing, you can transmit your fax or statement to
Steve Kubby (steve@kubby.org) via e-mail and he will deliver it to the
Laguna Beach Mayor.
Laguna Beach is just a small city and we are a national organization.
Let’s focus our total resources on forcing the police to obey the new
medical marijuana law. After all, if police are successful in gutting
Prop. 215, then we’ll face the same problems everywhere else, even if
a federal medical marijuana law were to pass.
This is the battle that we must win and we need to make our voices
heard loud and clear in Laguna Beach California. Please do what you
can to help pave the way for this historic effort to finally force the
police to accept the will of the voters who passed the Compassionate
Use Act.
Thanks for your effort and support.
WRITE A LETTER TODAY
It’s not what others do it’s what YOU do
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CONTACT INFO
Contact: The Laguna Beach City Council Fax is (949) 497-0771
Please write a letter to Mayor Kathleen Blackburn in response to the
article about police threatening a SWAT raid on any who attempts to
exercise their legal right to cultivate medical marijuana, even if it
is just one plant.
You can also e-mail to Steve Kubby (steve@kubby.org) who will print up
your letter and send it on to the Mayor.
EXTRA CREDIT
Two grand juries are currently deciding if they want to investigate
AMMA’s civil rights complaints and what priority their complaint will
have with other important cases. PLEASE send a letter today to the
two people listed below and tell them that why this issue is
personally important to you and to the future of our country:
Placer County Grand Jury
Nancy Gregoi, Foreman
11490 C Avenue
Auburn, CA 95603
Fax (530) 889-7447
Voice (530) 889-7469
Orange County Grand Jury c/o Carol Duensing (cduensing@superior.co.orange.ca.us)
700 Civic Center Dr. West, Room A100 Santa Ana, CA 92702 Voice (714)
834-3320
In addition, PLEASE send a letter today to:
Bill Jones Secretary of State Sacramento, CA 95814 916-657-2166 fax
916- 653-3214 http://www.ss.ca.gov/
AMMA’s carefully documented civil rights complaints are posted for
public inspection at:
Orange County: http://www.kubby.com/ComplaintGrandJury.OC.html
Placer County: http://www.kubby.com/Complaint.Grand.Placer.html
Sec of State: http://www.kubby.com/Complaint.SecState.html
Attorney General: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/AMMA/petition.html
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ARTICLE
Top Story: Steve Kubby¹s Interview With A Nark
Posted by Richard Cowan on 2000-01-29 19:21:36
US: OPED: The Dark Side of Sgt. Sunshine
URL: http://www.marijuananews.com/
Source: http://www.kubby.com/AMMA.html
Posted January 29, 2000
(MarijuanaNews note: I think that Steve Kubby¹s interview with a nark
shows, as Steve says, “a prime example of what the drug war ideology
has done to our police.” This is by no means a unique phenomenon. This
is an international ideology that has corrupted law enforcement around
the world. Even prohibitionists should be disturbed by the refusal of
the police to obey the law. This is a danger to everyone.)
1/28/00
SPECIAL REPORT: THE DARK SIDE OF SGT. SUNSHINE
I spoke today to Sgt. Bob Rahaeuser, Head of Narcotics for Laguna
Beach.
The super-friendly Sgt. Rahaeuser, immediately suggested we use first
names and came across like the nicest person you could ever speak to
— until we came to the subject of medical marijuana.
That’s when “Bob” went back to a very stern Sgt. Rahaeuser, who told
me that he considers marijuana an addictive and dangerous drug. I
asked about their arrest policy, now that the Compassionate Use Act
was the law. Sgt. Rahaeuser explained that he will arrest anyone for
any amount of marijuana over an ounce. Furthermore, he told me that if
he had ANY reason to suspect if someone had just one plant, he would
have a SWAT team raid them immediately.
I explained that even under Dan Lungren’s guidelines, patients were
allowed two plants, but Sgt. Rahaeuser was firm and said, “Dan Lungren
would never say any such thing.” I offered to send Sgt. Rayhouser a
copy of Lungren’s “Peace Officer Guidelines,” but Sgt. Rayhouser
refused my offer.
