OAKLAND — Federal agents swooped in Monday morning to search Oakland’s Oaksterdam University in Oakland, the state’s first cannabis industry training school.
Agents with the U.S. Marshals Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Internal Revenue Service’s criminal investigation division are searching the university at the corner of 16th Street and Broadway, in the heart of the city’s widely recognized downtown cannabis-oriented district, authorities said.
The university has been cordoned off by yellow caution tape.
Arlette Lee, an IRS spokeswoman, said she could not say why the agents were there other than to confirm that they were serving a federal search warrant.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/02/BABJ1NTK9T.DTL#ixzz1qtvKIJo3
[UPDATE!] You can view video from yesterday’s federal raid, coverage of today’s march and protest in San Francisco, and also read Richard Lee’s first public statement since the DEA and IRS took action against him here.]
Richard Lee, the founder of Oaksterdam University, was the man who poured $1.5 million of his own money into the Prop 19 effort in 2010 to legalize marijuana in California. That effort garnered the greatest-ever support for statewide marijuana legalization at 46.5%.
Oaksterdam was founded in November of 2007 to provide training for the caregivers and collectives providing cannabis medicine to California’s medical marijuana patients. But rather than just establish a “grow school”, Richard Lee also seeded the curriculum with classes covering the entire cannabis industry, including how to address the political and legal impediments that prohibition of cannabis for healthy people imposes on getting medicine to sick people.
The recent “crackdown” by the four US Attorneys in California, which has included threatening letters to landlords of medical marijuana dispensaries as well as outright raids of longstanding, community-approved outlets like Berkeley Patients Group, has been devastating to Oaksterdam’s enrollment.
There is now no doubt in my mind that this is a full-court press by the Obama Administration to squelch the voices of legalization, retard the propagation of truth about marijuana, and stall our growing political momentum long enough for the campaign donors in Big Pharma to get cannabinoid pharmaceuticals through the FDA approval process.
Colorado and Washington – 2012 is THE year. Failure to pass legalization this year gives the government four more years before they have to worry about serious attempts at legalization. By then, a few more states will have passed medical marijuana laws without home grow. By 2016, Sativex and other cannabinoid pharmaceuticals are brought to market. Those states without home grow will then begin switching their state-run dispensary patients to Sativex. States with home grow will be under great pressure to do the same.
[NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano adds: I have tremendous personal respect for Richard Lee, having advocated along side with him in support of Prop. 19 — the statewide initiative he boldly and generously spearheaded in 2010 — and having lectured at Oaksterdam University, the groundbreaking educational facility he founded. On more than one occasion I ended my lectures at O.U. by highlighting the difference between changing public opinion and changing culture. Richard’s activism — opening the nation’s first brick-and-mortar cannabis ‘college,’ bankrolling Proposition 19 which nearly succeeded in legalizing the adult use of marijuana in California, and revitalizing downtown Oakland — fell into the latter category. He was changing the culture. And that is why the federal government and the Obama/Holder administration is trying to silence him today.]
well, it was great, folks. looks like this is the end.
Please gather at your local courthouse/state capitol/DC on 4/20,,,go clean and go loud!!!
Party at Russ’s house afterwards,,,;<)
I’m glad the Obama administration can waste so much time prosecuting the medical marijuana industry instead of the financial sector.
Clearly, the government has its priorities in order when Wall Street rejects are being given high level positions within the government while people like Richard Lee are being treated like criminals.
I’m going to go vomit in disgust and then take a bong rip to help with the nausea.
Richard Lee is doing something good. We can all share the truth like him.
WTF happened to Obama’s promise to leave states with medical legal alone?
I broke my back3 years ago. I have been using a medication that has side effects that are terrible. I have gotten to were I have gotten free from them unless necessary. I started smoking again a year ago and have no withdrawl symptoms from the marijuana and it helps my back so i dont have the Govt. paying my way thru life. The bad part about it is I can have Oxycodone 7 times a day legally,yet the state of Fla will throw me in prison for having pot. Give me a Fucking Break. Child Molesters get less time than a guy with a quarter oz. The pot has enabled me to go to a construction job and am able to work and pay my bills and take care of my children. Thank you for hearing my story
People have to keep fighting. Screw Obama and all of the lies he tells.
Prohibitionists at both the State and Federal level have pursued the policy of prohibition with a religious zeal matched only by the Catholic Martyrs of Roman times. This has led to a war with a policy that allows for no reasonable end and requiring the Government to arrest ever more citizens in the quest for total victory.
Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have laws in place allowing for the medical use of marijuana and in the 2012 election there will be ballot initiatives calling for full legalization of marijuana for both medical and recreational use. California, Colorado, Washington, Nevada and Missouri are all working to put full legalization on the ballot this year.
