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DEA Sweeps Across Western Washington With Dispensary Raids
National News federal agents along with local law enforcement, but is refusing to provide any further details, reports Curtis Cartier at Seattle Weekly. DEA spokesman Jodie Underwood told KOMO News that search warrants were being executed, but declined to say how many.
By Steve Elliott Toke Of The Town
Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman for Western Washington U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan, wouldn't comment but said she would have information later in the day.
Federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided medical marijuana collectives in Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, Puyallup, Rochester, and Lacey, Washington, as a coordinated raid swept across the Puget Sound region on November 15th.
Disturbingly, local sheriff's departments appear to have taken part in the raids, despite the fact that medical marijuana has been legal in Washington state for 13 years. One of the raided dispensaries in Seattle was Seattle Cannabis Co-op in Crown Hill. A resident of the area said he saw DEA agents armed with a shield and a battering ram outside the dispensary about 11:10 a.m., and a young woman in handcuffs. Another report received by Toke of the Town confirmed the presence of federal agents in both the Ballard and Rainier locations of SCC.
The DEA raided dozens of dispensaries across Washington. This image was taken by someone driving by one of the raids.
Patient advocates and legal defense groups report that at least nine dispensaries have been raided, according to The Seattle Times. Ben Livingston of the patient advocacy group Cannabis Defense Coalition said he's spoken with several dispensary owners and defense attorney Aaron Pelley, who confirmed raids were occurring.
Seattle Cross on Capitol Hill was also hit Tuesday morning, according to Wes Abney, editor of Northwest Leaf, a local medical marijuana newspaper. And legalization group Sensible Washington told KOMO that searches have been conducted Tuesday at Seattle Cannabis Co-Op in Rainier Valley, at G.A.M.E. Collective's White Center and West Seattle locations, Seattle Cross on Capitol Hill, Tacoma Cross, and Lacey Cross, among others.
"I'm in shock because now I have no pain medicine," said patient Cameron Christenson outside of Seattle Cannabis Co-op on Rainer Avenue, reports David Rose at Q13 Fox News. "I can think of 100 crack houses in town -- why don't you go raid those?"
Dispensaries in King, Piece and Thurston counties were targeted for unknown reasons, reports KING 5 News, which flew over three separate businesses that were raided: the G.A.M.E. Lounge in White Center, and The Herbal Connection and Evergreen Medicinal, both in Puyallup.
"It means people are going to have to go back out on the street and you don't know what you're getting," Christenson said. "It's going to be a nightmare."
The operators and employees of the dispensaries are being "detained and questioned," Thurston County Sheriff's Lt. Greg Elwin said mid-day Tuesday.
The DEA has also confirmed the raids, reportedly performed by about a dozen
Deputies are in the
Is Obama's Drug Policy Worse Than Bush's? The War on Medical Marijuana Escalates By Phillip Smith StopTheDrugWar.org Signaling an intensification of federal government targeting of medical marijuana providers, the four US Attorneys in California announced October 7th a new campaign of "coordinated enforcement actions targeting the illegal operations of the commercial marijuana industry in California." The announcement came at a Sacramento news conference. The federal prosecutors said their enforcement actions would rely on pursuing civil forfeiture lawsuits against properties where dispensaries are located, threatening letters to dispensary landlords, and criminal prosecutions. The prosecutors said recent dispensary busts in Fresno, Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Diego were part of the enforcement campaign. The feds said that enforcement actions would vary across regions of the state and that they would be working with federal law enforcement and local officials to crack down. The Department of Justice in Washington made clear that this was not an instance of prosecutors going off the reservation. "The actions taken today in California by our US Attorneys and their law enforcement partners are consistent with the Department's commitment to enforcing existing federal laws, including the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), in all states," said Deputy Attorney General James Cole. "The department has maintained that we will not focus our investigative and prosecutorial resources on individual patients with serious illnesses like cancer or their immediate caregivers. However, US Attorneys continue to have the authority to
Cannabis Connection prosecute significant violations of the CSA, and related federal laws." Medical marijuana supporters were quick to charge the Obama administration with waging a renewed war on them and reneging on its promises to not interfere in states where medical marijuana is legal. "Aggressive tactics like these are a completely inappropriate use of prosecutorial discretion by the Obama administration, " said Joe Elford, chief counsel with Americans for Safe Access (ASA), Kinda freaky, huh? the country's largest medical marijuana advocacy group. "President Obama must answer for his contradictory policy on medical marijuana." On the campaign trail and in the White House, President Obama pledged that he was "not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state [medical marijuana] laws." "It is unconscionable that the federal government would override local and state laws to enforce its will over the will of the people," said ASA spokesperson Kris Hermes. "States must be allowed to enforce their own laws without harmful interference from the Obama administration." "The Obama administration's latest moves strongly suggest that their medical marijuana policies are now being driven by overzealous prosecutors and the antimarijuana ideologues who dominated policymaking in past administrations," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. "Barack Obama is betraying promises made when he ran for president and turning his back on the sensible policies announced during
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