Spokane7
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May 18, 2011 in City
Feds raid more Spokane marijuana dispensaries
Federal agents, assisted by Spokane Police, raided marijuana dispensaries today, including one on Freya Street just north of the intersection with Sprague Avenue.
Spokane Police Detective Tom Hendren said he was assisting the federal Drug Enforcement Administration with a federal warrant, but he could not give any more specifics.
He referred all questions, including whether other locations were being raided, to Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Rice. Rice declined comment other than to confirm the search warrant at Medical Herb Providers at 322 N. Freya St.
“It’s one of several,” he said referring to the search warrants. “I can’t say any more than that because the operations are on going.”
Federal agents hit seven dispensaries on April 29, but none of those cases have yet resulted in charges.
The U.S. attorney’s office sent dispensary operators notices in April advising them to shut down or risk federal enforcement action. Many of the estimated 40 medical marijuana dispensaries reportedly complied, but not all.
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.
Steve Sarich, executive director for the Seattle-based CannaCare, expressed dismay that federal officials would continue to target businesses that are trying to get medicine to patients.
“This is just the beginning of the raids,” he said. “Our legislature has to start sticking up for us. The voters voted for this. They are treating marijuana as a law enforcement issue. It’s not. It’s a medical issue.”
1992 murder trial begins against sex offender 
hawken on May 18 at 4:18 p.m.
Well done.
detroitdude on May 18 at 4:31 p.m.
What a waste of taxpayer money and resources.
cdaterry1 on May 18 at 4:42 p.m.
detroitdude….you nailed it!….now that our wonderful governor may not get that job in washington dc she seems to be wanting (suck up to the feds for the federal “tough” marijuana laws) - maybe she will repeal this wasteful waseful law….doubt it
mdoodle on May 18 at 4:44 p.m.
They really need to utilize their resources elsewhere - how about instead of preying on marijuana dispensaries because they’re easy targets, authorities utilize their investigative resources to stop real drug dealers - those dealing in crack, meth, cocaine, etc.
detroitdude on May 18 at 4:50 p.m.
@mdoodle: That makes sense, but it would actually take some work. Much easier to plan how you are going to apprehend unarmed suspects and trash a business while eating donuts and drinking coffee. If the SPD is making any attempt to restore their low reputation with the citizens of Spokane, this is not the way to do it.
force_vector on May 18 at 4:50 p.m.
“to stop real drug dealers” haha! Good one. Thanks for singularly defining what a “real” drug is for the rest of us. When you get a chance, please do so for “real murder” and “real domestic violence” as well. You know, just so we can better utilize the limited resources. Thanks.
Byrdie714 on May 18 at 4:53 p.m.
Of course the police are eating donuts and drinking coffee while trashing the marijuana dispensaries.
It’s because of contact high! HAHAHA!
detroitdude on May 18 at 5:00 p.m.
Meh, marijuana is a victimless crime. Alcohol is more destructive, tobacco, is more destructive, meth, cocaine, heroin, crack, ecstasy, speed, are all more destructive. We’re talking about a plant here people….a plant.
Hopes20 on May 18 at 5:02 p.m.
I for one am thrilled the government continues to stick their noses where it belongs. The “employees” at that store would be paid in the stores product. - Which would be sold illegally of course.
Stop breaking the law- ( I know I did)
I am thrilled that my brother in laws store is “DONE” .
Pat O'Leary on May 18 at 5:10 p.m.
A good thing the mayor is hiring more cops. The scourge of marijuana must be stopped and it will take a bunch of them to do so.
SMARTGUY on May 18 at 5:18 p.m.
All drugs come from plants moron, do you think drugs are mined. Been addicted to marijuana for 30 years. Dipsenseries charged more than the dealers do anyway
detroitdude on May 18 at 5:24 p.m.
Big difference between smoking a marijuana plant as opposed to harvesting cocoa, refining it into a powder, adding who knows what to it and then snorting it directly into your brain or injecting it into your bloodstream. Addicted to marijuana?? Seriously?? You must have the lowest willpower of any human being.
Albert on May 18 at 5:25 p.m.
Maybe we should get Cheech & Chong to do a move about the SPD and these raids? They did a great job on their original…SPD mirrors Sgt. Stedenko and his troops anyway.
Byrdie714 on May 18 at 5:27 p.m.
God made weed.
Man made speed.
Who are you going to trust?
SugarShane on May 18 at 5:29 p.m.