The Federal Government has responded to the push for legalization by pushing back. The Government’s actions look like a ’surge’. A ’surge’ is when you insert a large amount of troops into a situation to tamper down the violence and allow for negotiating an end to the conflict. We did this in Iraq and we are now negotiating with the Taliban and the Afghan Government for an end to the Afghan war. In the Drug War the Government is stepping up operations and enforcement almost as a swan song to the policy of prohibition. Remember last year when the Drug Czar tried to rename the War On Drugs saying it’s not really a war? You don’t hear him saying that anymore! How long will the ‘surge’ go on? How many citizens will have their lives turned upside down in this misguided effort that only proves the fallacy of the Government’s position on drugs? There is no telling. I hope the President isn’t so hypocritical as to be working the drug war for nefarious reasons, but I’m an incurable optimist. I cure my optimisim by always being prepared for the worst and here it is!
Mr. President this raid has just cost you a possible 22 million votes. This is nuts since most Americans feel the Government should end marijuana prohibition you should actually get it over with before the election rather than wait till after. That will earn you votes. Cracking down between now and the election will cost you votes. Those are votes that could cost you the election!
Wow the fed’s are sending multiple police forces to go after a sick guy in a wheelchair this sort of gross over use of power and force is exactly what I expect from them. Honestly how many different swat teams and police agencies do you need to go arrest a bunch of sick people and medical personnel. I can’t believe we let these idiots spend our money to do stupid shit like this. I would rather they start fires with it to keep homeless people warm at least it would be used for something worthwhile. Why don’t we just let a 5 year old decide how to spend the nations money he or she would find much more constructive ways to spend our money than to start an all out war on a bunch of really sick people.
Our government is disgusting! Federal intervention is a crime. They need to be baned from our states. A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circlue of our felicities. WTF!
This is outrageous. When the common man peacefully assembles an educational school, creating jobs, revitalizing a downtown area, you’d think that it’s a positive outcome. I PITY our government for stepping in on Oaksterdam University. It’s time to grow up “Big Brother”.
*I ask Norml to please feel free to use any of my writing to help aid the educational reform and legalization of cannabis.*
I have a great deal more respect for Richard Lee than I expect to ever have for our Federal Govt!!!
I think the worst thing to happen to my country in my lifetime was the ascendency of Ronald Reagan and the conservatives to power. They taught us deficits don’t matter and established the ONDCP, an inept, cruel bureaucracy. There is no more urgent need for our country than to keep these self-aggrandizing incompetents out of power.
But I will NOT vote for Obama in November even if the Republicans run someone other than Romney.
Really Fed up with our Govt actions on this. Were going to need a revolution to remedy this issue.
Nodding head is all I can do. I wonder how much it cost tax payers money for this raid. Fuel resources, paying the agents hourly and over time, yellow tape, the time it took the judge to sign the warrant. Could not imagine. Fucking morons, Why is the U.S. in debt again? Answer: It’s right in front of our faces. Dumb shit like this.
More reasons not to vote for Obama’s re-election.
This kind of thing makes me sick. We the people. That is right in the constitution. We are a part of the government too. Just because we elected you doesn’t mean we gave you free reign to control everything in our world including what we ingest into our bodies. If we hand over control and just accept these things, what will happen? Horrible things. I believe in the right to explore your own consciousness and be free from pain and ailments. There will be change in this world, im sure of it. The movement for legalization is too big to be shut down. Marijuana has been a part of peoples lives for so long, it won’t just disappear. It’s been in use as a medicine for over 2000 years and suddenly a government makes a decision based on lies to outlaw it? I think that will change, people are more aware of the things going on in the world more now than ever.
Am for legal Marijuana ! But 90% of the Pot Shop’s in Cali are Black Market. The use people’s med cards! To have a loop hole to grow Big Rooms! An send it thur the mail! That is Drug dealers!!! I f the State an Goverment would just make it legal ! People say the reason they don’t is because they can’t control it. Well they can.(simple SEEDS) you have to have SEEDS! Out Door Mexican does not grow inside. people need to understand that Marijuana is here to stay! An at a avg. of 4,000$ a pound! Well now you SEE.
It is beginning to look more and more like either President Barry Soetoro doesn’t expect to win re-election, or that the 2012 national elections will be rendered moot.
Does the President & his advisors truly expect that Republicans will cross party lines to vote for “the best Republican ever”, or that the left will continue to support this President as he reveals himself to be more and more authoritarian?
Does the President intend to invoke martial law, perhaps in conjunction with an unprovoked military strike against Iran, thereby canceling or indefinitely postponing the November elections?
IIRC, didn’t George W. Bush or one of his associates state upon vacating the White House that we would miss him? As a life-long leftist who is also a Constitutionalist (libertarian leftist), I am sorry to publicly acknowledge that “Yes, I do miss you, Dubya.”
At least he wasn’t the totalitarian dictator that Barry Soetoro has revealed himself to be.
If you support individual liberty and the limitations on Federal government imposed by the USA Constitution, vote for Ron Paul in November even if he is NOT on the ballot. It’s easy. Register to vote. Register to vote via mail. Write in the name “Dr. Ron Paul” as your Presidential candidate of choice, in the blank space provided. Get your absentee ballot certified, along with a certified copy, which you will want to save. Mail in your ballot “Registered Return Receipt” quite early, or hand-deliver it and obtain a receipt. Done. —-
Well, almost. USA voters need to critically analyze the voting record of all your other elected representatives, and if they support draconian martial law legislation instead of increased individual liberties — if they support the rise of the National Security Surveillance Police State instead of the Bill of Rights, then vote them Out Of Office, period.
