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Day After DEA Raids, Protests Spark in West Hollywood

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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. 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

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.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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