IN THE NEWS: Week of 6/24
ASA’s Summary of Medical Marijuana Articles
> FEDERAL: Emboldened DEA Launches New Round of Arrests
> RHODE ISLAND: New Law Passes Both Houses; Goes to Gov.
> HAWAII: AG Clarifies State Law; New Dispensary to Open
> OREGON: State Program Resumes
> CALIFORNIA: Interpretation of Ruling Vexing Cities
> SOUTH DAKOTA: State Initiative in the Works
> RESEARCH: Scientists Identifying Why Cannabis Eases Pain
> CANADA: Prescription Cannabis Spray On Shelves
> NATIONAL: Raich Ruling Debate Continues
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FEDERAL: Emboldened DEA Launches New Round of Arrests
With a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in their pockets, federal agents launched large-scale arrests of medical marijuana arrests last week, bringing in dispensary operators, an activist, an attorney and a doctor. Authorities allege that those arrested in San Francisco were part of a bigger drug and money laundering ring, though the “other” drugs seized were a few dozen doses of ecstasy taken from one defendant’s home and the money laundering cited in the indictment consisted of using dispensary proceeds to pay dispensary rent. The arrests of a Nevada activist and a California doctor and her attorney husband may have been coincidental, but as the editorial from the Orange County Register notes, the timing is curious.
DISPENSARIES RAIDED, 19 ARRESTS
Feds Bust California Medical Marijuana Providers
by Judy Campbell, National Public Radio
In Northern California, federal drug agents have launched a crackdown on medical marijuana providers -- the result of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that grants power to federal authorities to prosecute those using marijuana legally under state law. Judy Campbell of member station KQED reports.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=2332
Federal Agents Crack Down on Medical Marijuana Providers
by Eric Bailey and John M. Glionna, Los Angeles Times
Law enforcement officials today declared that their raid of a $5-million international drug ring that used medical marijuana dispensaries as a front would not undermine the city's stand as a haven for medicinal users.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=2334
Arrests Follow Searches in Medical Marijuana Raids
by Dean E. Murphy, New York Times
Federal agents executed search warrants at three medical marijuana dispensaries on Wednesday as part of a broad investigation into marijuana trafficking in San Francisco, setting off fears among medical marijuana advocates that a federal crackdown on the drug's use by sick people was beginning.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=2339
Officials Say Drug Raids Found Clubs Were a Front
by Dean E. Murphy, New York Times
Federal authorities said Thursday that they had cracked the biggest case ever involving the use of medical marijuana dispensaries in California as a cover for international drug dealing and money laundering, which they said extended to Canada and countries in Asia.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=2337
Feds Target Pot Dispensaries in California
by Don Thompson, Associated Press
Federal drug agents launched a crackdown on medical marijuana providers in California Wednesday, raiding more than 20 dispensaries and charging two people.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=2338
Crackdown targets marijuana dispensaries in Northern California
by Garance Burke, Associated Press
Federal drug agents described Wednesday's raids on San Francisco pot clubs as one of the largest drug trafficking crackdowns in the area since 1996, and said the string of arrests was the first step in uncovering a major international drug operation.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=2336
Feds raid three SF pot clubs
by Jaxon Van Derbeken, SF Chronicle
Federal agents raided three San Francisco medical marijuana dispensaries today as part of a broader investigation into money laundering and Asian organized crime, authorities said.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=2327
19 named in medicinal pot indictment
by Stacy Finz, San Francisco Chronicle
The U.S. government unsealed an indictment Thursday accusing 19 Bay Area people of drug trafficking and of using three San Francisco medical marijuana dispensaries as fronts for organized crime.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=2333
DOCTOR, ATTORNEY ARRESTED
El Dorado couple seized in pot case
by Denny Walsh, Sacramento Bee
An El Dorado County physician and her attorney husband have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Sacramento on charges of conspiring to distribute and manufacture marijuana and manufacturing at least 100 marijuana plants.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=2347
Federal Agents Arrest Medical Marijuana Doctor
KXTV - News 10 (Sacramento)
A week and a half after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the federal government can block doctors from prescribing marijuana for medical use, drug agents arrested a doctor from Cool.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=2346
ACTIVIST ARRESTED
Nevada medical marijuana activist arrested on drug charge
by Ken Ritter, Associated Press
A medical marijuana activist was in custody Thursday after his second arrest in 17 months on felony drug charges. A lawyer for Pierre Werner, 33, said the arrest on state charges was a law enforcement effort to pressure Werner after the Supreme Court's decision this month that state medical marijuana laws don't protect users from federal prosecution.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=2360
COMMENT ON THE RAIDS
Curious timing of Bay area marijuana raids
EDITORIAL, Orange County Register
If Wednesday's raids were a precursor to broader raids on patients and caregivers, they will create many more problems than they solve. For starters, San Francisco would like to adopt regulations that supervise cannabis dispensaries and keep the drugs out of the black market. City officials worry, however, that records required to show a dispensary was on the up-and-up under California law could become evidence in a federal case.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=2335
When Medical Marijuana Is Misused
EDITORIAL, New York Times
Those who believe, as we do, that marijuana should be legally available for medical treatments have to be concerned about reports of abuses in California's pioneering medical marijuana program. If the abuses cannot be curbed, a political backlash could undermine the ability of thousands of patients to get marijuana to treat the nausea of chemotherapy, the loss of appetite that accompanies AIDS and other medical problems.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=2340
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RHODE ISLAND: New Law Passes Both Houses; Goes to Gov.
The margin of victory for Rhode Island’s new medical marijuana legislation was huge in both houses of the state legislature. The governor has expressed his opposition to the bill, but the level of support is veto-proof, and lawmakers are urging him to get onboard.
House Passes Medical Marijuana Bill
by Associated Press, NBC 10 (Providence)
House lawmakers overwhelmingly approved a bill Wednesday that would allow patients with certain serious diseases to smoke and grow marijuana. The measure passed 52-10 after debate on the House floor.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=2343
R.I. House passes medical marijuana bill
by Jim Baron, Pawtucket Times
With legislation to allow seriously ill people to use marijuana as medicine having passed both chambers of the General Assembly by veto-proof margins, Rep. Thomas Slater is calling on Gov. Donald Carcieri to withdraw his threat to veto the bill.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=2349