Police State mentality; shame shame
I forgot to include a very important codicil to my earlier remarks regarding voting. If you can legally vote, Then Vote!
Be advised:
The meme of “Not Voting” as a means of shunning the entire USA political process as a means of expressing your disapproval is a false paradigm that the Powers That Be relish. “Not Voting” whatsoever provides ample proof (their interpretation) that you are furnishing your silent tacit Approval for the Status Quo.
I recommend making use of Absentee Ballots as a means of documenting your vote — something that “our” nearly ubiquitous electronic voting machines cannot do. Think about it. The USA Congress voted to spend $8+ Billion USD on easily hackable entirely non-recount capable electronic voting machines in 2002, and disbursed all those funds Before there were any security & testing parameters established.
I am cynical enough to conclude that accurate voting tabulation and recount capability were purposefully never factors involved in Congress’ Orwellian named “Help America Vote (Our Way) Act of 2002”. It was more like an Incumbent Job Protection Program, a vital resource to greedy authoritarian politicians who have deliberately turned this country into a Police State on the very brink of martial law, which is where we are today.
Well folks here your chance to vote for Ron Paul. he is the only person running for president that i think we should vote for! I am a graduate of Oaksterdam and i am disabled from an accident which messed me up for life, and not for medical marijauna i would have committed suicide! i am sick of the government telling me what i can and cannot do. I live on a measly 1,000.00 dollars a month and if not 4 me being a veteran i would be homeless. vote for Obama or Ramney and see what else happens to this country. why cant we be free? I dont feel free. when will this all end?
I find it interesting that nobody seems to see this but me – but perhaps that is because the military blessed me with a documented IQ score of 178 – who cares.
The point is – anything that grows on this planet – is given to us by the Lord. We have stood at a stand still for 40 years now – and this year it is going to change.
In revelations… He came in a cloud of smoke – funny isn’t it? And those who believed went “up” in a “vapor”? 40 is the magic number in the bible – and that number is all over this. Even the Shafer report calculates the leathal dosage at 40×40… 1600 lbs (eaten) for a 200 lbs adult. Seriously – can you eat 8x your body weight in anything?
We are staring at end times – and though we all know… those who wish to admit it – that this plant is a VERY GOOD resource for everything from diesel fuel, to paper products, to biodegradable plastics, to a medicine that addresses just about every ailment known to man…
Folks – this is going to hurt our economy in a very bad way… because instead of embracing it and growing with it over time – those with selfish personal interests demonized one of God’s greatest gifts. Christianity teaches us that Bad can be used for Good, in that; the things that I suffer through and am able to overcome via God’s grace become a foundation to help others with the same problems. Well, Good can also be used for Bad – and it’s all the people that skirted the laws because they were too lazy to put down their bongs… get off their asses and vote… that we have the current situation that we have now.
Well, guess what – there are some diseases that are actually the cure for their own ailments. I’ll give you an example of one that I created back in 1999 – please give me credit where it is due and so I tell you…
The Cure for Procrastination:
Don’t procrastinate today – put it off until tomorrow.
See how that worked?
Well, we’ve got the same situation here – we have the disease of ‘intolerance’. Intolerance to something that was a gift from God – the current situation exasperated by the fact that we “sat on our lazy asses” as the world contined to turn.
Perhaps instead of a revolution – we could do as Egypt did and do nothing… ABSOLUTELY NOTHING – until this helpful – not harmful; plant is freed.
http://www.facebook.com/Job.the.Lords.Servant
C’mon moderator… let’s start our own anti-war…
Check this out. The government can’t follow its own laws.
Obama’s way to say ” April fool’s “
absurd and ignorant.
I guess we’ll just have to role up our sleeves and beg harder.
It’s great to see that Law Enforcement was used to do this while just 20 miles away 7 people were being killed by a gunman at Oikos University.
Maybe we should rethink our priorities?
Another shameful waste of taxpayers money, while across Oakland a murderous rampage was taking place at a Christian school.
Boycott any future pharmaceutical using cannabinoids. Take your seeds and plant them this Spring. Overgrow America!
The feds are going for the money-grab, swooping in for asset forfeiture and IRS property seizure. Cut their budgets so much that even raiding the big rich guys doesn’t provide them with anything even close to an operating budget.
Hell, you got all this money from your raids so you don’t need any federal funds appropriated at all. It doesn’t matter your pillaging doesn’t net you enough to cover your operating expenses. Your just a big pain in the ass to the local money-grabbers, state and local governments that need cannabis revenues.
When is that fuckin’ supercommittee sequestration shit gonna hit the DEA and IRS fan?! Cut their fuckin’ budgets, and shift the money to education and job stimulation.
Payback ought to be a bitch!
This whole cannabis prohibition whack-a-mole game is just a total perversion of what government is supposed to do. All the law enforcement approach has done over the past forty years was outsource the supply for the U.S. market to the Caribbean, Latin America and South America, and in a small part to Canada. When the feds were effective, that’s where the source of the cannabis supply stayed. Now, the sourcing to supply at least the medicinal cannabis market in the U.S. is within the borders. It’s domestically sourced, through many states on both coasts. More states are seeing the light, and are signing on to some sort of cannabis legalization. Item: New England. No raids there, yet.
