DEA RAIDS MEDICAL MARIJUANA CENTERS

Federal agents in California and Washington state have raided several
medical marijuana distribution centers, seizing thousands of pounds
of the drug, marijuana-laced edibles, weapons and cash. There were no arrests.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Agent in Charge
Ralph W. Partridge, who heads the agency's Los Angeles field office,
said his agents served 11 federal search warrants yesterday at
marijuana distribution centers located throughout Los Angeles County,
including five locations in West Hollywood, four in the San Fernando
Valley, as well as locations in Hollywood and Venice.

"Today's enforcement operations show that these establishments are
nothing more than drug-trafficking organizations bringing criminal
activities to our neighborhoods and drugs near our children and
schools," Mr. Partridge said.

He described the investigation as ongoing, adding that "leads are
being actively pursued and developed."

In California, according to the DEA, there is no state regulation or
standard of the cultivation or distribution of medical marijuana. The
state leaves the establishment of any guidelines to local
jurisdictions, which can vary widely.

The DEA and its local and state counterparts routinely have said that
large-scale drug traffickers hide behind and invoke California's
Proposition 215, even when there is no evidence of any medical claim.
Prop. 215 created an exemption from criminal penalties for medical
use of marijuana. But it does not legalize marijuana; it only changes
how medical patients and their "primary caregivers" will be treated
by the state's court system.

The DEA said high-level traffickers often pose as caregivers and are
able to sell illegal drugs with impunity.

Drug-enforcement agents also raided the Everett, Wash., headquarters
of an advocacy group for medical marijuana patients, confiscating
what police documents said were more than 1,000 marijuana plants and
computers whose owners said contain personal information on 200
people authorized to use the drug for medicinal purposes.

Detective Roy Alloway, assigned to the federally funded West Sound
Narcotics Enforcement Team, discounted assertions by spokesmen for
the group that the center was designed as a source for medicinal
marijuana only. He told the Associated Press the site was a
drug-dealing enterprise, adding that it was "absurd" to think that
the number of plants there would be covered by a medicinal marijuana
medical authorization.

Washington law allows possession of marijuana in doctor-approved
cases but makes no provision for obtaining it.