Tuesday’s DEA raids against medical marijuana providers in the Puget Sound area shouldn’t have been much of a surprise. Similar raids had occurred in Spokane earlier this year, and many were well aware that the U.S. Attorney for Western Washington, Jenny Durkan, was investigating the activities of local medical marijuana providers. In the spring and summer, as the partially-vetoed new law took effect, many former dispensary owners scrambled to figure out how to comply with the confusing new regulations. But the only thing that was clear about the new law was that absolutely nothing was clear about it.
According to Durkan, only medical marijuana providers who were blatantly in violation of state law were targeted. In the weeks and months ahead, we’ll get a chance to see how true that really is. Those of us who’ve been following these cases for a while have seen many a medical marijuana provider accused of various misdeeds only to have the case fall apart when it turns out the confidential informant wasn’t reliable. But many of those earlier cases had a common denominator: Roy Alloway – the one-time head honcho of the federally-funded WestNET Drug Task Force who now awaits a prison sentence for illegal gun sales and tax evasion. I’d imagine that many local progressives who were elated to see Durkan in that office would be shocked if we uncovered the same level of reckless arrogance Alloway became famous for. We’ll find out over time.
For all the outrage that this has kicked up (and at a certain level, everything that happens within the drug war is an outrage), it certainly could have been worse. What happened in Montana earlier this year was disgraceful and clearly went against the promises made by the Obama Administration at the beginning of his term not to go after those following state law. By comparison, if local providers are still being profiled in the Weekly, we’re clearly not back to full speakeasy mode and there does appear to be some attempt to only go after those who were violating state law. But that’s not to say there aren’t a lot of concerns with what happened.
For starters, I find it obnoxious when those who enforce these laws say they’re not going after patients. That’s not true. Any time you shut down a provider and confiscate their plants, you’re automatically going after patients. And with the changes to the law this year, it’s even more so. Those in this state who are authorized to get medical marijuana have no way of knowing if a member of their garden is doing something else illegal on the side. And now that we’re forced to have a collective gardens model, patients are now forced to have an economic stake in the dispensaries. It’s not clear from any of the articles I’ve read whether or not plants were seized, but that’s generally what happens during a raid. So according to the way the law is set up, any seized medicine might have been “owned” by some patient out there who isn’t capable of growing their own and probably did nothing illegal. And with all the various places that were raided yesterday, I’d be surprised if that didn’t happen to some patients.
Second, with the current environment that medical marijuana dispensary operators have had to operate in, charging them with money laundering looks a lot like entrapment. The Department of Justice has been aggressively targeting banks and other financial institutions that openly deal with the medical marijuana industry. In this environment, it would seem that this makes money laundering an unavoidable aspect of doing business. As is the automatic disclaimer with any of my posts, IANAL and I encourage our lawyer friends to share their thoughts in the comments.
But that leads me to the last – and probably the biggest – thing I’m bothered by. It’s a quote from a DEA Agent:
DEA Special Agent Matthew G. Barnes released a statement that said the raids were conducted in part because these businesses were in violation of federal laws “for cultivating, selling or distributing marijuana under the guise of state medical marijuana laws and exploiting such activities to satisfy their own personal greed.”
What strikes me about this quote is that it borrows almost exactly from the rhetoric that the DEA has always used when it comes to drugs themselves. Historically, drug use has been the supreme threat to self-control and societal stability that requires these extreme and drastic measures from the state. But as the attitudes towards drug use – especially medical marijuana use – have changed in the past two decades, the rhetoric now focuses on those who make money from providing it. In this new construct, the desire for money is now the force that’s so overpowering that it threatens to destabilize society, just as they once claimed the desire for the drugs themselves would.
But just as it’s always been with drugs, the outrage towards greed by our government’s law enforcement community is pretty bad at identifying the appropriate targets. With an economy that has suffered at the hands of Wall Street firms whose truly reckless greed has cost us significantly, it seems more than a little odd to be focused on how much money people are making providing plants to those who want them – and in many cases, need them for medical reasons. In fact, it makes one look completely crazy.
Jenny Durkan’s two predecessors as U.S. Attorney for Western Washington both support legalizing marijuana for adults. Many people speculate that Durkan herself supports it as well, but can’t say so. Saying it while serving as a federal prosecutor would require a lot of courage, a virtue that folks at all levels of government often suppress for job security or simply lack in the first place. Until that changes, the war on (some) drugs – and it’s mutant spawn, the war on (some) greed – will continue to plow a path of destruction through this country.
How can a government based on illusions of what is, in the most basic sense, right and wrong, last? Especially when one third of the voting populace celebrates their own ignorance, xenophobia, and violent intolerance.
The only murder by insanity defense that these characters have ever embraced was the one that left a 9 year old dead and a Democratic congresswoman lying on the pavement with a bullet in her head.
Running ads with nearly naked woman in the Stranger might make one suspect that you’re targeting a wider clientele than legitimate patients. I’m just sayin’.
