Federal agents seize medical marijuana at Clearlake dispensary
Written by Elizabeth Larson
Friday, 30 May 2008
CLEARLAKE – Federal officials conducted raids on several medical marijuana dispensaries around Northern California on Wednesday, including one in Clearlake.
State's medical marijuana laws clash with federal rules
In 1996 California voters passed Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act, which legalized medical marijuana legal.
However, the federal government has refused to recognize the state law, and maintains that marijuana use in any form is illegal.
This has resulted in conflicts between state and federal officials that continue to play out in the courts, as well as continuing enforcement operations such as those carried out by the Drug Enforcement Administration in Clearlake on Wednesday.
In November 2004 the US Supreme Court dealt a serious blow to medical marijuana interests in Gonzales v. Raich.
In that decision, the court pointed to Congress' power to regulate economic activities that have a “substantial effect” on interstate commerce, which they said included growing marijuana, even if it was for home consumption. That's because they said marijuana growing “has a substantial effect on supply and demand in the national market for that commodity.”
The decision stated: “Given the enforcement difficulties that attend distinguishing between marijuana cultivated locally and marijuana grown elsewhere ... and concerns about diversion into illicit channels, the Court has no difficulty concluding that Congress had a rational basis for believing that failure to regulate the intrastate manufacture and possession of marijuana ...”
– Elizabeth Larson
Ken Estes' Holistic Solutions on Olympic Drive was the site of an enforcement action by Drug Enforcement Administration agents, accompanied by the Lake County Narcotic Task Force.
The Clearlake dispensary, along with other dispensaries Estes manages in San Mateo and Richmond, as well as the homes of his managers and grow sites in Oakland, San Leandro and Humboldt County, were targeted, according to a statement from California's chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).
Lt. Mike Hermann of Clearlake Police confirmed that the raid took place, but said the department wasn't directly involved. DEA, he said, notified the department that their agents were in town for the operation.
One Clearlake Police officer who is on the Lake County Narcotic Task Force was present, Hermann said.
The Lake County Narcotic Task Force referred questions about the Wednesday action to DEA.
A brief statement issued by the DEA to Lake County News confirmed that an “enforcement operation” had taken place, but added that all documents relating to it were under court seal.
“Searches were conducted at several locations throughout the Bay Area and Northern California,” DEA Special Agent in Charge Javier F. Peña said in the statement. “Items of evidentiary value were seized from these locations. No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.”
Dave McCullick, whose D&M Compassion Center has been in Clearlake for the last two years, said his business partner, Matthew Ward, witnessed the DEA at Estes' business in the early afternoon.
Lake County News was unable to reach Estes Thursday. McCullick said Holistic Solutions has been in Clearlake for three years, and in its current location on Olympic Drive for less than a year.
California NORML and McCullick called what took place at Holistic Solutions a “smash and grab” – where agents take all the operation's cannabis and patient records, along with any money on hand or in bank accounts.
“The last couple of years when they've been doing the busts, people aren't arrested or even charged,” McCullick said.
McCullick said there's no rhyme or reason to why certain dispensaries are targeted, and the DEA hasn't indicated why they pursue some rather than others. Based purely on manpower, McCullick said he doesn't believe DEA can get to all of the state's numerous dispensaries.
The California NORML statement noted that Estes “believes that the raids were initiated on the tip of a former associate who was facing a lengthy federal sentence on cultivation charges.”
McCullick said his business hasn't had any issues with the DEA.
Nor has had he had any problems with Clearlake Police, according to McCullick, who said he has worked to keep the lines of communication open with Police Chief Allan McClain as well as with other local officials.
However, last October, the Federal Bureau of Investigation seized nearly 100 marijuana plants from his business partner's home in Lakeport. Ward, who was at the compassion center when the raid took place, maintained that the plants were part of a legal medical marijuana grow.
A few months earlier, in August 2007, the FBI seized 30 mature plants from the Lakeport home of Howard Holtz, as Lake County News reported.
McCullick pointed to the ongoing friction between state and federal law, which he says is placing both medical marijuana patients and law enforcement in the middle. Dispensaries like his, he said, are just trying to give patients access to good, safe medicine.
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Maybe the DEA needed their own medicine. If they didn't charge anyone with a crime and simply wanted good green bud, maybe the dispensaries should just put them on their mailing list and send them whatever they need weekly, in exchange for protection from others that want to break in and steal their pot. These agents could easily get a prescription. Anyone can get one. They probably suffer from post highschool football jock stress disorder. It must be tough going from school bully to a powerful DEA agent, where everyone is afraid of you, just to end up with a bunch of hippies that blow smoke in your face. I say, either give them a cash bribe, or send them their own pot.
Donna Christopher - Good Post Lenny
Author | 05-30-2008 11:25:41
Perhaps these legal bandits are just doing the smash & grabs as a way to offset of the downturn in the dollar. The hassle caused to seriously ill or terminal patients is probably only icing on their little cupcake. Hey Feds - go back to DC - that's where the really bad criminals are at. Here's a free tip - 1600 Penn Ave and the Naval Observatory Home - serious evil deed doers at these sites.
allen - Too Much Money
Registered | 05-30-2008 14:28:00
The so-called War on Drugs is overfunded. I'd love to see this huge anti-drug industry get a complete makeover. Why don't these idiots go after meth labs instead of grandstanding at those pot clubs?
smurf - because...
Registered | 05-30-2008 19:39:21
it's so much easier to shoot the ducks that are sitting right in front of you. Kudos to the Clear lake PD, so nice of them to help subvert california laws, while on our dime no less. the DEA seems to spend most of it's time on this crap while doing little about the meth problem-anyone seen them do a meth bust here recently?
smurf - KEN ESTES GO TO WWW.MYSPACE
IP:75.209.27.xxx | 05-30-2008 19:49:01
GO TO WWW.MYSPACE.COM AND LOOK UP KEN ESTES MEDICAL MARIJUANA. NEW DOCUMENTARY COMING SOON ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA AND THE FIGHT. ALSO A NEW SONG ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA AND KENS FIGHT. KEN IS A LARGE ACTIVIST AND IS ONLY CONERNED ABOUT THE PATIENTS.