Whack-a-Mole!
Oh, how outdated the whack-a-mole simile has become. It no longer describes the current cannabis situation in the U.S. Cannabis is now like the Hydra. The feds keep chopping off a head here, a head there, and cannabis operations just keep popping up. They just down Oaksterdam U. but the City of Oakland recently gave permission for more outlets to operate.
I’d say that’s an excellent strategy: give out four to six permits for operations to replace each one that the feds raid, and allow them to each become at least as large as the one the feds shut down, none of this split up the big one into little ones and then have the big federal birds of prey pick off the little cannabis fish and cannabis birds.
Heel slecht als iedereen wil meepikken en de fed’s op hun manier meepikken. Dat moet je effen niet hebben! De fed’s moeten dus afblijven! Als die er iets van willen hebben moeten ze het alleen door een belasting krijgen.
when will you people wake up just legalize it federally then this wouldn’t happen!
Most of our leaders have a low psychological development. Just because something is “right” or “should be” does not mean as much to them as their perceived power or wealth. Its basically egocentricity or sociocentricity manifest in greed and fear. We must keep the pressure on them by educating ourselves and our people. Then we will have the power of the vote and change will happen.
i guess the dea us marshal and are bored cant find any other drugs to find just marijuana and how much do u think of what they seized wiil end up in their pockets all of it they wont destroy the buds just the plants the crooked sobs need to be in florida catching all these pill heads and pain clinics that actually kill people so suck on that dea,usmarshal,and fbi and any other waste our gov spends on needless organizations and mr president you can do the same you aint nothing but a liar and the worst president that has ever been in office if the people, of this great nation need to join together and get rid of these no account senators and so called represenatives out and the president to if he is not going to do anything that he said he would if the news would just play all the bs lies he has told over and over it might sink into some these idiots heads that even want to vote for himm again how has he helped you he aint helped no one but his self
Sounds like a lawsuit to me! Hope to hear words like crimes against humanity and treason against the Republic making competition and free enterprise illegal treason and genocide. Beat that would make the news. Good timing. Sick em Norml.
Get Angry. Educate. Occupy.
so ugh why is the president trying to stop something that will inevidibly happen even if all dispensiaries are removed? I dont believe he should have the right to spend my money like that, on that.
Obama has been the biggest FAIL in the history of America. Fail on cavil liberality’s. The only thing Obama has done for America is make it a more fascist country than it already was. Way way more. Just look you can’t protest around secret serves, so pretty much you can’t protest around king Obama & if you do you can be charged with a felony. He passed the NDAA bill another epic fail. Then he has the nerve to let those Ahole bankers off the hook. People need to help wake others up. Turn your TVs off & don’t believe a word that spews out of the mouths of the MSM because they have lied to everyone to get us into these wars that were in. The military industrial complex & MSM are one in the same. Vote Ron Paul 2012 & join the R[??????????????]ution!! 4 PEACE
Medical marijuana as WE ALL know is not what people should be focusing on as a dangerous menace that’s going to ruin our youth and corrupt our free country. In fact it should have never been thought of in that way from the start of this great POT debate that has been so over analyzed as well as over dramatized by people who truly have no actual practical knowledge of the benefits of this all natual, god given medicine. We have all heard the statement from our medical marijuana friends who in sticking up for their chosen cure of anything from a stressfull day at work to the symptoms of a debilitating illness that they can either treat by using a harmless all natural weed or perhaps
It’s terrifying to think that our choice in the next election will most likely be romney or obama and that neither of them support legalization on any level.
Legalizing in colorado and washington are definitely the key to suppressing the fullness of any future negativity towards legalization.
If it does come down to obama and romney id be very grateful if NORML did some research educating us on the best pick.
obama its worst than bush
Oops, they should take a fistfull of legal pharmacudical medication provided by there trusted pain management Dr. That they drive across country to see in the great state of Florida because they had no system in place to monitor the distribution of some of the most life ruining drugs ever put into the hands of our children. They call marijuana the gateway drug, yet if people would look at what is really going on in this country with the introduction of medicines like Oxycodone and all the other derivatives of synthetic heroin that our government is allowing into the hands of our youth. Who is controlling the pharmicudical companies? Are they the same people who have been fighting against our right to treat our own ailments with what actually works for us, or are they just going to decide once and for all what’s best for me and my medication needs, I personally think I know what works for me better then some guy who would rather I buy my medicine from his buddy who just so happens to be a major contributor to his campaign as well as the CEO of a major pharmacudical company which coincidentally he has 10,000 shares invested in. Maybe there right and we should all give up our dangerous pot habit and switch to the real gateway drugs like synthetic heroin or excuse me I meant OxyContin, and then perhaps when they decide we have become to dependent on the pills and cut us off we can just do what our teenagers and young adults are doing and spend $80 bucks a pill 5 times a day until we figure out that for $50 bucks we can just buy a nice bag of heroin from some street corner thug and save a few hundred a day by slamming some black tar into our veins, it’s the same EXCACT thing. Looks like we have a new gateway drug kids…… Enjoy!
