Federal agents confiscated 331 marijuana plants and associated growing equipment in a raid on the Flower Therapy medical marijuana buyers club this past Monday. The early morning raid was the federal government’s first crackdown on such a supplier since California voters resoundingly approved legalizing the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.
Club operator John Hudson said that no records or other property were taken in the raid, which occurred when no one was at the club. According to published reports, dried marijuana that was marked for medicinal purposes only was not seized by federal agents, and the club has already re-opened for business. No charges have been filed against the owners of the club.
“Only ten days since having a federal judge’s temporary restraining order block the government’s ‘war on doctors,’ federal officials are now launching a war on patients who need medical marijuana,” said Dave Fratello of Americans for Medical Rights. “Disrupting the supply of medical marijuana from one of the patient providers with tight, careful intake procedures shows that the DEA is not interested in preventing abuse of Proposition 215; the agency is interested in preventing any access to medical marijuana.
“We have a business license [and] a million dollar insurance policy,” Hudson said. He maintained that the club operates with the full knowledge of local law enforcement and cooperates with health officials. “[We are] trying to run a medical marijuana operation that was beyond reproach. This [is] a very bad case for [the DEA.]”
Since voters approved Proposition 215 last November, an estimated 15 clubs have emerged in California offering marijuana to patients who possess a doctor’s recommendation. In January, a Superior Court judge ruled that cannabis buyers’ clubs were legal under state law as long as they operated as non-profit entities. Flower Therapy co-owner Beth Moore said that the club has approximately 1,000 members.
San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan criticized the raid at a press conference on Tuesday. “It shouldn’t have happened,” he said. “Federal law usually only kicks in at very large levels. [The government’s action] is really befuddling.” Hallinan is a proponent of Proposition 215 and has verbally defended the rights of cannabis buyers’ clubs in the past. He told reporters that he had no advance notice about Monday’s raid and urged prosecutors not to file charges in the case. He called the DEA action “cavalier” and said that federal agents were “wading into a very murky thicket” if they planned to enforce local marijuana laws through federal courts.
California NORML coordinator Dale Gieringer denounced the raid as “federal piracy.” Flower Therapy is an “honest, well-run medical marijuana club,” Gieringer said. “John Hudson made no secret of the fact that he was growing marijuana to help supply patients with good-quality medicine at affordable prices. By shutting down Flower Therapy’s cultivation operation, the federal government is forcing patients to be dependent on the black market’s high prices and less scrupulous foreign smugglers. The administration’s policy is morally and constitutionally bankrupt, and is a direct affront to the people of California who voted for Prop. 215.”
District of Columbia attorney Rufus King, Esq. of the law firm Berliner, Corcoran & Rowe said that the government’s latest action emphasizes the importance of a federal lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C. on March 6 challenging the federal government’s refusal to allow physicians to prescribe marijuana in states that permit them to do so. Plaintiffs in that case — a group of physicians, health organizations, and patients — seek a declaratory judgment that the federal policy prohibiting physicians from prescribing or recommending marijuana in accordance with state law violates the First, Ninth, and Tenth Amendments, and the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution.
For more information, please contact John Hudson of Flower Therapy at (415) 255-6305. For more information on California’s medical marijuana laws, please contact either Dale Gieringer of California NORML at (415) 563-5858 or Dave Fratello of Americans for Medical Rights at (310) 394-2952.