STATE'S U.S. ATTORNEY DEFENDS MEDICAL MARIJUANA RAIDS

HELENA -- State and federal authorities executed 26 criminal search
warrants and four civil seizure warrants in 13 Montana cities this
week, culminating an 18-month multi-agency investigation into illegal
drug trafficking activities surrounding the state's medical marijuana
industry.

Michael W. Cotter, U.S. Attorney for the District of Montana, issued a
three-page press release Tuesday stating that authorities believe the
medical marijuana businesses involved in Monday's raids violated the
federal Controlled Substances Act.

According to the press release, authorities seized up to $4 million in
funds at financial institutions in Bozeman, Helena, and Kalispell.

"Twenty-six search warrants were carried out yesterday where there is
probable cause that the premises were involved in illegal and
large-scale trafficking of marijuana," Cotter said in a written
statement. "When criminal networks violate federal laws, those
involved will be prosecuted."

News of the raids stunned the state's booming medical marijuana
community Monday as thousands of marijuana plants, computers, cell
phones, patient lists and other related items were whisked away by
federal agents in an unprecedented statewide crackdown.

According to the release, no federal criminal charges or indictments
have been filed against any of the individuals named in the search
warrants.

The press release did not say if any arrests were made in connection
with allegations of drug trafficking.

Montana legalized the use of medical marijuana by certain patients in
2004; however, the federal government still considers the drug an
illegal Schedule 1 controlled substance, with "a high potential for
abuse" and with "no currently accepted medical use."

Montana's medical marijuana industry boomed after U.S. Deputy Attorney
General David Ogden issued an October 2009 memo advising U.S.
attorneys in states with medical marijuana laws to not focus federal
resources "on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous
compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of
marijuana."

In a March 2009 interview with USA Today reporters, Holder said the
Obama administration's focus would be "on people, organizations, that
are growing, cultivating substantial amounts of marijuana, and doing
so in a way that's inconsistent with federal law and state law."

Many medical marijuana patients and caregivers interpreted the memo
and Holder's statements to mean the Obama administration would not
prosecute medical marijuana businesses or patients that complied with
the state law.

Since then, the number of registered marijuana patients in Montana has
skyrocketed from 3,921 in September 2009 to 28,739 in February 2011.
During that same period, the number of Montana caregivers authorized
to grow marijuana for patients jumped from 1,403 to 4,833.

The then-newly appointed Cotter, declined in a January 2010 interview
with the Tribune to comment about Holder's apparent change in policy
regarding medical marijuana, other than to say: "I know what
(Holder's) feelings are."

Tuesday's new release states: "Because of the danger posed by Schedule
1 substances, the Department of Justice continues to focus its
enforcement and investigative efforts in targeting large-scale drug
organizations that cultivate, manufacture, distribute or sell marijuana."

Medical marijuana advocate Tom Daubert, the author of the 2004
voter-approved Montana Medical Marijuana Act, said the recent raids
had a "extraordinary chilling effect" on the state's medical marijuana
community.

"They list serious federal offenses, which would be alleged of someone
who was 100 percent legal under state and local law," Daubert said.
"That's the irony. It's part of the disconnect between compassionate
state laws in the face of prolonged, resistant federal prohibition.
You can be completely legally locally, abiding by and honoring fully
the compassionate law, and yet still, in the eyes of the federal
government, be a hideously criminal 'dangerous drug
trafficker.'"

Some of the businesses raided Monday previously invited state and
local law enforcement officials into their growing operations to
demonstrate compliance with the state law.

Over the past two legislative sessions, Daubert worked closely with
law enforcement officials to try to improve the state's medical
marijuana law. Until November Daubert was a partner in one of the
facilities that was raided Monday. Daubert gave law enforcement
officials and press tours of Montana Cannabis' greenhouse on multiple
occasions during that time.

"I certainly hate thinking that my relationships with top law
enforcement leaders in Montana -- some of whom I really have respected
and enjoyed working with and getting to know -- I hate the notion that
they were acting deceitfully throughout what I thought were my
friendships with them," Daubert said.

Cotter's news release reiterates a point that was made clear in the
2009 memo, that "individuals with illnesses who are in clear and
unambiguous compliance with state law are not the focus of the
investigation."

Daubert said the timing of the raids -- as lawmakers at the state
Capitol consider several bills aimed at restricting or repealing the
state law -- is troubling.

"I think we've gone from a place where a lot of folks in Montana were
concerned about 'Obamacare,' and now in Montana there's a great
similar number of folks who are terrified by what we're thinking of as
'Obamascare,'" Daubert said.