And can I say that I am really getting sick of all these stoners driving around completely high and killing all those innocent families……. Name one case that you have ever heard of that happening…. Let’s all just do some shots and then get my car and find some cocaine to sober up…..gateway drug?
I think I will stick with my medication of choice, I hope there’s ice cream in the fridge, cause the last thing I wanna do is go out and look for something a little harder, I wanna play with my crazy kids and maybe fall asleep watching scooby doo and scrappy too!
What’s wrong with this free country? And why can’t I watch CNN international in the US but in the 26 other countries I have visited I can find it on every TV!
Sorry for that part I got caught up……… Realize Legaliz!
Thank for reading my friends…….
lets all not forget that from the beginning of time, what has happened to all the so called “leaders” who have hurt their citizens? i rest my case
Just shows what a liar President Obama is. He said he wouldnt interfere with what states did. He smoked weed when he was younger and now he’s a damn hippocrate!
I’m not sure how taking real cannabinoids and throwing them into a pill vs. using the synthetic kind will change many of the downsides that already have presented themselves with the other forms. Then again it’s not like it actually has to work for it to get used. It just has to make money for the right people.
You know the problem with these storm trooper lips, the never question authority. There nothing but a legalized mafia.
In Colorado and Washington this November, people will vote to legalize cannabis.
Let’s just say that “medical marijuana” is redundant and obvious since the plant has been known as medicine throughout the whole of human history. There is no need to have a “medical marijuana card” as if it is “permission” by Big Brother paternalism and over-sized bureacracy. “Here is my hall pass.” Yeah, it’s medicine, we know. No one needs an excuse, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson would agree.
It should be strictly legal for recreation or medicine in a just society.
It should be legal period, it needs no medical excuse or justification. It is far safer than legal alcohol and probably a million times safer than tobacco that is grown with with govt.-subsidized (taxpayer-funded), radioactive fertilizer containing Lead-210 (Pb210), found in tobacco, and not in cannabis It’s not a correlation, it’s causation. Tobacco contains lead-210 and taxpayers subsidize the fertilizer, and this is all supposedly “legal.”
Enough of Oback Barama. He didn’t deserve the Nobel Prize, he doesn’t deserve a cub scout badge. Legalization of cannabis would be enough of a successful medical reform in itself, yet he is trying to change the hospital-insurance-pharmacy triad started by Nixon, which is monolithic by now, a giant money hog, unnecessarily over-priced.
The DEA will never make a dent in the demand nor will they change the behavior of the people. It’s a money sink that changes nothing; unskilled labor pretending to fight the good fight.
The DEA is DEAd. Let it rot
U.S. out of Oakland! Occupy marijuana! We need help with gun control and violent crime, not DEA agents raiding peacefully functioning businesses.
Lies,Lies and more Lies…Shame on them and US for allowing the Police State to come into existance. They force us to become freedom fighters….
I can see the constitution burning right now.
this makes me want to cry!
“The U.S. attorney in San Francisco, Melinda Haag, and her three counterparts in the state said in October that they would aggressively prosecute many marijuana dispensaries as profit-making criminal enterprises.”
so why is it that we cannot prosecute the criminal enterprises in washington dc and the rest of our government?
Even this woman, haag. why can we not prosecute her for not upholding state laws and throwing her fellow citizens (patients in wheelchairs, rather) in jail?
I hate Romney but I hate you more Obama! Enjoy that bit of knowledge because it’s terminal.
i have 1 thing to say
Dr. Ron Paul 2012. any other choice is more of the same.
Undisputed medical evidence, and all the countries we are supposedly superior to, are more than happy to have cheap available medicine for their people….our country would rather poison its citizens one pill at a time
Russ Belville wrote: “Colorado and Washington – 2012 is THE year. Failure to pass legalization this year gives the government four more years before they have to worry about serious attempts at legalization. By then, a few more states will have passed medical marijuana laws without home grow. By 2016, Sativex and other cannabinoid pharmaceuticals are brought to market. Those states without home grow will then begin switching their state-run dispensary patients to Sativex. States with home grow will be under great pressure to do the same.”
Thank you, Russ! I began hammering this point back in October with the medical cannabis opponents of I-502. I have felt like a voice crying out in the wilderness. Rescheduling will not help. In fact, it will promote and abet marijuana prohibition. Your summation fortifies my feelings that those opposing I-502 while posing as reformers have their heads in the sand. There is a war going on.
As I wrote in November and December of last year:
“I am convinced that the federal government will soon be moving cannabis to schedule 2, but it will not be prescribed in it’s raw agricultural form. It will be in Sativex-like products made from raw cannabis and developed to minimize the “negative” effects (i.e., euphoria and being stoned).
Given the government sanctioned alternative, this will put an end to the medical cannabis movement. Growing marijuana then, even for medicinal purposes, will be viewed in the same light as someone growing coca so that he can produce his own medical cocaine.”
“GW Pharmaceuticals has the medical cannabis issue covered. Cannabis oil will be available and users protected and accommodated under the ADA after the movement of Sativex to schedule III.
