Feds Storm Medical Marijuana Operation on Day Court Rules DC Can't Undermine State's Law

Posted by Auguste, Pandagon at 3:55 AM on August 4, 2008.

There’s not a single item in this article that doesn’t make me stuff-throwing, puppy-kicking angry.

Federal agents raided a Culver City medical marijuana dispensary and spent more than four hours there, making no arrests but leaving the shop in disarray, it was reported Friday.

Nice place you have here. Shame if anything were to happen to it...on the taxpayer’s dime.

Drug Enforcement Administration agents arrived about noon Thursday at Organica Collective in the 13400 block of Washington Boulevard, DEA spokeswoman Sarah Pullen told the Los Angeles Times.

“Marijuana remains a controlled substance, and it is illegal under federal law to possess, dispense or cultivate marijuana in any form,” she said.

Someone should probably teach DEA spokesperson Sarah Pullen a little bit about the timing of public statements:

The federal operation came on the day an appellate court in San Diego ruled that federal law does not preempt the state’s law allowing the use of medical marijuana—a ruling touted by supporters of California’s medical marijuana law as a significant win.

Unless Congress passed that one law making DEA spokespeople pope-like in their infallibility, this is a real black eye for the feds. Or it would be, if I thought any of them cared. 

Doghouse Riley has a photo which suggests that DEA agents are big Blackwater fans, which is probably consistent with this whole authoritarian clusterfuck of an operation.

At the dispensary, agents left behind trash, counters strewn with open and empty glass jars, piles of receipts thrown on the ground, upturned couch cushions, bits of marijuana on the edges of counters and an ATM with its doors torn open and emptied, The Times reported.

Not only that but they ate all the damn Fritos! You know, ATM tampering is a federal crime. I’m sure once local police refer it up the chain, the FBI will want to know...about…

Culver City police assisted federal agents at the scene.

I’ve tried at least three times to find the words to describe how wrong this is. Local police cooperating with the DEA to enforce a law which contradicts local law may be the worst thing I’ve heard this weekend, and I heard a detailed story about medical waste.

As for the dumbass in the Blackwater t-shirt, one reporter wonders something which should have occurred to me instantly:

Is the Bush Administration Using Blackwater Mercenaries in the DEA?

Or more to the point, are we contracting with Blackwater to provide backup for the DEA? For that matter, whatever became of the Blackwater hearings?

But let’s assume for a moment that this was purely a DEA operation. Federal agents storm a private business, purportedly due to illegal activities, but make no arrests. They do it in contradiction of local laws, with the help of local law enforcement. They break shit, intimidate citizens, take a bunch of stuff and leave. And all this just happens to occur on a day when the courts are about to deliver a bit of a slap in the face? I hate to be the boy who cried fascism, but: Fascism, for fuck’s sake.

Tagged as: blackwater, medical marijuana, dea

Auguste blogs on Pandagon.