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News & ArtsTuesday, November 15, 2011
Drugs At One Seattle Medical Marijuana Provider, DEA Agents Dressed in Black and Empty Handed Patients
Posted by Eli Sanders on Tue, Nov 15, 2011 at 3:22 PM
- E.S.
- Larry, 43, came up empty handed today while looking to buy medical marijuana for his HIV-related pain at the Seattle Cross.
- E.S.
- The Seattle Cross, closed.
Around 10:30 a.m. this morning, Marc Zemel, an environmental lawyer with the Central District law firm Smith & Lowney, noticed some mysterious unmarked vehicles parked outside his offices, located near Madison and 24th. Then he saw "what looked like DEA agents in black," one with a bullet proof vest on.
Zemel's office shares a wall with the Seattle Cross, a medical marijuana dispensary that's now locked up with a "Closed" sign on the door.
He told me that he heard the DEA agents announce they had a warrant, and then saw them carrying out large desktop computers and big plastic garbage bags full of marijuana. Then, he said, "they drove off in a quasi-caravan, and that was it." (Another observer told me he read the warrant, and that it was very broadly written. This observer also said the DEA agents pulled carefully cultivated marijuana plants, intentionally separated by strain, out of their pots and threw them haphazardly into the garbage bags.)
"They're very respectable, no burden at all," Zemel said of his neighbors.
As we were speaking a man walked up to the Seattle Cross, pulled on the closed door, and then walked away, confused.
I caught up with the man at a nearby bus stop. He gave his name as Larry, and said he's 43 years old and uses medical marijuana for pain associated with his HIV.
"They got raided?" Larry said, astonished, when I told him what I'd heard. "You're kidding!"
Larry took the bus down from Everett to buy pot at the Seattle Cross today—because, he said, there aren't any dispensaries in Everett and the Seattle Cross had "the cheapest prices in town and the best bud."
He used to take Oxycodone and methadone to control his HIV-related pain, and is grateful to now have a medical marijuana card that allows him to easily substitute weed. "Since getting my authorization, I don't take any opiate pain relievers anymore," he told me.
Larry's next move: Find a medical marijuana dispensary nearby that isn't shut down.
2
Heh. Bad news, Larry: The Feds now have your name from the computer equipment they seized, and you can expect a tax audit soon. I'd clean out that bank account pretty damned quick too.
3
Glad to know how much tax money was wasted on this.
Got deficits?
Not the Feds.
Not the State.
Not the County.
Not the City.
Cause they all participated.
Got deficits?
Not the Feds.
Not the State.
Not the County.
Not the City.
Cause they all participated.
8
Holy shit, I can sympathize with Larry. Oxycodone is horrible compared to marijuana. Have to take additional meds to safeguard the liver and kidneys. Horrible moodswings when it wears off. Nausea. Loss of appetite. Fuck that shit.
Who feels safer? Thanks DEA and friends!
Who feels safer? Thanks DEA and friends!
11
@9 That's exactly why I haven't signed up. (That, and being perfectly healthy.) Seems like the kind of list you don't want to make.
Are we in for a GreenScare, with McConnell braying about a list of DHHS workers who are secret members of NORML?
Are we in for a GreenScare, with McConnell braying about a list of DHHS workers who are secret members of NORML?
12
5280 is right. Anyone who is a dispensary patient should move NOW to protect their assets. The trouble won't happen to everyone who is a patient, but there'll be enough, and you don't want to get slammed by that shit.
13
To the laaaaaaaaaaaaaaand of the freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
And the hooooooooooooooome oooooooof the braaaaaaaaaaaaaave.
(Just mocking words really)
And the hooooooooooooooome oooooooof the braaaaaaaaaaaaaave.
(Just mocking words really)
14
A quick search reveals nothing about dispensary patients being audited, only the dispensary operators, which, as shitty as it may be, actually makes some logical sense. But if 5280 and treacle can provide some actual citations, I will happily stand corrected.
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