Too bad it will be legal soon. Once Obama hits his second term he wont have to care about being reelected. Dispensaries charge more than dealers on the street, so I don’t like them anyways. They rake in cash hand over fist, and at least dealers don’t have to pay taxes so all those millions of dollars can just stay in the black market and fund Mexican drug cartels.Let the Mexicans tear up the national forests so that we can have illegal weed. I think I should just get my card and start growing and selling it because I can make almost 5k off of one pound of cannabis. Talk about a cash crop. Plus I wont have to pay one cent of taxes! Whoo Hooo!
empyrius on May 18 at 5:40 p.m.
For the last six thousand years there is no record of any government actively terrorizing, and legally persecuting, those whom cultivate/partake of a plant that has grown from this Lord’s good green earth since before the Creation of humankind ourselves . . .
Then in the last hundred years here comes the U.S. government and their corporate owners calling that bad which YWHW has declared good.
Well, I will take Scripture over any government of Dupont/politician/Hearst (and we must not forget about Saint Nixon!) made law every day of the week!
You hypocrites drink your nasty alcohol and watch the Heat dismantle the Bulls b/c apparently this here green bud is just for me.
Dominus vobiscum
Common_Sense on May 18 at 6:05 p.m.
I love the tightey righties with their whole “get ur gubmint out o’ mah life!” Then they cheer when people and SMALL BUSINESSES are targeted by feds over-reaching state’s rights.
Fabulous!
misjustice on May 18 at 6:23 p.m.
This won’t stop people from smoking wacky tabacky, it will just deliver more money to drug cartels, and more ‘Mericans to the prison-industrial-complex.
I feel bad for those which smoke or ingest marihuana to ease their medical problems. Closing these dispensaries will impact their ability to get their medicine from a legitimate source, instead of a street “dealer”.
Me, I just like it. Have used it since my teen years. Am an other wise law abiding citizen, served in the US Army and was honorably discharged, graduated college with honors, pay my taxes, and contribute to society. I’ll continue to use it, most likely until the day I die. Just because someone smokes weed, it doesn’t make them a bad person.
I suspect that many marihuana users are like me, and there are tens of millions of us. Yet our own gubmint would move against us to continue their wrong headed “war on drugs”.
Meanwhile, as these “busts” are being carried out, peoples’ cars and houses are being robbed; and good luck getting a cop to even take a report, let alone “solve” the robbery.
Keep it lit!
; )
hamrsrscarry on May 18 at 6:23 p.m.
whoa
really?
whoa that’s messed up
like all?
whoa
dude? you go?
Common_Sense on May 18 at 6:32 p.m.
@ misj: “keep it lit” my Mike M. friend ;)
hawken on May 18 at 6:34 p.m.
I’ll given them this,,,, Pot Heads are truly entertaining! What better example than this string. As for medicinal purposes, it’s nothing more than a Pot Head, back door to legalization. There are ample “legal pain meds,” currently on the market that don’t enlarge our illegal drug addictions.
Common_Sense on May 18 at 6:38 p.m.
Of course Dr. Hawken (the fake, academic fraud) would promote “legal drugs” because they are manufactured for profit.
Name one person who has directly died from smoking pot.
Why would anyone deny someone with serious illness the benefits of marijuana? Of course, the teabaggin Repukes with their double standards; you know, “keep your gubmint out of mah life except I want it in yours!”
hawken on May 18 at 6:46 p.m.
Hey Common Sense (misnomer):
Do you actually believe that if cannabis was legalized, there would be NO PROFIT?
I think I’m probably done responding to your exceptional illogic. I’ll spend my time responding to other liberals whose illogic is not as quite as extreme as yours. I can respond only to so many.
D Statler on May 18 at 6:50 p.m.
This is another excuss for Spokane’s Drug task force thugs to confiscate more property.Then misappropriate the money. What a bunch of GREAT guys! :^(
Common_Sense on May 18 at 6:52 p.m.
Hey fake edjmucation guy,
I’m not saying there is no profit in marijuana, but you and your idols the Koch brothers are not profiting from it.
Legalize it, save us taxpayers some money from enforcing laws that make no sense.
But no, teabaggers like you believe in wars started by your heroes, Bush’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and Nancy Reagan’s war on drugs but you cry like Joan Boehner when you think of how the liberals are bankrupting the country.
Nice try teabagger/hypocrite/fraud.
mrd on May 18 at 6:56 p.m.
Good move, get rid of all of these head shops (I mean dispenseries)
misjustice on May 18 at 7:33 p.m.