Cannabis used as a medicinal herb in its raw form will be made “unnecessary” as will state medical cannabis laws. In this context, the feds recent crackdown makes sense. Indeed, our Prohibitionist-in-Chief will ride in on a white horse and declare that he is compassionate, has heard the people’s clamoring, and will hold up medical cannabis in a bottle of Sativex.”
“There will be no tolerance for domestic growing under any circumstance by individuals. It will be considered manufacturing and trafficking. All raw marijuana will be illegal. This is a huge ramp-up of the marijuana wars.
While I loathe the prohibitionist Tacoma News Tribune, I think they correctly predict that, “The FDA will never put its imprimatur on raw cannabis – the leafy street version [sic] sold as medicine in Washington and a dozen other states. But it will approve medical use of therapeutic compounds derived from the plant…The gold standard for medical marijuana is going to be precisely isolated and administered molecules – which may produce little of the high that recreational users are after. Sativex reportedly addresses pain and spasticity with minimal euphoric effects.”
My efforts to warn the “medical cannabis” prohibitionists not only fell on deaf ears, I was derided for supporting I-502. It’s time for them to wake up and smell the SWAT teams.
revolution ! revolution ! revolution !
now is the time, no more talk.
FUCK THIS GOVERNMENT!
While they were raiding Oaksterdam, there was a school shooting in Oakland killing 7 people and wounding 3. Glad to see where the priorities are.
I’d be glad to contribute to The University to help them pay for thier defense..
I believe Santorum and Paul are the only candidates that support marijuana legislation…then again I hate Santorum and the man can’t be trusted.
At the same time Romney honestly believes that marijuana is a gateway drug (really? people still believe this?) and that the war on drugs should not be stopped, but that they should spend MORE money on fighting marijuana.
Keep in mind big pharmacy pays this guy.
Shocking, right?
I will be voting for Romney, because he could actually win. Romney will be asked about states rights and Tax and regulation.
Is Obama a socialist? That’s a matter of political perspective. One thing no one can deny irregardless of where they are on the political spectrum is that Obama is a prohibitionist.
LEGALIZE ADULTHOOD!
The problem with the term “Medical Marijuana” is that it gives the government an open door to try to get the FDA to replicate it. Right now there are 2 sides, the medical side & the recreational side but we should all be on the same page. Just legalize it, it’s a plant!
If we elect Ron Paul all of this will stop next year!!!!!!!!
No More Obama.
Holy Shit!
Tyler’s quote!
“It’s great to see that Law Enforcement was used to do this while just 20 miles away 7 people were being killed by a gunman at Oikos University.
Maybe we should rethink our priorities?”
Seen the news on MSNBC, seen this quote then it clicked.
CNN ain’t displaying shit about the shooting like how they did with the recent shooting in Ohio, advertising the Ohio shooting for a week. Why not? Are they being criticized about both happenings “raid and shooting 20 miles apart” and want to keep in on the low?
This is a whole new can of worms that just got opened up.
I am in shock & awe :0.
Maybe if the fucking pigs didn’t have there heads so fucking stuck up their assholes about marijuana, they could have prevented one less person dieing in this shooting.
Pure ignorance of the U.S. govt. omg omg omg Wowwzers.
The sad part about all of this is that the government tells us that we need them and they are here for our safety yet they kill our own people, start wars for pointless reasons, approve deadly drugs while natural and non-lethal herbs are being declared illegal and dangerous. I hate to say this but it’s time for everybody to stop being such complete fucking morons and open there damn eyes. The government is lying to us and laughing about how gullible we can actually be. They tell us that the federal government will not interfere with state medical marijuana laws yet they interfere as much as they can while the public believes they can’t do anything about it. We the people need to realize that we are being used and abused for their own personal benefits. They are the ones who own the drug companies that they approve these deadly drugs for. In 1619 America’s first hemp law was enacted at Jamestown Colony, Virginia, ordering all farmers to grow hemp. From 1763 – 1767 Farmers who do NOT grow hemp could be arrested and jailed in Virginia. Now if a person is caught with any part and amount of the marijuana plant from seed to flower they can be arrested and jailed not just in Virginia but the other 49 states as well. The US government tells us that we are a democracy yet every day our children pledge allegiance to the REPUBLIC for which it stands. Open your eyes and realize what our government is actually doing and start to fight back. The time has come for we as the affected public from the government’s games need to take a stand. We need to make our government work for us the nation’s people, the way a government is supposed to be. World peace can only come once the greed and ego mean nothing to everybody. It is all in our hands now, stop waiting for someone else to make the next move and fight back with me and everybody else who has opened up their eyes and minds. This raid is only one of many more to come. The longer we wait to act upon getting our rights back, the closer we get to the point of no return.
It’s a damn shame more people don’t fully understand the power of the second amendment. To abolish oppressive forms of government. Blast those fascist swine. We don’t need them.
and why do we pretend like we live in a democracy?
it is not.
The Nixon’s cold war against hippies has gotten even hotter!
The Nixon virus (Nixon’s federal marijuana policy) is causing extreme DEA madness in epidemic proportion against the U.S. Constitution. By Nixon’s standards, we (U.S. citizens) are all criminals and therefore, cannot be trusted.
