Comments

1
I wonder if the anti-legalizers are still going to dunderheadedly vote down any initiatives. Y'know, because they might encourage the Feds to raid dispensaries!
2
They're happening here in Denver too. The word I'm getting is that it's tied to Mexican drug cartels, but I can't verify that.
3
FUUUUUUUUUUCK if its Obama FUCK THAT SHIT STOP THE RAIDS PREZ YOU ASSFUCK
4
@3: Givaways to the law enforcement unions and prison-industrials, I assume.
5
@1: Not following you - neither I-502 nor any other conceivable state initiative would protect anyone from a federal raid.
6
if i believed in our ability to vote for change, i would say these are the death throes of the government on pot prohibition, but considering our political landscape, i am afraid this is the beginning of an extended, targeted crackdown on people who smoke pot.
7
I have nothing against the Feds doing this.

By themselves.

With no State,County,or Municipal help at all.
8
How can this attack on state sovereignty be allowed?
9
Because that's how federal law works?
10
@3, @4: The California raids were initiated by DAs. Obama was informed and did not step in the way. This looks like more of the same.

Pot legalization seems to have nothing going on at the federal level. Obviously, that needs to change.
11
also, soooo depressing...
12
@8: What state sovereignty? What planet are you living on? Not this one.
13
@10 I dont think I've ever heard of a federal strategy for legalization, except that somehow state decrim / legalization is supposed to somehow confront federal policies.
14
I'm frankly surprised they never tried this sooner. The DEA has technically always had the authority to enforce standing Federal law and raid the dispensaries. Why did they leave them untouched for so long?
15
Federal policies like 4.5 hour nationwide media blackouts when Citizens try to use their First Amendment rights?

You mean like that?

Enjoy living in America - the Syria of the First World.
16
@5: "neither I-502 nor any other conceivable state initiative would protect anyone from a federal raid."

I know, I just recall that some of the kneejerk response was that we were "safer" and that raids would be more likely if any initiative passed.
17
@8: "How can this attack on state sovereignty be allowed?"

Let me guess, Ron Paul fan?
18
I'm so happy our nation has solved all its substantive problems so that we can waste taxpayer dollars on harassing people with cancer and glaucoma.
19
If Seattle Police are assisting in these raids, please report on that. If they are, they are in violation of Seattle law. Jay walking is a higher crime, don't forget!
20
@17 More likely sarcasm?
21
@14 They do it every now and again. Feds already hit MMJ providers in eastern Washington earlier this year.
22
Interesting that all this is going down less than 24 hours after LEO's have been wading into OWS encampments all over the country clearing those "dirty, filthy, pot-smoking hippies" out of the way just in time for the holiday shopping season.

Coincidence?
23
Nope, not a Paul fan in the slightest. And I recognize that "states rights" is typically a veneer for hard-core racism and religious bigotry. However, the Ninth and Tenth Amendments have never been officially repealed, and it took a constitutional amendment to ban alcohol exactly because it imposed federal regulations on the internal policies of the sovereign states. I have never understood how the Interstate Commerce clause be used to impose absolute federal authority over matters that are entirely internal to a state.
24
@22: I didn't even think about that, hrm. Anti-capitalist sentiment through the holidays might affect the prioritization of family and friends over the mad shopping rush.
25
Way to focus on the real crimes.

Oh wait....
26
Marijuana advocates need to learn a lesson from the LGBT community. This action today should result in an equally loud public reaction. Then, advocates need to organize more strongly at the local, state and federal levels. You need someone on the inside like we do, so that when things go poorly we know we have someone to talk to. Clearly right now you have no one in the White House on your side talking to the President. That needs to change.
27
Time to defund the SPD and KC Sheriff if they helped.
28
@22 media cover, more likely.
29
@23: Well, I've never understood it either, so you're not the only one. But as a practical matter, you might as well forget about those silly little inconvenient amendments. Everybody else has.
30
According to The Olympian, five dispensaries in Thurston County also had their inventory stolen by federal thugs: http://www.theolympian.com/2011/11/15/18…
31
@5
And yet, in a previous thread, you attacked 502 by defending the status quo. What gives?
32
Hear hear, @18.
33
Who needs marihuana when there's always the safer option of booze and cigarettes?

Besides, it's not like the citizens of Washington State approved the medical use of Cannabis way back in 1998 or anything.

Three cheers for fascist, tax-dollar wasting, prohibitionist policies devoid of all common sense!
34
@26 The annoying part is that when you stand up for LGBT rights, you're not violating any laws or even acting suspicious. When you stand up for marijuana legalization, you're making yourself a target of law enforcement. You're almost saying, "I do drugs!" It's stupid and unfair, but it's true.
35
Has anyone brought up the prison population in the US, vice rest of the world?
Look how many prison jobs would go away if we didn't resupply prisons with dastardly cannabis medical consumers.
Yes, some prison guards & leos COULD possibly find work other than the herding & incarceration of their human bros & sisters.

http://www.nolanchart.com/article3237-no…

Our current policies are long overdue for change
36
@34 - Standing up for LGBT rights in the bad old days - which weren't actually that long ago - used to mean breaking the law, too. It used to be illegal to cohabitate and have sexual relations with a person of the same gender (or even a person to whom you were not married). They used to raid gay bars the way they're raiding pot dispensaries now (although that was pretty much always the local yokels, not the feds). Medical marijuana rights needs a Stonewall.
37
@26 - Protest at the Federal Building, tomorrow at 11am. You'll be there, ya?

http://cdc.coop/dea_raids_western_washin…
38
What the fuck! The president lied and the government acted against its people, and people were surprised, offended and some arrested.
Thank you for being
Front Runners in the movement. May your people support you and continue the effort! Go to jail with pride and honor. Do your time and make these laws structured and defined! Do not break weak continue to fight!
39
Better to legalize it and have our economy profit from it than the illegal drug trade. Behind the illegal trade is corruption and murder.
40
some asshole slinging the right lingo appears hip to THE community... ships outdoor cali mafia bud up here complete with its pesticides and pimps it to patients... he buys it at $900 a pound and sells it to patients for $4500 a pound.... local growers struggle to find folks who will pay for quality... and the clueless defend the Asshole as some medical marijuana activist... those in the community WITH THEIR EYES OPEN on not bummed out.
Or does THE community really think we dont produce enough good medicine?
41
21. Yeah, but their raids have always been of regional sites well outside of Seattle. We never see the DEA take significant action inside city limits, even though the presence of pot in Seattle is so far beyond obvious that this actual rag has a fold-out section devoted solely to places where you can buy pot. Why has the DEA stayed away when they always had the knowledge and jurisdiction to come in and take places down? That to me is curious. Not that I support their action, but that they let an open target sit idle for that long is rather surprising.
42
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/mar/19/…

President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have maintained that the current administration will not raid medical marijuana dispensaries that cooperate with state and local laws, although the President is not in favor of full legalization on a national level.

Does this mean there should have been no more raids after 2009? Only if you want to take a fundamentalist approach in your reasoning skills.

Is Obama in full control of the actions of the DEA? Nope, but he should still be responsible for those actions.

So, then what actions occurred? Were legal dispensaries who were in compliance with state and federal law raided by the DEA?

nope.

But you know what? Vote republican. That's sure to stop the DEA raids.

Please wait...

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