Hey, Common! Love me some Mike M; especially after firing up a huge, and I mean HUGE doobie! Too bad they moved his show to 9, instead of 6…
Anyways, it’s all good! Knowing that it bugs dudes like that Phake PhD regressive, with flying monkeys coming out of his behind, tells me I’m on the correct path; I feel good and tick him off at the same time! SCORE! DOUBLE SCORE!
Common, keep it lit, if you do light up! And keep fighting against those tea bag party member phake edjumacation guys!
; )
greenlibertarian on May 18 at 7:44 p.m.
First of all, for the ignorant, many if not most MMJ (Medical Marijuana) patients don’t smoke it, they ingest it in edibles or consume it via vaporization, which eliminates most of the bad chemicals present in smoke.
As to drug cartels, I know for a fact that ALL of the MMJ provided by the MHP dispensary raided today came from a panoply of LOCAL growers.
For many patients, the only thing that dulls their pain is either SEVERELY ADDICTIVE prescription opiates with BAD SIDE EFFECTS, or consuming marijuana.
The FAILED drug war, particularly regarding MMJ, the use of which has been approved by a majority of voters in this state and others, is an utter waste of law enforcement resources.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/05/17/willie-nelsons-teapot-party-backs-republican-gary-johnson-for-president/
empyrius on May 18 at 7:52 p.m.
Good stuff! And . . .
My fellow American:
A plant grows from the earth and I literally use nothing more than dirt and water to grow that plant with; even more, I mix not that plant with any other substance when harvest time arrives! I simply pick a beautiful, and o so sweet smelling, bud from that plant and ingest it as I see fit; and you want to persecute me for this?
Why?
The Lord created our bodies with cannabinoid receptors that interact with cannabinoids from pot plants in such a unique manner the scientific community itself declares they do not fully understand how/why/what for (another argument used by the feds as to why marijuana should be illegal claiming they need to understand every chemical dynamic of said interactions); yet this mysteriously inexplicable interaction is the beauty of the marijuana plant!
The Lord created the pot plant for far grander reasons than simply for the United States government to come into existence and try to destroy the plant and persecute and incarcerate those whom appreciate the abundant gifts this plant has to offer!
So instead of spending countless billions persecuting millions of your fellow Americans, why would you not rather want us fellow adult citizens to actively flourish, pay taxes with our legitimate businesses (small businesses at that!), and most importantly no violent gangs of thugs would ever make a dime again smuggling a plant into this country!
Additionally we would not be supporting gangs of government dudes (government, government, government!) whose only task is to search for a plant and destroy it!
There is something rotten here and it sure is not this sweet smelling bud!
Keep it green brothers and sisters!
Amen
eagleproducer on May 18 at 7:54 p.m.
Tom Rice might want to step back. There are lots of people still in this area who went to school with him and remember our youth together.
The dispensary raided north of Sprague on Freya operates as a non-profit and is supplied by patients who sell their surplus product to be dispensed to other patients who can’t/won’t grow.
I remember U.S. Assistant Attorneys during the Bush administration being fired because they declined to prosecute cases concerned with frivolous claims of voter fraud or other political agendas. Why hasn’t the Obama administration (who claimed through Attorney General, Eric Holder, that states with medical marijuana laws would be left to self-regulate) not stepped in to fire both Ormsby and Rice? Is Obama unaware that employees who serve at his leisure are disobeying his edict?
It sounds like the majority of Washington residents, who voted to declare the absurd federal classification of Marijuana a Class 1 narcotic with no medicinal value invalid, need to get a strong letter writing/e-mail inundation drive started.
I’m pretty much convinced the feds in Spokane (and maybe globally) are on the take from Mexican/International rug cartels. They are closing these facilities in Spokane because they are cutting into the take of the Sinoloan and Norteno drug runners. Their current agenda melds well with the complaint of lack of resources to stop Mexican drug cartels from growing canabis in national forests, at greater and greater danger to those who use those public resources.
In previous posts I’ve detailed the proliferation of the fronts that launder the money of these cartels operating in Spokane. Their tags are everywhere, and it’s not the “wannabes” your local officials keep wanting you to believe are responsible.
Where are the Tea Baggers in this clear opportunity to defend state rights and the will of the people? Or are they comfortable in their imbecilic minority?
eagleproducer on May 18 at 7:57 p.m.
not rugs, btw
Common_Sense on May 18 at 8:09 p.m.