(Using the term “hippies” does sound absurd, but you dealing with a ghost of Nixon’s Revenge.)
Save the United States. Get rid of the DEA!
Richard Lee will no doubt go down in history as one of the greatest cannabis heroes ever. So history will definitely treat Lee very well once society grows up about marijuana; but as for Obama/Holder and their clowns, history will show these people as oppressive tyrants. Right now marijuana consumers are being treated like the African American’s were treated prior to the 1960s-70s, or gay and lesbians were treated just 30 years ago. History will prove that the marijuana patient/consumer is normal and not sick and addicted. Marijuana people are no different than wine, ice cream, vitamin C, toaster or whatever for that matter consumer. History will show the FED violated basic human rights, even when citizens changed the law and tried to legally teach marijuana. What kind of nazi-like group would want to stop education in a so-called free country?
In my small opinion, the FED is gearing up for total war. These people see civil war and world war on the horizon. The marijuana patient/consumer will be an enemy combatant. The FED does not recognize the individual states; they want to Federalize everything uniformly according to the New World Order (or World Government established by elite Western banking interests). It is this NWO that is forcing prohibition ultimately. Probably because like NWO operative Hilliary Clinton said a little while back, “there is too much money in it.” Too much money for black projects, top secret missions and all the other scary things that the FED/NWO is doing with all the drug money they are making in places like Afghanistan, Mexico and elsewhere.
If you want to stop all this FED assault against marijuana, this is what you can peacefully do to stop these madmen:
1. Cancel any television cable or satellite service you many have. Stop supporting the mainstream media. Do not watch their news.
2. Go to places like Drudge and Infowars for news; and to learn about the other abuses, aside from marijuana, that are created by the FED/NWO juggernaut.
3. Become educated in all issues of this global oppression and war against ordinary citizens by the crazy elite. Use this knowledge to reach out to the people who are asleep; and teach the people about the truth. Teach people how they are getting Fucked everywhere: currency devaluation and higher prices for necessities, poisoned GMO foods, tainted vaccines, fluoride in the water supply, NDAA and other tyrannical legislation, environmental disaster cover-ps, Ron Paul “can’t win” PSY OPs, derivative scams and the abuses by banking and Wall Street. This list goes on and on.
YOU as an individual are a powerful force to spread truth throughout the internet on every format. You can wake people up to not only the marijuana prohibition scam, but something that touches everybody’s life.
L.A. Times, Sat. February 4, 2012
Later, Romney told some employees of the supply company that he would be sensitive . I’ll listen he said to a few bundled up workers sitted in an unheated warehouse area, ” I will listen to business people & to working people & to folks across the Country to understand what is going on in their lives “. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFJ_iQJeWY0
….and of course there’s, Ricky ( Tricky Dick ) santorum :
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7ca_1329786811
How many of you even vote?
even on this site we have to wait for moderation…so it looks to be in all areas now…dont you all see it?…we have been under house arrest for a long time and dont even know it…wake up stupid!
All of you who supported/ are supporting Obama ASKED FOR THIS! There was only one candidate talking about ending the federal war on drugs last time around, but you chose to ignore him and bag on him! This time around you are still bagging on him but not as loudly as there are many more of us this time around. But just the same, you are refusing to acknowledge the obvious, OBAMA WILL NEVER END THE WAR ON DRUGS! If you want to end this crap, why not start with helping elect officials who actually want to help you! Vote Ron Paul in your primaries, and vote Ron Paul in November!!! LET US END THE WAR ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE!!!
-Oz
off with there heads
You think it’s bad now..
wait till they start their Food Safety programs and start harasing and fining citizens that are “manufacturing’ vegetables in their backyard gardens
Montsanto wants full monopoly of your food sources and heirloom -organic vegetables are a health threat to national security.haha Bullshit,it’s just pure greed and monopolisation of resources,
the same thing applies to cannabis-isolating thc for medical marketing and exclusive patent ownership TM
Cannabis in it’s natural form contain 80 to 100 cannabinoids and terpines that have unigue- synergestic effects that you could not obtain by isolating one or two compounds like THC or CBD.
The same goes with substituting a vitamin for the real thing..a fresh fruit or vegetable contains a plethora of vitamins-minerals-amino-acids and phytonutrients that benifit your health in more way’s than one.
Cannabis “kills three bird with one stone’. and they cant stand it, because of its multiple uses and applications.If these government intities where not so trapped in their own self-made infrastructures, they could regulate it like wine.
Wine in moderate doses has some health benifits -polyphenolic compounds such as resveratrol for example.but marketing is not structured specificaly for medical or recreational use
if their mafia like mentality- could see the light at the end of the tunnel.
This is pathetic. I can’t believe Obama turned his face on us. He knows this plant is harmless, but I guess big $$$ really does demoralize you.
I don’t smoke herb anymore, so they can’t dog me on health concerns. I don’t see how when I take a half gram of herb and place it between two slices of cheese and that between two slices of bread and toast it for ~30 minutes is so EVIL. So evil that they’d STEAL my home, my life, my freedom, my children and everything else they can STEAL. Just for a little cannabis. A plant. Something those god fearing monger’s god gave them.
Pathetic.
