Global Ganja Report

Coordinated protests were held July 21 by medical marijuana patient advocates in both Saginaw, Mich., and San Diego, Calif., against the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) over several raids it conducted earlier this month. The raids came despite a Justice Department policy issued last October discouraging such actions.

The Michigan Medical Marijuana Association organized the Saginaw protest march and Americans for Safe Access organized a rally at the federal courthouse in San Diego.

On July 6, the DEA raided John Roberts and Stephanie Whisman, two licensed medical marijuana caregivers from Thomas Township, MI. Then, the next day, on July 7, the DEA raided the Covelo, Calif. home of Joy Greenfield, the first collective to apply for the Mendocino County Sheriff's cultivation permit program. Greenfield even had county-issued "zip-ties" on her plants designating their legality under state and local law. Then, on July 9, the DEA conducted multiple raids on medical marijuana dispensaries in the San Diego area, arresting 12 people. Among other items seized in the raids, the DEA took money, medical marijuana and cultivation equipment, as well as financial and private patient records.

"Patients are fed up with platitudes and half promises from the Obama Administration," said Eugene Davidovich of the San Diego chapter of Americans for Safe Access. "We're here at the federal courthouse to vocally oppose continued attempts to subvert state law, and to push for a federal policy that actually protects patients in this country."

John Roberts, who was well below the legal limit as a caregiver in Michigan, produced oil-based medical marijuana that was used by seriously ill patients, including a 6-year-old girl with brain cancer.

The most recent federal raids and subsequent protests come as acting DEA administrator Michele Leonhart is preparing to be confirmed by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Leonhart is a Bush administration appointee who was deputy administrator under then-DEA chief Karen Tandy. Both were responsible for more than 200 raids in California and other medical marijuana states during the Bush Presidency. In her capacity as acting administrator, Leonhart also moved to block medical marijuana research in January of this year by refusing to grant an application that would have expanded therapeutic studies in the US. (Americans for Safe Access, July 21)