A Threefold 'Thank You' to Los Angeles
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In the wake of yesterday's LA raids by the DEA, about 100 protesters marched in front of the West Hollywood City Hall this morning. Clearly the state of medical marijuana in America has become the line in the sand between state's rights and the power of federal law.
Yesterday the feds flexed their muscle:
They confiscated several thousand pounds of processed marijuana, along with weapons and money.Now if LAist was in charge of the DEA and knew that it was about to yank medicine away from AIDS patients, cancer survivors, and other people under doctor's care, we would have lots of details to dole out other than the broad "federal law overrules state law", especially since that's not always the case.A spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement Administration said about 20 people were detained, but no arrests were immediately made.
Officials would not provide details of the investigation, saying the search warrants remain under seal. - NBC4
And we'd especially have a good reason why the DEA spent the majority of its time taking medicine away from West Hollywood dispensaries, particularly since West Hollywood probably has more people using medical marijuana to ease the symptoms of HIV than any other city in Southern California.
94 LA medical marijuana dispensaries opened in 2006 alone, why did the DEA fixate on West Hollywood yesterday and spend more than half of their efforts on that part of town?
Those would be the sorts of answers we would have ready and waiting if we ran the DEA. Instead they hide behind seals as they take medicine away from sick people. Heck of a job, DEA.
photo by r0bz
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Thanks for this article.
"Heck of a job, DEA."
I bet someone is getting a promotion...
Thanks for this article. You've got the scoop on what LA wants to know.
"Instead they hide behind seals as they take medicine away from sick people. Heck of a job, DEA."
I bet someone got a promotion out of all this.
I really want to thank you for covering this issue. It is a really important issue and it is important to raise people's awareness about the situation.
I don't know if anyone from the site reads through the comments, but...
Can you not put a huge pic of a nug on the frontpage? I refreshed the site at work and nearly had a heart attack.
The earlier pic with the protesters outside of city hall was far more pertinent to the story.
And while you're at it, can you put more photos of scantily clad latin women on the front page? Then maybe make me a grilled cheese sandwhich and rub my feet?
Thanks for covering this.
of course we read the comments.
what you can tell your boss(es) if they hassle you about reading LAist is that sometimes we actually show the medicine being debated about in our stories.
they'll get over it.
I agree that this article/interview was poorly done. Dont get me wrong, I'm not talking about the interviewer, but the interview-ee. I think that this only shows that anyone can get a cannabis card, and easily. Do you think the DEA reads stuff like this? Well, maybe they do. But, my suggestion would have been to interview someone who is taking marijuana for legit reasons. I must admit that this is an interesting article, with an interesting angle, but this only feeds those who say it shouldn't be legal due to it's potential for abuse.
As for all you other clucks, there is a lot of misinformation in your comments. First of all, the doctors don't get raided, it's the dispensaries.
I smoke marijuana, and I will admit it's not a perfect thing, as nothing is. I think it should be legalized for recreational purposes. For those who say everything that can be consumed should be legal: I say that's a BIG matter of debate. Ultimately, it would be better NOT to legalize everything. No, it would be better to still have it be illegal, but make it the lowest possible misdemeanor charge, along with court-ordered treatment where applicable (I'm talking about the crack, meth, and heroin addicts.)
I used to be a meth user, and it wasn't pretty.
I don't think there is any drug worse, but I've never used crack or shot heroin so who knows.
Meth is the biggest problem-drug facing America.
I think that the DEA should focus it's resources on educating the public more about this. If there should be any raids, then it should be on meth labs, not medical marijuana dispensaries...