[FARMER]

Farm Report- ASA Los Angeles July Meeting-“Know your Rights” or “Ooo Ooo, that smell…”

(This report is dedicated to the celebration of the birth of Rix, all those years ago. If you’re readin’ this, maybe at the end you’ll take the time to PM him and wish him a Happy Birthday on this his birthday weekend!)

Today we met at a community room in a West Hollywood shopping center to (hopefully) better prepare our selves in our encounters with LEO, something we all dread but know little about handling, situation-wise.

On hand to run us through the encounters and what to look for were a number of volunteers from ASA and they deserve a hearty thanks from our community for taking time to help educate and protect ourselves. Much love
on the effort, ASA!

So let’s get to the encounters…

First off we covered “The Traffic Stop”(a) otherwise known as “I smell something”

To begin with, ASA’s position on this is strictly DO NOT MEDICATE IN YOUR VEHICLE. That said, some of us live in glass houses and can't afford to collect rocks so…

What to do when you find yourself pulled over and the LEO on hand claims to smell an illegal substance? A question we all think about, and hopefully don’t have to live out but still some aren’t as fortunate and have to face this situation. You’re pulled over and the LEO insisted he smells something illegal. What to do? As the volunteers “acted” out, the wrong answer would be to admit anything. The LEO puts you on the defensive automatically and in that tense situation, many make the mistake of playing into the LEO’s hands. We give up way too much information and this is because we’ve been trained to.

We need to unlearn that part of us that was trained to answer to so-called figures of authority. These LEO’S work for us and are paid by our dollars. They answer to us, not the other way around.

Back to topic, the answer from here out when a LEO says he smells something, is “I don’t smell anything, Officer.” End of story. Give them nothing and nothing they can take. These situations. These run-ins will lend themselves to weirdness. They will entail people of authority distorting honesty. Right out lying behind a badge. It is up to us to stand up and not buckle under any false power they may think they have. It’s illusion, this power they believe they have and the sooner we squash this mistruth, the better.

“NO YOU DO NOT HAVE PERMISSION TO SEARCH MY VEHICLE.”

Simple enough. That’s all you have to say and whether they do or not, at least in court you’re protected and at least in court we seem to have a foot hold. At least for now.

REVIEW: When LEO says he smells something, you tell him you don’t.

Also remember: Smelling marijuana is not grounds for search. No crime has been observed.

Next up…

The Traffic Stop (b) also known as “Do you have drugs?”

Okay so we all know it is our state’s rights own rights that we the voters of California have voted in this law and there for be medically scripted for said treatment, should all be able to declare our medicine without shame but we’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto and LEO doesn’t give two piddlies.

Announcing you are carrying meds is just asking for a lot of POLICE interaction and how many of us desire that? Yech, no!

So, When LEO asks if you have any drugs, you’re ONLY answer is as follows…”NO!”

Once again, it’s that simple. Remember they work for you, not the other way around. You can turn the tables on them. One of the ASA “role players” suggested questioning LEO in a way that won’t get you into trouble but will put them on the defensive, instead of the other way around.

So in review,…NO is the answer. No you have NO DRUGS!

“NO I DO NOT CONSENT TO A SEARCH!”

The next thing the training covered was the question of being confronted by LEO if medicating in public. What to do, what to do if cornered on the street with that medicine burning in your hand and feeling caught red-handed?

First off, like anything make your choices as free from complications as possible. Medicating around schools and churches and the such is just begging for trouble. And why in the world would you want to expose children to that?

Federal Parks, Federal Property all mean felony so why put yourself in that position? The least you can do, is use your noggin. Don’t put yourself in harms way by medicating on Federal Property, no matter who signs your doctor’s rec.

The final presentation explored the pitfalls of exiting your favorite local dispensary only to run into your (not-so)friendly neighborhood LEO and fall victim to their questioning. At this point you may be “tag teamed” by LEOs using the ever popular “Good Cop/Bad Cop” routine. In this situation LEO will try to befriend you and earn your trust. Don’t believe it, baby. Give ‘em nothing and that’s it. These bastards will try to buddy up to you and they will use anyway necessary to get their ways. The will lie and the law will protect them. Trust them as far as you can throw them and no more. They DO NOT have your best interest in mind and never forget that.

Why do you think they call them “PIGS”?

Again, this is a good time to “put the ball into their court” and question them. “Am I being detained?” If not, “Am I free to go?”

