Vigilante DEA Thwarts Obama & Holder: Have They Really Become a Rogue Agency?

(SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.) - It's a simple fact that governments don't always have control of their military agencies. This seems to be the case with the federal Drug Enforcement Agency in the United States.

The agency, in spite of strong and direct words from both the President and the Attorney General, Eric Holder, is literally ignoring and dismissing a directive to back off from its incessant drive to bust legal medical marijuana dispensaries.

Holder told reporters just days ago, on March 18th 2009, that the DEA would only raid medical marijuana providers if it found violations of both state and federal laws.

But it appears that this agency, the DEA, is nothing more than a bunch of armed criminals operating as rogue vigilantes.

We have received unconfirmed reports that the leaders of the pharmaceutical industry, with cash bursting through its bank accounts, are actually paying off the DEA to conduct this unauthorized activity.

And if this agency that is literally and seriously out of control is telling the President and the public that they aren't part of the system, then it is time to dismantle the DEA and put the money into real police agencies that take care of fighting crime in this country.

Bruce Mirken with the Marijuana Policy Project says Wednesday's Drug Enforcement Administration raid on Emmalyn's California Cannabis Clinic, a licensed medical marijuana collective in San Francisco, has raised serious questions among medical marijuana supporters about implementation of the new policy announced by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder last week.

According to the San Francisco Department of Public Health, Emmalyn's had obtained a temporary city permit and was actively working with the city to meet all the requirements for a permanent license.

"It is disturbing that, despite the DEA's vague claims about violations of state and federal laws, they apparently made no effort to contact the local authorities who monitor and license medical marijuana providers," said Marijuana Policy Project California policy director Aaron Smith.

"For an agency that for eight years said it couldn't care less about state law to suddenly justify raids as an effort to uphold state law simply doesn't pass the smell test."

"Because so little information has been released thus far, we have more questions than answers," added Aaron Houston, MPP director of government relations.

"But with an actual shooting war along our Mexican border, not to mention federal law enforcement there being so overwhelmed that traffickers coming through the border with up to 500 pounds of marijuana are let go, it's very hard to believe that this is the best use of DEA resources, especially in a city with an active program to license and regulate medical marijuana providers."

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Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor.
Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 in Afghanistan with Oregon troops. Tim recently returned from Iraq where he covered the war there while embedded with an Oregon Guard aviation unit. Serving the community in very real terms, Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website, affiliated with Google News and several other major search engines and news aggregators.
You can send Tim an email at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com

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j davis March 17, 2010 8:00 am (Pacific time)

The DEA has morphed into a power mad rogue agency and it is time for congress to disband this group of sociopaths and outright criminals. One ex agent said the DEA had become a repository for right wing nuts. Perfect description. By closing these dispensaries they are violating the will of a majority of voters.

Jason April 24, 2009 10:25 pm (Pacific time)

Actually, most people in the media are misinterpreting Eric Holder's announcement. Holder said that the new administration would not bust dispensaries that are operating lawfully under California Medical Marijuana law. Almost every dispensary in California is NOT operating lawfully under California law. Criminal defense attorney Bruce Margolin who literally wrote the book on California Medical marijuana law wrote in his book that dispensaries are not operating lawfully under the current California medical marijuana laws. Under statute and current case law, the only places operating lawfully in California are Co-ops and collectives. Even though certain cities and counties give operating permits and licenses to dispensaries, they are not operating legally.

Daniel Johnson March 27, 2009 3:53 pm (Pacific time)

Is the Gary Oldman movie "The Professional" closer to truth than fiction?

Henry Ruark March 27, 2009 9:03 am (Pacific time)

To all: It will develop soon that the DEA dissidents defying Holder, President O. are a carryover from Bush injection of politically-selected workers, rotting away still undetected in most agencies. They are encouraged by Bush "signing statement" practice disemboweling laws passed by Congress. Re S. naivety still further demonstrated here, yu gotta do something about gut-feeling guiding what should be real cogitation. May I suggest simple anti-acid tablets ?Inexpensive and worth trying just to see effect on your affects. Much easier than effort to read all those solid documentations about realities available in print and on tv, latter guided also by cogitation. See upcoming Op Ed for more detail on WHY and PROCESS.

James March 26, 2009 7:12 pm (Pacific time)

Maybe, just maybe, this dispensary was violating both State and Federal law by some action that they were performing. We won't know until all the information is available.

stephen March 26, 2009 6:47 pm (Pacific time)

Tim: One has to wonder. With the federal reserve bank saying to congress/senate "we dont have to tell you where the money is going", and now this article? One of two things. Either the administration is not telling the truth, or the administration is powerless against both the federal reserve bank, and now the DEA. Something to think about. Things are getting very strange out there. Maybe we are not in Kansas anymore Toto. My gut tells me that obama and holder were not telling the truth, just as my gut tells me that they are not telling the truth about the economy. I have learned, that TIME is the truthteller. We shall see. thanks for the article.

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