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Editorial:
Federal
Evildoers
9/6/02
David Borden, Executive
Director, [email protected], 9/6/02
Last week I editorialized
against the attacks on pain doctors and patients by police and prosecutors
overzealously pursuing opioids (narcotics). Unfortunately, there
are other drug war crimes against patients going on and escalating as well.
The past three weeks have
seen a major escalation of raids and arrests in California's medical marijuana
war. Despite DEA chief Asa Hutchison's lies to the contrary, the
DEA (along with other federal agencies) is in fact targeting patients and
small medical marijuana growers at an increasing rate.
-
In Mendocino County, federal
prosecutors have charged a disabled medical marijuana patient and his caregiver
for a mere 27 plants.
-
In Orange County, the Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has arrested a medical marijuana patient
for legally owning a handgun, stowed safely in a closet, while possessing
marijuana.
-
In Butte County, DEA agents
tore up a medical marijuana patient's mere six plants, despite pleas from
a state DA to leave her alone.
The persecution has escalated
against providers as well. Only yesterday, Valerie and Mike Corral
of the Women's Alliance for Medical Marijuana in Santa Cruz had been dragged
off in handcuffs, their garden destroyed. WAMM serves 300 seriously
ill patients. Some of them are terminal, and thanks to the DEA, they
will have to waste portions of the scarce time left to them on the street,
seeking their medicine from the underground at high price.
I'm proud to say I've met
Valerie Corral. But I would gain no such pride in meeting the federal
evildoers who have perpetrated this. I'm not referring to the rank-and-file
agents, who are just as likely confused as evil. I'm referring to
the decision-makers. They are not public servants; they are cruel
tyrants consuming the lives of patients and friends of patients for political
or bureaucratic gain. And they have betrayed the will of the people,
who support medical marijuana patients and want law enforcement to protect
them from terrorists, not persecute the nation's weakest and most vulnerable.
History will judge those
who do evil as evil, it will judge tyranny and oppression as such, guise
or veil of law notwithstanding. Seeking and using medicine is a fundamental
human right, and no Bob Barr or Asa Hutchison or John Ashcroft can change
that. The government must cease its immoral attacks on patients now.
-- END --
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Issue #253, 9/6/02
Editorial: Federal Evildoers | DEA Turning Its Sights on Patients, Small Growers in Escalating California Medical Marijuana Conflict | Canadian Senate Panel Calls for Marijuana Legalization -- Urges Regulation and Control, Rejects US Pressure | You Are Now Leaving the EU: Christiania Gets Raided | Ducheneaux Guilty in Medical Marijuana Case as South Dakota Attorney General Candidates Unite Against Jury Rights Amendment | Massachusetts Local Ballots to Include Marijuana Decriminalization, Medical Marijuana, Hemp Questions | Medical Marijuana Polling: Yet More Info on MarijuanaInfo.org | 2001 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse Results Published | Stossel Tapes Still Available -- Support DRCNet and Reserve Your Copy of This Important ABC News Report Today! | Newsbrief: Board of Canvassers Rejects Michigan Initiative, Appeals Court Next | Newsbrief: California Legislature Passes Bill to Make Prop. 36 Clients Eligible for Food Stamps, Awaits Governor's Signature | Newsbrief: Nevada Marijuana Initiative Loses Support in Latest Poll | Newsbrief: Rainbow Farm to Be Auctioned | Newsbrief: Chills Owner Gets 14 Months on Federal Paraphernalia Rap | Newsbrief: DEA Busting Pipe-Sellers Again, This Time They Hit Illinois | Newsbrief: Tennessee Towns Fire Police Forces, Cite Too Much Attention to Meth Labs | Newsbrief: World of Competitive Bridge Fends Off Drug Menace, US Player Loses Medal for Refusing Drug Test | Newsbrief: DEA Brokers Thai-Lao Border Drug Cooperation Deal | Media Scan: Shawn Heller, Dan Forbes, Dan Gardner, Nando Times, Canadian Editorial Cartoons, DrugSense Drug Policy Links | Third Annual Fortune Society Prisoner Art Contest | Legislative Alerts: Rave Bill, Medical Marijuana, Higher Education Act Drug Provision | The Reformer's Calendar
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