So if you’re exiting the establishment of your choice and confronted you need not offer them information. If possible, conceal your meds, whether in a pocket or bag. And offer NO information. The less information you give them, the less they have to use against you.

At this point one of the ASA Volunteers suggested that we explore our phones and see if they have the capabilities to record. If they can, folks are urged to record any interaction with the police as it could prove important in trials later.

So remember: DENY, DENY, DENY! It’s none of their business. “Can I go?” “Am I free to go?” "Am I being detained?" The less they know the better.
"I refuse to answer any further questions until I speak with my lawyer."

And remember this is a awful scenario. You may get perplexed. But it is never too late for you to express your rights. Never to late to say, “No, you can’t search there. “

And Ladies, when it comes to searching, you ALWAYS have the right to have a femal police officer come out for your search. Shouldn’t ever be a male officer.

I, myself, would opt for a female officer but that’s just me, dreamin’.

At this point Don opened the meeting to questions, and many were posed regarding topics as diverse as caregiver guidelines to the upcoming vote in the City of Mallibu.

After that, Richard Eastman spoke briefly on the MMJ presence at this year’s Democratic Presidential Convention, stating further his intentions that hell or high water he was gonna be there, marching on the same day Obama is to give his acceptance speech. At the time of this report, Richard still has no “action” planned and I fear the simple marching of MMJ patient will not garner the emotional impact we need. I personally would love to see something similar to some of the world wide marches where political prisoners photos are carried through the streets, but in our situation, it would be MMJ political prisoners.

At this point feel I’d like to remind all the operators out here that I still haven’t heard peep PM or otherwise on my challange I posed to you in the last ASA report. To take some of your commerce and put it towards sponsoring some people from California to represent and help out in Colorado. Not so much as a PM. Put your mouth where your money is and contact Richard at citizens4safeaccess.com

Finally, we were in for a special treat as Steph Sherer, founder of ASA, addressed our Los Angeles turnout and discussed many aspects of the movement and it’s plan’s for the future. Steph is now residing in Washington D.C. away from her beloved California and find herself in the ironic position of being a Medical patient, lobbying for the movement but totally unprotected as she now resides where MMJ goes unrecoginized, both federally and statewide.

Steph stressed the importance of the California Plan and it’s campaign figuring into the entire nations game plan. We, in California are the beacon to so many others. To the other states and their patients, California is the hope of the nation.

Steph talked of the D.C. office of ASA playing an important role in the next administration as it guides them into what is acceptable federally. She kept referring to the Obama administration and how ASA will work with them which makes one wonder what they will do, should McCain win. Hate to see ASA put all it’s eggs into one basket only to end up with yolk on it’s face.

Steph discussed ASA’s patient union’s for specific ailments and the importance of us joining those which apply to our own situations. Through these unions we can add strength to our individual voices by joining those in similar situations. Through these unions we can further gain the attention of our elected officials.

Along those lines, Steph got a little serious and almost scolded us for our lack of involvement with our elected officials. Citing a report from Barbara Boxer’s camp that not one single call has been fielded regarding MMJ yet this year, Steph blasted us for letting our elected officials off the hook easy. She reminded us that these laws can be rolled back and then we’ll be fighting an uphill battle once again.

Hold your reps accountable! It’s the only way they’ll serve us. Contact yours this week. It ALL makes a difference! The voting for this congress comes to a halt on September 26. Let’s see if we can’t flood them between now and then, eh?

A couple of patients gave a couple of brief testimonials at the end. I personally like hearing how this miraculous plant has helped others, as I already know how it has helped me. It’s always nice to hear how we’re all connected.

All in all a good meeting. Lots of WT faces in the crowd, although a number of empty seats “we” failed to fill. Still amazes me that ASA, with all they do, still have to fight to fill the room. With over 180 active dispensaries in SoCal, you’d think you operators have something more on your minds than just making money but the vacant seats at the meetings would suggest otherwise. You tell me.

Still, nice to see our WT community there in what force we could muster.

Mad props to Herbalicious for all you do to get us there and make it happen.

Also to BBoomer, Resipsa, Spacey and Dr. Seucio for your enthusiasm and involvement.

Who knows? Maybe even more next month. Certainly would be nice to see more operators representing but we’ll just have to see, huh?

Thanks for reading along,
Farmer