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DEA Raids Pot Clubs; Advocates Worried

Joe Dignan San Francisco Bay Times

San Francisco, CA June 23, 2005 -- Medical marijuana advocates say they fear federal authorities are beginning a campaign to close San Francisco’s pot clubs after agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Internal Revenue Service, accompanied by San Francisco Police, raided two medical marijuana dispensaries on Ocean Avenue and a third on Judah Street at approximately 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday. At least one person was arrested.

The raids come two weeks after a US Supreme Court decision affirmed the government’s right to enforce federal law, which says that marijuana is illegal under any circumstances, even though California’s Proposition 215, enacted in 1996—and laws in 11 other states—allow marijuana for medical use.

As recently as two weeks ago, after the Supreme Court decision, the federal government said they wouldn’t prosecute small suppliers and individual patients.

And unconfirmed reports say that government agencies will say on Thursday that the raids Wednesday were not directed at medical cannabis clinics, of which San Francisco has over 35, about half the total in the state, but are rather part of a wider investigation into money laundering and organized crime.

Advocates don’t believe that. “It strikes me that they’re operating on the green light the Supreme Court gave them to enforce the federal laws against medical marijuana,” said former San Francisco District Attorney Terrence Hallinan. “I had hoped they wouldn’t do this. But they’ve done it, and they’re using the pretext of Asian money laundering and organized crime.” Hallinan, now an attorney in private practice, represents two of the clubs that were raided.

“Thinly disguised excuses, that’s what it looks like to me,” Hallinan said. “Why this timing?”

In the past few weeks, San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, who has been a strong supporter of medical marijuana since her election campaign two years ago, stepped up her defense in a Bay Guardian opinion piece, the week after the Supreme Court ruling. “The position of the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office remains consistent,” she wrote, “We will not prosecute people who use or sell marijuana for medicinal purposes,” but Harris did not comment for this report and two District Attorney’s office spokeswomen refused to address the specifics of the case.

San Francisco voters have regularly voted for medical marijuana, overwhelmingly supported Proposition 215, and passed, by a whopping 62 percent, then-Supervisor Mark Leno’s Proposition S which suggested that the city should start growing its own in order to guarantee uninterrupted supplies for the city’s patients.

Hallinan said that by coincidence he was at the Judah Street club when the DEA was executing their raid. He said approximately 20 agents, mostly Secret Service, were at the club which he said has been in operation for about four years.

“They raided three clubs, 20 homes, all Asians as far as I can tell,” Hallinan said.

“This is a tremendous blow to our medical marijuana clubs. Some will close down, and people won’t have access to their medicine. It’s not just a stupid move. They know what they’re doing and the impact it will have.”

Wayne Justman, a long-time pot club operator and advocate, called the federal government’s tactics “absurd.”

Nuygen, in a telephone interview, said that he has operated his club for five years, denied he was involved with any kind of money laundering scheme, but said he is infrequently at the club and left many of the operational chores to a manager.

Nuygen said he was arrested two weeks ago by the SFPD for possession of three pounds of marijuana, but charges were dismissed after he claimed the marijuana was for medical use. He said the SF police did not return his marijuana.

But Justman said that approximately three weeks ago a pot dispensary at 14th and Mission, called Mission Street Caregivers, was one of eight clubs closed in several California cities on charges of money laundering and participating in organized crime.

Prior to that, the most recent raid on a clinic, specifically targeted at medical marijuana, closed Ed Rosenthal’s Sixth Street Harm Reduction facility in Feb. 2002.

The raids come as San Francisco’s city government is moving to regulate the pot clubs. The city’s Board of Supervisors has implemented a moratorium on new clubs, which earlier this month Supervisors Sean Elsbernd and Gerardo Sandoval asked the city attorney to enforce against several clubs that have popped up since the moratorium.

Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi authored the moratorium legislation and has proposed that the city should regulate the clubs in order to police them—and allow them to operate. “It is entirely possible,” Mirkarimi said, “that there are some bad apples who would use medical cannabis as a cover, and would spoil it for those who want to see a healthy and legitimate business. We don’t know enough. We don’t know if the DEA is legitimate in this process. There has been no transparency,” Mirkarimi said.

Mirkarimi thinks city regulation will help. “It’s a consequence of being completely hands off,” he said. Current city law doesn’t impose any requirements, fees or even zoning rules on pot clubs. “That’s why I want to see these clubs legitimized.”

But State Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-SF), who has long advocated for medical marijuana said he thinks it would be naïve to say there’s not criminal activity taking advantage of Proposition 215. “It benefits us to clear out those who are money laundering or making huge profits on profits on 215. But the flip side of that coin is we don’t want the DEA gaming proposition 215 by going after legitimate medical cannabis providers in the guise of going after criminal activity,” he said.

“We don’t want the DEA around,” he added. “And I would be very concerned if our local police were collaborating with the idea. If anything, all of this only underscores why prohibition does not work. Just like alcohol. The raids are only occurring because of the prohibition. The criminal activity is created by the prohibition.

If we could tax and regulate, none of this would happen. You’d think we’d learn from history. But we don’t.”