MisJ: I too am a little upset they moved him to 9pm but when I lived in Minnesota they aired him in the middle of the night, amazingly his show plays better in the calm of night with the lights down low. I’m not a huge fan of Leslie
If I’m not mistaken, wasn’t the cotton industry the ones behind making hemp and the plant it derived from illegal in the first place?
flutieflakes on May 18 at 8:41 p.m.
Screw it. Leave the meds to the heroin peddlers (pharmaceutical companies). Don’t pay good money for a “card”. Don’t put your freedom to the risks of political whims. Don’t pay taxes you cannot legally pay. Grow your own, or take the initiative to seek out a trustworthy source for your chronic. Take caution, but enjoy yourself- the majority of marijuana arrests begin with someone doing something stupid to put themselves at risk for arrest.
Remember, unenforceable laws have no real power over you.
greenlibertarian on May 18 at 8:49 p.m.
Good point, EP. The local growers are cutting into the profits of the cartels that the DEA gets protection money from.
misjustice on May 18 at 8:54 p.m.
It was BIG bidness that made mary jane illegal, that and a little RACISM:
“Why, after thousands of years of use, was cannabis made illegal 80 years ago? Two reasons: Big Business and racism. Dupont introduced synthetic material which had to compete with the sturdy hemp fabrics. To eliminate his competition, Mr. Dupont pushed his political friends in Washington to make the cannabis plant illegal. In addition, Hearst Paper Manufacturing produced paper goods based on timber that came from Hearst’s vast land holdings—Hearst wanted to eliminate paper made from hemp. Hearst Publishing used their media to promote horror stories about marijuana, “The Crazy Mexican Weed”. During the Great Depression, Mexicans were racially targeted for taking jobs from whites and the marijuana law was a key tool for deportation. Corporate greed and racism were the driving forces behind criminalization.”
http://leftcoastvoices.wordpress.com/2011/05/05/ganja-grannies-get-the-pokey/
BTW, the original Constitution of the United States of America was written on paper made from hemp…
Keep it lit!
; )
flutieflakes on May 18 at 8:56 p.m.
“There are ample “legal pain meds,” currently on the market that don’t enlarge our illegal drug addictions.”
You are absolutely correct, Mr. Hawken. There are plenty of legal prescriptions available to enlarge our legal drug addictions.
misjustice on May 18 at 9:00 p.m.
Yeah, just ask Rush Limpballs; he made himself deaf using hillbilly heroin, er Oxycontin.
Just sayin’…
; )
hamrsrscarry on May 18 at 9:12 p.m.
Oh my God. All these comments and not a single one of you know the score.
Gregoire is going for the Drug Czar position. Kerlikowske wants out. Christine wants in.
She’s busting balls.
Put down the bong and pay attention.
PlanB on May 18 at 10:35 p.m.
This epitomizes government waste and excessive government intrusion into peoples lives. The writers of the constitution must be rolling in their graves.
Smoke dope? Fine. Smoke dope and violate my rights and liberties? Problem. I can’t see how these dispensaries are violating anyone’s rights.
Gimple on May 19 at 4:58 a.m.
Raided, my ASS these Federal and local thugmonkeys ROBBED US they took thousands of dollars and as much inventory, leaving us with NO way of retreiving it. We put an ENORMOUS amount of time and energy and almost ALL the money we raised into the city of Spokane. We expected more protection from the police dept. that WE pay for. If we gave that money to the mafia to protect us you can bet your sweet ass that we would be PROTECTED. We WILL still be here to serve these people as long as I draw a free breath J.W. Laberdee MHP Spokane
Screw the thugmonkeys
misjustice on May 19 at 6:37 a.m.
Gimple, that’s what the “raids” are all about, the MONEY!
pinecloud on May 19 at 7:15 a.m.
Gimple..GB commends your efforts and courage to continue to do the morally right thing to do..it is as simple as that.
wpmhedotorg on May 20 at 6:56 p.m.
I think the ag conducted these raids to further influence and MUSCLE the wa legislature to not vote for the bills that are being introduced to start to solve this problem. Raids were conducted the day before the govenor was to vote on the bill sb5073 and the most recent raids came 2 days b4 the legislature was to vote on the most recently proposed bill to let counties make up their own minds about allowing dispenseries.
It’s pure strongarm tactics that are resulting in the oppression of voters that are disabled and sick. All while collecting a paycheck from the taxpayers that voted in R.C.W. 69.51a.
I agree that the Obama adminstration should fire these a$$ clowns that are directly disobeying a presidental order!