Federal agents raid local medical marijuana growers
#1
I have to say, I'm sort of surprised federal agents got involved in Oregon's medical marijuana campaign. Not totally surprised though, because I talked to one local grower that was visited by a DEA/local team last year, too (except, that one was legal, and they left everything unharmed.) I have to wonder too what made this case different: http://kdrv.com/news/local/226072

Excerpt: "GOLD HILL, Ore. -- After federal agents raided a Southern Oregon home taking away truck-fulls of marijuana plants the grower is speaking out.

James Anderson says he doesn't know why agents seized his property if it was legal. James Anderson says he has a medical marijuana card and the other growers that had plants on the property did as well. He says Drug Enforcement Administration agents aren't talking giving him no explanations.

Yesterday, Anderson was issued this search warrant but the address isn't even his residence. Anderson says the agents stripped him not only of his plants, but his cell-phone and computer. Anderson confirms that he was detained but was never arrested. He says he's left confused and shocked.

"They told us either leave the premise or stay hand-cuffed. We already had been hand-cuffed for six and half hours and we were more than happy to go and sit at the end of the road and watch truck-fulls of patient's medicine pass by," Anderson says.

Hemp and Cannabis Foundation spokes-woman says as long as growers follow state guidelines, the federal government cannot get involved.

NewsWatch12 spoke to DEA and the U.S. Attorney's Office to get an explanation, but was left in the dark. They're not telling us any more information except that a search warrant was issued. The Sheriff's Department and MADGE say they have no comments."

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#2
Here's another story on this, but it's about equally vague: http://www.ktvl.com/articles/federal-120...gents.html

Excerpt: "Feds raid grow sites
September 27, 2011 5:09 PM

GOLD HILL, Ore. -- Federal agents seized marijuana at a grow site on Old Stage Road in Gold Hill Tuesday.

Federal agents arrived at four growers' sites and began searching those properties around 9am Tuesday morning. They have seized more than nine truck loads of marijuana.

Renters that were growing the pot, say they are legal growers and are confused. They say the agents took their growers license and marijuana cards, along with several computers from their home.

Growers say the federal agents did not explain why they were there.

Federal officials say this is part of an ongoing investigation.
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#3
This is total crap. TOTAL CRAP!!!

Arrrrrgh...this is mari-fucking-juana, people.
No one, including the federal agents, thinks this is dangerous stuff.
Wonder what the real reason is for the harrassment.
Think of the time and effort that went into the approaching harvest.
A pox on the Feds.
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#4
Looking at the lead-in for one of these stories, I see there were more than 500 plants involved. That might be the reason.

Federal law kicks in for over 99 plants, or, that's what it used to be before quasi-legal "medical marijuana".

Oregon law allows one person to grow up to 6 mature plants apiece at any one time, for up to 4 patients, for a total of 24 plants. But some of these places have numerous growers on the same property, and they're ending up with big numbers of plants. That might be what this is really about.
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#5
(09-29-2011, 02:03 PM)PonderThis Wrote: Looking at the lead-in for one of these stories, I see there were more than 500 plants involved. That might be the reason.

Federal law kicks in for over 99 plants, or, that's what it used to be before quasi-legal "medical marijuana".

Oregon law allows one person to grow up to 6 mature plants apiece at any one time, for up to 4 patients, for a total of 24 plants. But some of these places have numerous growers on the same property, and they're ending up with big numbers of plants. That might be what this is really about.

My first thought was that they are doing something illegal. But of course I am a cop lover.
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#6
If federal agents are the same to you as local and state cops, yes.
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#7
(09-29-2011, 02:12 PM)PonderThis Wrote: If federal agents are the same to you as local and state cops, yes.

I said it to be sarcastic because I always give the benefit of the doubt to the cops until proven otherwise. I will gladly admit that every job attracts it's share of idiots and there are bad cops but the overwhelming majority are trying their best to do the right thing.
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#8
Well, Oregon voters passed these laws, and it doesn't sound like these growers raided were violating any Oregon laws, either. Some might see this as a massive grab for power on the part of the feds in an area they don't belong. If they're going to be busting our local medical marijuana growers, who are legal in every other respect with Oregon law, it seems the least they could do is call a press conference and let us know what's going on and why.
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#9
When cops make a legit bust, aren't they all too happy to brag about it in front of cameras?

