STRONG-ARM CHICO

Dispensary Raids Give City a Black Eye

Judging by the sheer number of cops-more than 100-deployed last week
to raid eight medical-marijuana dispensaries and 11 residences in the
Chico area, you'd have thought the dispensaries were selling meth
rather than a legal medicine.

That's a lot of firepower for what was essentially a fishing
expedition. From what we can tell, the authorities had little to go
on, but that didn't stop them from seizing computers and confidential
patient records, money, cell phones and marijuana and freezing
people's bank accounts. It's especially disturbing that authorities
raided private homes, scaring their occupants and ripping up plants
from legal growing plots. In one case the officers even raided the
home of a family that has no connection to an operational dispensary.
(See Meredith J. Cooper's report above.)

The raids were clearly designed to intimidate dispensary operators-at
considerable cost to taxpayers for all that overtime.

We're not naive. We know that not everyone who obtains a doctor's
recommendation for medical marijuana is using the herb for that
purpose. But that's OK. For more than 40 years millions of Americans
have been smoking pot. Now, with a recommendation, they can obtain it
at dispensaries, which is much safer than buying it on the black market.

That's why the city of Chico is working to come up with a plan for
allowing dispensaries. Council members seem to understand that
legitimate medi-pot users need a way to purchase their medicine, and
also that dispensaries are a better vehicle for marketing the product.

The authorities who launched this raid are on the wrong side of
history. They're trying to perpetuate a failed drug war even as the
people of California are deciding that it's far better to provide
marijuana in a controlled, legal manner than to send people to prison
for selling it.

In the process, the cops have given Chico a black eye up and down the
state. Now it's known as a city that uses strong-arm tactics to
resolve what amounts to a public-policy issue.