Then Sgt. Rahaeuser offered me some advice, “marijuana is addictive
and leads to heroin.” I pointed out to Sgt. Rahaeuser that the Drug
Czar’s own IOM report said that there is no evidence to support either
of those assertions. Sgt. Rahaeuser discounted my claims, telling me
that it went against his 26 years of professional experience.
I explained to Sgt. Rahaeuser that the Compassionate Use Act was the
law, that it has not been successfully challenged and that he had an
obligation to uphold the law, regardless of his feelings. Sgt.
Rahaeuser disagreed and said that it was only a law if the courts said
it was a law and they aren’t saying that. I pointed out to Sgt.
Rahaeuser that rights not defended are soon lost and he responded that
“any attempt to test the Laguna Beach Police Department will be met
with a (SWAT) raid.”
After thanking Sgt. Rahaeuser for his frankness, I explained my
medical condition and my documented life-and-death requirement for
medical marijuana. Sgt. Rahaeuser expressed his concern for my health,
but told me he was “glad” I had been arrested for attempting to assert
those rights before, since “there was not possible way to justify
growing so many plants.”
Once again I thanked Sgt. Rahaeuser for his clarifying the position of
the Laguna Beach Police Department.
Call me “Bob,” said the once again warm and friendly Sgt. Rahaeuser,
“and I hope you feel better…really I do!”
Postscript: Sgt. Rahaeuser is a prime example of what the drug war ideology
has done to our police. The fact is that Sgt. Rahaeuser, an otherwise honest
and dedicated police officer, has clearly demonstrated his contempt for
those he is supposed to serve and for his oath of office. Furthermore, Sgt.
Rahaeuser’s blind allegiance to his zero tolerance ideology makes it
impossible for him to tolerate any implementing of the Compassionate Use
Act. So zealous is Sgt. Rahaeuser’s blind obedience to his drug war
mentality that he refuses to believe his own copy of Dan Lungren’s “Peace
Officer Guidelines,” which says:
“One marijuana plant produces approximately one pound of bulk
marijuana. One pound will make approximately 1,000 cigarettes.
Therefore, one can argue that MORE THAN TWO PLANTS would be
cultivation or more than necessary for personal medical use.”
[emphasis added]
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SAMPLE LETTER (sent to Mayor Kathleen Blackburn)
January 30, 2000
Kathleen Blackburn, Mayor
Laguna Beach, CA
Dear Mayor Blackburn:
I have been requested by Steve Kubby to write to you on behalf of his
efforts to facilitate implementation of The Compassionate Use Act,
California law11362.5 which was enacted to carry out the mandate of
Proposition 215, originally passed in November, 1996.
It has been very well documented that despite the clearly stated
intentions of both the proposition and the statute, California
patients and their caregivers have continued to be harassed and
arrested by law enforcement officials who happen to disagree with the
law. This illegal and reprehensible conduct has been facilitated by
the fact that, although the valid medical uses of marijuana have been
affirmed by the Institute of Medicine and validated by 55 to 60
percent of voters in those states where it has appeared on the ballot,
the concept is not “politically correct” in the eyes of most elected
politicians.
This situation has led to 11362.5 remaining an orphan bereft of the
usual enabling legislation at state level; this in turn has allowed
individual sheriffs to engage in a travesty of justice and arrest
bona-fide patients on suspicion of “sales” for wildly varying numbers
of plants- plus other ploys too numerous to mention. Mr. Kubby,
himself is facing felony prosecution in another county under
circumstances which can only be described as disgraceful.
My purpose is not to plead that case here; only to urge you to apply
the principles of fairness and humanity to patients in Laguna Beach
who meet the criteria of California law. This requires you to take
steps to protect them as the statute intended; you must not tolerate
the illegal and inhumane tactics at least one of your policeman is on
record as claiming to be the “policy’ of Laguna Beach toward users of
medical marijuana.
Sincerely,
Tom O’Connell MD
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