So when they slink away with no comment, what do you suppose that means?
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#10
(09-29-2011, 03:41 PM)Green Wrote: When cops make a legit bust, aren't they all too happy to brag about it in front of cameras?

So when they slink away with no comment, what do you suppose that means?

They are all too stoned for comment? Wink
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#11
Everyone know that the growers also grow to sell. Otherwise, why do it? It's just a matter of proving that. Now whether these guys that got busted can get lawyers and win a case is another story. So far the cops are in the clear until some lawyer comes forward and wants to defend these growers. We won't know until it happens...
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#12
They had too many plants and got busted by the feds.
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#13
Now this story has been picked up by the Associated Press. The Portland Oregonian has a much better story on it, verifying the 100 plant minimum for fed involvement, with human interest details on the landowner, a local insurance agent. They had 20 growers in 5 or 6 different houses it sounds like: http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northw...n_med.html

"GOLD HILL -- Keith Rogers said Thursday he made sure the 20 people he allowed to grow medical marijuana on property he owns in the southern Oregon town of Gold Hill checked out under Oregon's medical marijuana law.

Rogers, an insurance agent, said that didn't stop about 30 federal agents from breaking down doors on his five rental houses, pointing guns at his wife, searching his house and the houses of five renters, bringing in a backhoe to rip out hundreds of plants, and seizing them along with shotguns, cell phones and a tractor.

"I can guarantee you that if Oregon medical marijuana would have came and did a search of us and our papers, they would have happily drove off and did nothing," said Rogers. "It was strictly" the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

"They are throwing their weight around and saying the voters of Oregon don't have any rights."

Officials with DEA in Medford and Seattle and the U.S. Attorney's office in Portland did not immediately return telephone calls and emails from The Associated Press for comment on the Tuesday raid first reported by KTVL-TV in Medford.

Rogers said he was presented with a search warrant that included aerial photos of his property.

The raid seems to conform to guidance offered in U.S. Department of Justice memos directing federal agents to enforce federal drug laws, even in states that have legalized medical marijuana.

A June 29 memo signed by Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole clarifying guidance for federal agents over raids in states with medical marijuana laws says they should not waste their time on individuals such as cancer patients using medical marijuana, but that "prosecution of significant traffickers of illegal drugs, including marijuana, remains a core priority."

Allen St. Pierre, of the National Organization to Legalize Marijuana, said federal agents regularly bust medical marijuana growing sites in California and Washington.

"They have an unspoken rule they tend to employ," St. Pierre said from Washington, D.C. "They are really looking for anything over 100 plants. If it is below 100 plants, it does not invite civil forfeiture the way large patches do."

Rogers said agents told him they seized 451 plants, but that many of them were small or broken, and the real number was closer to 350.

Oregon law allows a grower to have six plants or 24 ounces of processed marijuana for each of up to four patients. Rogers said the paperwork verifying that people growing on his property were within the law was seized by agents.

If each of 20 growers was producing for the maximum, that would be 24 plants each, for a total of 480, which is more than the number he said was seized.

James Bowman, who oversees a medical marijuana plantation that grows for more than 100 plants in nearby Jacksonville, said he was always nervous that federal agents could target his operation.

"We are basically doing civil disobedience against the federal government by doing what we are doing," he said.

Rogers, 58, said he was considering allowing the land to go into foreclosure, because he was having trouble renting the houses on the property, until he allowed one renter to grow medical marijuana. Then he allowed all five renters as well as other people to grow on the property.

"It was agree to what was going on, or let the bank have the property back," he said. "I'm just a guy trying to keep my property. I'm just certain this is gonna push me into bankruptcy."
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#14
(09-29-2011, 03:50 PM)rainylady Wrote: Everyone know that the growers also grow to sell. Otherwise, why do it? It's just a matter of proving that. Now whether these guys that got busted can get lawyers and win a case is another story. So far the cops are in the clear until some lawyer comes forward and wants to defend these growers. We won't know until it happens...

That's a lie. i know a lot of people who grow for their own medical use.

I personally would never sell it. ( I'm greedy, I hang on to every joint I can get my hands on)
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#15
And burn the evidence too, I imagine. Smiling
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#16
When the drug war ends, shave these losers heads, and throw them in the whore cart, with their biker pals.
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#17
(09-29-2011, 03:41 PM)Green Wrote: When cops make a legit bust, aren't they all too happy to brag about it in front of cameras?

