April 29, 2011 in City

Marijuana outlets raided

Feds had sent notices earlier this month

Chelsea Bannach The Spokesman-Review

Marijuana activists chant in protest outside the THC Pharmacy pot dispensary on Perry Street on Thursday. The DEA raided the dispensary while most dispensary owners and pot activists were at a meeting about how to handle DEA raids.
(Full-size photo)(All photos)

Larry Hamilton, who has terminal cancer among a host of ailments, watched from his wheelchair in dismay Thursday as federal agents shut down THC Pharmacy, the South Hill dispensary that provided him with marijuana.

Hamilton, who undergoes chemotherapy, said he suffers without medical marijuana.

“It clears up the pain and it helps with the nausea,” he said. “It’s irritating. We passed a law in this state to make it legal.”

THC Pharmacy, 1108 S. Perry St., was one of several dispensaries raided throughout the day across Spokane on Thursday. A small band of protesters also gathered outside, chanting “DEA go away” and “We’re patients, not criminals.”

“They just walked in the door and said, ‘You’re busted, everybody sit down,’ ” said Cassandra Wright, a THC Pharmacy employee and mother of Charles Wright, who co-owns the shop with John Vivian. “They walked in with their chests all puffed up and in numbers.”

She said authorities seized computers, phones, receipts, patient files, marijuana, books and the laminator.

“They took everything,” said Wright, who works on the computers in the shop. “They took my personal property like I’m some kind of drug dealer.”

Other shops are being targeted as well, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Rice.

“I can’t say how many places,” he said. “Because of its ongoing nature, we can’t comment any further. We don’t expect to release anything more today.”

However, medical marijuana advocates say agents also raided Evergreen Medical, 12004 N. Market St., Club Compassion, 1004 E. Bridgeport Ave., Human Connection, 5315 N. Market St., and Medical Herb Providers, 306 N. Freya St.

The U.S. attorney’s office sent dispensary operators notices earlier this month advising them to shut down or risk federal enforcement action. Many of the approximately 40 medical marijuana dispensaries reportedly complied, but not all.

Today’s action marks the latest development in an ongoing battle over medical marijuana.

Washington voters overwhelmingly approved medicinal use of marijuana in 1998, but the ballot measure left open the question of how doctor-approved users can legally obtain their pot. Advocates say the state law allows for dispensaries under its “caretaker” provision, but a Spokane County Superior Court jury rejected that argument last month in the first drug-trafficking trial of its kind in Washington.

Additionally, federal prosecutors note that while state law allows for medical use of marijuana, federal law still considers all marijuana possession and use illegal.

Spokane police spokeswoman Jennifer DeRuwe said city officers assisted federal agents in a support role involving marijuana dispensaries.

The raids came as marijuana advocates were hosting a training session for dispensary operators on how to deal with law enforcement raids. The training session, being conducted at the downtown Spokane Public Library, was interrupted by the announcement that raids were under way.

Steph Sherer, executive director of Americans for Safe Access, a medical marijuana research and advocacy group, called on dispensary operators at the training to exercise their rights if they are raided by not consenting to searches and declining to speak to authorities without a lawyer present.

“If you are growing medical marijuana, you are committing civil disobedience,” Sherer said to a room of about 40 people. “There are very real consequences.”

“Our opposition is moral opposition,” she said.

After the raids, a group of medical marijuana providers, users and advocates met at a Spokane law firm to discuss their plan of action. A national call to action will take place in cities across the U.S. Monday at noon, including in Spokane in front of the federal courthouse on Riverside Avenue.

“This is an opportunity to show that this did not shake you,” Sherer said.

She also implored advocates to organize and to meet with local, state and federal elected officials. Kris Hermes, spokesman with Americans for Safe Access, which tracks dispensary raids, said the federal government is “using the leverage of their enforcement tactics to intimidate elected officials to vote a certain way on impending medical marijuana bills,” such as the one Gregoire is expected to veto. There have been hundreds of raids in at least six states that allow medical marijuana, he said.

Tom Clouse contributed to this report

15 comments on this story so far. Add yours!

