Nearly 5,000 patient and legal records seized by federal drug agents in an early-October raid on the offices of the California Medical Research Center (CMRC) in El Dorado County will remain in police hands, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. US Magistrate Gregory G. Hollows rejected a motion filed by J. David Nick, an attorney for the defendants – club proprietors Dr. Marion Fry and her husband, attorney Dale Schafer – arguing that the files were protected by attorney/client privilege and should be returned.
“[Schafer] affirmatively told his purported clients from the inception of their meeting that he was not their attorney,” Judge Hollows concluded. Hollows did stipulate that the individual patients’ medical records must remained sealed, but that government officials could access other files for the purpose of establishing evidence that a crime has been committed.
This month’s raid of the CMRC marked the first time federal agents have targeted a state medical marijuana facility since voters legalized the possession and cultivation of the drug in 1996, and came only weeks after newly-appointed DEA Director Asa Hutchinson announced that no use of medical marijuana would be tolerated by federal officials.
“By all indications, this bust appears to be the first wave of an impending federal crackdown on medical marijuana support groups,” said NORML Executive Director Keith Stroup.
For more information, please contact either Keith Stroup of NORML at (202) 483-5500 or California NORML Coordinator Dale Gieringer at (415) 563-5858.