They are simply protecting their lobby money from big pharma. The U.S. has a patent on cannabis that acknowledges it’s medical benefits, US Patent 6630507. Google it, and todays atrocities are exposed. Educate yourself america, they don’t want you to.
this is a horrifying tragedy. it comes as the supreme court has abolished the 4th amendment.
i visited oksterdam last year & met richard lee. he is a truly great campaigner and the school is a national treasure. this attack is pure fascism. what a sham and a shame!! this administration i fighting an inevitable tide and doing tremendous damage along the way.
If you’re sick and tired of this kind of idiocy, make sure to keep yourself eligible to vote. That means not getting yourself in trouble when you do your thing. Don’t keep more than an ounce, don’t get yourself a felony when you go to protests, etc…
While you’re on the computer, why don’t you email your congressman and tell him/her that you don’t appreciate your federal tax money being used to raid places like Oaksterdam.
How can they patent something they did not create?
This might not make sense, ionno.
Can I patent the US govt? Lock it up? Throw away the key? I didn’t create the US govt neither did they create Cannabis.
Ugh, Ima have a mild heart attack with the stress of all this.
I wonder if commenting even helps at all. Does it?
i voted for Obama to make an about face from the Bush bone head years. Ron Paul Is going to get it this time. this country needs a big shake up and get the corporate fascist’s out of the picture. i feel like i got stabbed in the back by Obama. He has blood and greed on his hands now. So pathetic.
My thanks to those who left long, detailed comments instructing me, not only on cannabis reform laws but, on many other subjects that involve Government greed, power, and monopoly. The people who help others such as myself learn about Government corruption are truly leaders of America, and should probably start running for Government office. As for those who used many foul words, and did not care to help others educate themselves on Government scandal, shame on you. Do think that Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King Jr earned respect and created a revolution by saying “Fuck the Government”? No these people and many people like them were respectful and intelligent. Let us all fallow in there footsteps and use our knowledge and intelligence to help American citizens in the fight to legalize a safe and nearly harmless plant. My personal thanks to “Fed-Up”, “Jeedi”, “Jim” and of-coerce “Russ Belville”. You are the true spirit of America!
OBam’s idea of change
@Zuke
There is far more than just THC in natural cannabis. Synthetic THC is available in only a few specific pharmaceutical dosages, and is difficult to titrate to meet (and not exceed) a specific comfort level with pain management. Big Pharma pills may take 30 minutes to take effect, presuming the patient can avoid puking them up before they are absorbed in the stomach lining. Smoking, vaporizing, or using a sublingual spray provides patient-controlled dosage level.
You sound like either a representative of Big Pharma or a member / beneficiary of Federal LE Organizations — clueless, or parroting / spewing standard prohibitionist talking-point prattle.
The citizens of CA should be outraged they have been robbed of thier tax money by the Feds. California should succeed from the union becuase of this unjudtice!
Do not hold the delusion that your advancement is accomplished by crushing others.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
If you live in Connecticut and want to end marijuana prohibition in our state, please take a minute to visit http://www.ctprimaryproject.com.
Please pass this on to anyone you know in Connecticut!
the raid really looked like it was undertaken by the pigs of old. really heavy-handed. i hope it stirs a backlash and blows up in thier faces. they behaved really, really pig-like. the fucking bastards. it was very scary. anyway. legalise today; get high tonight. todays pig is tomorrows bacon……….
What a waste of tax dollars. Obama is allowing these ridicules tax wasting events only so he won’t be called out for being lenient on the debate so he can be reelected. When congress created the scheduled drug act in the early 70’s the Shaffer report, which Nixon asked for and ignored, stated marijuana should not be included in it as it wasn’t a dangerous substance nor significant to hard drug use, but Nixon hated the protestors outside the white house yelling at him all hours of the day and night, since they had a right to do so (then, try that today right outside the white house, can’t do it) so he pushed congress to include it and under schedule 1 making it a crime to possess, manufacture or use, so he could have all those protestors arrested as many smoked it. But of course Nixon’s hate was of the whole youth culture and anyone who disagreed with him, he was a paranoid mean spirited crazy man imo. Marijuana is in schedule one and cocaine is in schedule 2, Marijuana should never have been included in the scheduled drug act nor been lumped in with hard drugs as a problem.
I wish the police would just leave us pot smokers alone!! I don’t think weed is a bad thing, it’s not like cocaine. LEAVE US ALONE!!!!
This is just deplorable…raiding an educational institute, these bastards just won’t let go. It is only a matter of time before enough people wake up and smell the pig shit.
I understand the reason for people who need marijuana due to medical reasons should be able to purchase this drug, no problem with that at all. And I know someone will need to grow it for them. But, the problem is all the other people using/abusing the drug who have no medical reason. Along with that is the Doctor giving people scrips for it that also have no true medical reason for the drug. Each time that happens it turns public opinion away from full legal use for a medical purpose nation wide. Any one who uses marijuana for non medical reasons is a drug abuser just like someone taking oxycotin that is not for true medical reasons. University students smoking pot on 4/20 each year,in protest, is not helping the situation. It just makes it look like a bunch of drug-heads wanting something for pure selfish reasons.