jayydubb93 on April 29 at 1:04 a.m.
I don’t understand how they even had the legal right to conduct these raids. If Washington is a green friendly state, and have been since ‘98, where’s the Democracy step in? Are all medical marijuana dispensaries just waiting to be raided by federal police? But state police can’t do anything unless the federal officials are involved - oh that makes sense. NOT.
I’m not even from a Medical Marijuana State and I think that’s ridiculous.
If the people vote for it, let it happen!
karl2002 on April 29 at 6:28 a.m.
Annoying pop up ad keeps telling me not to shop at Huppins
ZagChuck on April 29 at 7:48 a.m.
I’m with you Karl.
ZagChuck on April 29 at 7:55 a.m.
I think I’ll call huppins and ask them request it be removed. My guess is they’ll be more accepting of the information than the website editors…
bigbearspokane on April 29 at 9:07 a.m.
The federal government uses the 10th amendment as a means to supersede state laws on medical marijuana. The feds classify marijuana as a schedule 1 narcotic which means it can’t be used as medicine. Until federal laws are changed anyone patients and caregivers are at risk of federal prosecution. This is a sad fact of life, but not one with out remedy. I was at the meeting with ASA last night and I saw a fear of mine come to life, at one point the question was asked “how many of you have physically gone to the office of one of your representatives and told them how you feel not just write a letter.” One person raised their hand in a room full of 30-40 people. letters are great but how easy is it for them to get lost or emails deleted, people read these things and screen them before our elected official ever sees them or knows they exist. How hard is it to go to an office located down town and have a conversation? How many of you are down town daily on business and don’t stop by? look at civil rights movements, womens rights movements, AIDs movements, none of them succeeded until people cared enough to make federal changes.
Tell your Reps don’t bite the hand that feeds you!
DickAdams on April 29 at 10:03 a.m.
I shall quit shopping at Huppins. The store agreed with the ad or it would not have popped up where it was the only thing a reader could see. Huppins must have seen it after spending money for it. They obviously didn`t care as long as the name Huppins filled the screen.
rosiethump on April 29 at 10:21 a.m.
Supposedly, marijuana outlets broke the law even though they had a legal permit to do so and will probably be prosecuted. YET, the authority who issued the permit will not be considered and included to be prosecuted even though they broke Federal Law by issuing the permit. Man, what the heck is that all about? I guess it must be me rationalizing the whole thing to justify my thinking. WHAT WAS I THINKING???!!! Dave Rosenbeck
detroitdude on April 29 at 10:41 a.m.
Try using the Firefox browser with the Ad-Block Plus add on. You will not see anymore advertisements on 99% of websites.
Legalize and tax!
cdabornandraised on April 29 at 10:45 a.m.
what is illegal is not always what is immoral, and what is immoral is not always illegal. those patients and caregivers have done nothing immoral and should be proud of their actions. he who profits off the misfortune of others is the one who is immoral. as of today, cannabis has never killed a single person. the federal government needs to “decriminalize” cannabis of criminalize hamburgers, because they kill far more people.
Ed Byrnes on April 29 at 11:43 a.m.
Although I am disgusted with the federal administration and will probably become disgusted with the Governor by this afternoon here is my perspective…
Our society is changing, larger numbers of citizens support legalization of cannabis than ever before and fewer oppose it, and the trendlines from ongoing survey data show support consistently increasing, and opposition similarly decreasing, over the past decade.
The legalization movement has gotten more sophisticated in how this approached in different states. California was not that many people away from legalization last election.
More and more people are seeing right through the prohibitionists smoke screens, such as the debunked “gateway drug” argument and seeing how current cannabis policy is basically a boondoggle for law enforcement and corrections.
Change takes time and over time more and more people are supporting cannabis legalization so I am simultaneously active and patient. What we are seeing now are the death throes of the prohibitionists in the face of the increasing success of cannabis rights.
Ryan Pitts on April 29 at 1:03 p.m.
For those readers who are having trouble with the Huppins ad automatically expanding to cover most of your screen, can you please tell me what browser you are using? Right now, it appears to be a problem affecting just Google Chrome.
Obviously this is not how the ad is intended to display. It’s a technical issue that I’m trying to help our advertising department nail down.
Ed Byrnes on April 29 at 1:42 p.m.
Ryan it only shows up as a partial using Mozilla Firefox.
cdabornandraised on April 29 at 3:34 p.m.
…Absolute disgust! Still no safe access for patients … still no protection for providers! Nixon’s United Nations mandated War on Drugs is a war on the citizens of this country. Our founders are rolling in their graves over the actions of those who “rule” this country!
Ed Byrnes on May 01 at 9:52 a.m.
Our founders fought back when a government was waging war against them….
rebell on May 01 at 12:34 p.m.
I am a medical marijuana user and while I believe that there should be a way to legalize dispensaries to keep patients from needing to conduct criminal activities in order to obtain their medicine, I am appalled at the ridiculously high prices that the dispensaries have been charging.
I lived in Phoenix, AZ prior to moving to Spokane (I moved partly because of the state’s medical marijuana law). Arizona does not have a medical marijuana law and so anyone who feels the need to self-medicate with pot must buy it on the street and take their chances and the penalties there are steep. But, here in Spokane an ounce of marijuana sells at a dispensary for about $260, the same amount and quality in Phoenix has a street price of about $125. One of the dispensary operators that was raided said that she has approx. 2000 patients, if those patients use only a half ounce a month (it would almost always be much more), this operator is raking in upwards of $260,000 per month!
Even if her overhead for a brick and mortar store front is above $3,000 a month, and her costs for producing the weed, if she grows it, which couldn’t possibly cost more than $60,000 per month (I grow mine hydroponically and that figure is an extrapolation from what it costs me, plus 25% for good measure), that leaves a profit in the neighborhood of 2.4 million dollars a year. Since there is no income tax in Washington (I don’t know if dispensaries collect sales tax, but even if they do, that’s paid by the buyer) and if Federal tax is paid at 32% (it would never be that high) that still leaves an in-pocket profit of 1.63 million dallors a year. And these dispensary operators want us to believe their fight to become legal is ONLY about their patients?!?
This also means that a medical marijuana user has to lay out (at the half oz/month usage) $1,560 a year (and it would almost certainly be more, between 2 and 4 times as much), plus tax, (if it’s collected) another $135.72, for a total of $1695.72 a year. A person on SSI receives $674/month, after rent (I rent a room in a basement for $400/mo.) and other necessities I would be left with ~$224/mo. As I use ~1 oz/mo. that would leave me $58.62 in the red! Yet again, these dispensary operators’ ONLY concern is their patients?!? Can you say B.S.!
If dispensaries become legal, I for one, would seriously consider going into business!!!