# 3: Have you seen the women’s magazines in the supermarket lately? (Cosmopolitan, et al). What about perfume ads? We don’t even need to address the magazines targeted at men (Maxim, biker magazines, weight-lifting, etc.).
I’m not saying I approve of the wholesale use of women as sex objects to promote marketing, but it’s hardly just some medical marijuana clinics that are using it.
I guess you’re addressing me. Its not about the woman, it’s. The context. If these ate non-profit medicinal facilities why are they advertising the 50 strains they carry? Or that they have on site doctors to write authorizations?
The goal is to maximize your customer base through advertising which pretty appropriately leads to charges that they are knowingly serving recreational users and not just patients.
In the absence of legal protections, that is dumb.
# 4: Well, that was generally my argument against the state lottery, as well. Advocates argued that the money was going to be spent on illegal gambling anyway, we might as well provide a legal outlet and let the state take a share of the procedes.
But gambling is a behavior which requires occassional reinforcement. In the long term its a losing proposition, the game is rigged, and everyone knows it. If a player keeps playing long enough, and keeps losing, they tend to drop out of the customer base, unless there is some campaign which excites interest, draws a previous customer back in, and also brings in new customers.
For that reason a state lottery is pretty much compelled to advertise, increase jackpots, and do other things to advertise and promote playing the lottery. I happen to believe that the state shouldn’t be engaging in such behavior.
Likewise, with any legalized sale of marijuana, we should have tight controls on the advertising, sales, and distribution. That’s one of the reasons I was opposed to the dismantling of our state liquor stores – it would have provided a simple method to manage such things, if marijuana was legalized.
The key here is legalization: regulation and taxation necessarily follow, but total legalization of cannabis is the goal.
People are entitled to enjoy cannabis should they choose to do so, just like they’re perfectly entitled to enjoy alcohol or tobacco. The govnerment has no right to restrict personal freedom when it comes to cannabis.
A better advertisement for pot would be the Dark Side of the Moon prism logo with a set of earphones next to it. Has more universal appeal.
@7,
“Dark side of the Moon”
A great album, by anybody’s standards! A Classic!
My twenty something daughter has been listening to some current bands that sound as if they’ve taken inspiration from such classics as Dark Side of the Moon, Blue Cheer, Quicksilver Messenger Service: — speaking of which:
What About Me? 1970
You poisoned my sweet water.
You cut down my green trees.
The food you fed my children
Was the cause of their disease.
My world is slowly fallin’ down
And the airs not good to breathe.
And those of us who care enough,
We have to do something…….
(Chorus)
Oh…….oh What you gonna do about me?
Oh…….oh What you gonna do about me?
Your newspapers,
They just put you on.
They never tell you
The whole story.
They just put your
Young ideas down.
I was wonderin’ could this be the end
Of your pride and glory?
(Chorus)
I work in your factory.
I study in your schools.
I fill your penitentiaries.
And your military too!
And I feel the future trembling,
As the word is passed around.
“If you stand up for what you do believe,
Be prepared to be shot down.”
(Chorus)
And I feel like a stranger
In the land where I was born
And I live like an outlaw.
An’ I’m always on the run……………………..
An Im always getting busted
And I got to take a stand……..
I believe the revolution
Must be mighty close at hand…………………..
(Chorus)
I smoke marijuana
But I cant get behind your wars.
And most of what I do believe
Is against most of your laws
I’m a fugitive from injustice
But I’m goin’ to be free.
Cause your rules and regulations
They dont do the thing for me
(Chorus)
And I feel like a stranger
In the land where I was born
And I live just like an outlaw.
An’ I’m always on the run.
Off topic, but I wanted to pass this along. Note that that’s CBS News, not some lefty site with 500 readers doing the talking.
A psychological profile of a street cop resembles that of a violent criminal more than anything else. A lot of these guys are psychopaths who just got themselves behind a badge.
My opinion — and this is based upon personal experience — is that cops, in general, are far more polite and careful with groups of people that they feel are actually potentially physically dangerous to them.
Think about that.
# 9: I was listening to oldie’s radio on the way home the other night, and was astonished to hear Quicksilver Messenger Service’s “Fresh Air”. It has to have been several decades since I heard that song! I used to have the album, but alas, it was on 8-track. Which means after a few months it wasn’t an album, it was little more than confetti in a box.
Today’s kids really seem to appreciate rock from the 60’s and early 70’s, a lot more than the “Gen X” did. My own daughter (now in her 20’s) once went to a Dave Mathews concert and was excitedly telling me about “the greatist song” she heard. She didn’t know the title, something about a “watchtower”. She didn’t believe me when I told her it was written by Bob Dylan in the mid-60’s, and the most famous rendition was by Jimi Hendrix. Once she confirmed that, she started to listening to lots of “classic rock”, and is now a “believer”.
A good many of the young adults at this time are refreshingly openminded when it comes to music. A few years ago, my daughter was telling me about this interesting recording artist she’d discovered and his very relevant song called, Mr. In-Between. It was Burl Ives.