So when they slink away with no comment, what do you suppose that means?

More to come! A lot more. On August 30, KAJO radio show, Simon Hare made the comment that he was talking to a friend, who is a Jackson County commissioner and flies a helicopter, about a 200 plant grow operation just off of IH-5 near Del Rio vineyards. He said the friend responded that he flew over it and it was more like 300-400.

Coincidence?
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#18
Hare was reading a script. He's paid to do that by his handlers. I'm sure Officer Myers (The Convict) will chime in next. These worthless shits actually draw a check from us. And, another from the timbermen. And, I watched the sheriffs do their drug deals with the bikers in Buzz's (Until it got so obvious they buit them a little wall.
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#19
A while back we had a thread about a letter from the Feds that attempted to clarify the Feds position on medical marijuana in the states that allowed it. I think Chuck White said it looked like they might start to enforce Federal laws concerning marijuana. I however, was under the impression that the Feds were just saying that they would not tolerate large scale marijuana operations even if it was done under the medical marijuana umbrella. I am beginning to think Chuck was right. There was a TV news story yesterday about how the Feds were closing ALL California marijuana dispensaries.

From Redding California:

Feds target Calif. pot dispensaries
By LISA LEFF, Associated Press
Posted October 6, 2011 at 2:04 p.m.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Federal prosecutors have launched a crackdown on pot dispensaries in California, warning the stores that they must shut down in 45 days or face criminal charges and confiscation of their property even if they are operating legally under the state's 15-year-old medical marijuana law.

In an escalation of the ongoing conflict between the U.S. government and the nation's burgeoning medical marijuana industry, California's s four U.S. attorneys sent letters Wednesday and Thursday notifying at least 16 pot shops or their landlords that they are violating federal drug laws, even though medical marijuana is legal in California. The attorneys are scheduled to announce their coordinated crackdown at a Friday news conference.

Their offices refused to confirm the closure orders. The Associated Press obtained copies of the letters that a prosecutor sent to 12 San Diego dispensaries. They state that federal law "takes precedence over state law and applies regardless of the particular uses for which a dispensary is selling and distributing marijuana."

"Under United States law, a dispensary's operations involving sales and distribution of marijuana are illegal and subject to criminal prosecution and civil enforcement actions," letters signed by U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy in San Diego read. "Real and personal property involved in such operations are subject to seizure by and forfeiture to the United States ... regardless of the purported purpose of the dispensary."

The move comes a little more than two months after the Obama administration toughened its stand on medical marijuana following a two-year period during which federal officials had indicated they would not move aggressively against dispensaries in compliance with laws in the 16 states where pot is legal for people with doctors' recommendations.

The Department of Justice issued a policy memo to federal prosecutors in late June stating that marijuana dispensaries and licensed growers in states with medical marijuana laws could face prosecution for violating federal drug and money-laundering laws. The effort to shutter California dispensaries appears to be the most far-reaching effort so far to put that guidance into action.

"This really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. The Administration is simply making good on multiple threats issued since President Obama took office," Kevin Sabet, a former adviser to the president's drug czar who is a fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Substance Abuse Solutions. "The challenge is to balance the scarcity of law enforcement resources and the sanctity of this country's medication approval process. It seems like the Administration is simply making good on multiple statements made previously to appropriately strike that balance."

Greg Anton, a lawyer who represents a Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana, said the 14-year-old dispensary's landlord received an "extremely threatening" letter Wednesday invoking a federal law that imposes additional penalties for selling drugs within 1,000 feet of schools, parks and playgrounds.

The landlord was ordered to evict the pot club or risk imprisonment, plus forfeiture of the property and all the rent he has collected while the dispensary has been in business, Anton said.

The Marin Alliance's founder "has been paying state and federal taxes for 14 years, and they have cashed all the checks," he said. "All I hear from Obama is whining about his budget, but he has money to do this which will actually reduce revenues."


http://www.redding.com/news/2011/oct/06/...pensaries/
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#20
Pot heads are typically non violent
unless they run out of pot.
then they get pissed.

thus the old statement

they don't have pot, they get pissed then. (something like that)
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