DAZED AND CONFUSED!

Recent Federal DEA Raids Rattle Licensed Medical Marijuana Growers

CENTRAL POINT - Dawn Repman feels like she's caught in the middle of a
fight between the Drug Enforcement Administration and local medical
marijuana growers.

Repman, 43, has smoked medical marijuana for the past year to treat
chronic nausea caused by a kidney ailment. Up until Tuesday, she
tended six plants on a plot given to her by the operators of Brian's
Green Thumb Farm on East Gregory Road.

Those plants were among more than 400 that were jerked out of the
ground by DEA agents during a morning raid. So far, no one at the
garden has been charged with a crime, and neither the U.S. Attorney's
Office nor the DEA will comment on the raids agents have performed on
two large cooperative marijuana farms in the Rogue Valley over the
past two weeks.

The East Gregory Road raid was preceded by a DEA-led operation Sept.
27 on Old Stage Road in Gold Hill. In that raid, close to 400 plants
were eradicated while the providers who worked the land were
temporarily detained by law enforcement.

No one has been formally charged with a crime in either
case.

Repman is concerned about the raids, but her first order of business
is procuring medical marijuana to treat her illness.

"The way I see it, the DEA took my medicine," she said. "I feel these
raids are going to push patients on medical marijuana back onto pain
medications that can be abused and are addictive."

Repman said doctors in the past have recommended she take opiates such
as Valium, Demerol and Dilaudid for her medical issues. However, she
is a former drug addict who abused opiates and methamphetamine, she
said. She believes taking opiates could set her down the path of
addiction once again.

"I have been clean seven years now," she said. "I take medical
marijuana, and it helps me stay clean of pain medications. I now have
a job and contribute to the economy."

The U.S. Attorney's Office believes that growers have taken advantage
of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program to produce large quantities of
marijuana.

This pot is then shipped to the Midwest and the East Coast, where it
is sold for a large profit.

Tony Machado, 28, is a grower at Brian's Green Thumb farm who claims
that the operation was legitimate and that no marijuana was funneled
into the black market.

The site featured more than 22 providers who grew for around 80
patients, making it one of the larger cooperative marijuana gardens in
Southern Oregon.

Machado said many of the providers that worked the farm grew under the
legal six-plant limit per patient to keep federal heat off the operation.

"A lot of us felt it was not even necessary to grow as much as we are
allowed by state law," Machado said. "The people who grew here and the
patients were only interested in using this as medicine."

The field that Machado and his fellow providers worked seven days a
week lies barren following the raid. Machado said some of his patients
are at a loss as to what to do now.

"Basically, they have to hope other patients will donate medicine to
them free of charge," Machado said. "It's too late to grow medicine
for them now. The season is nearly over. We were getting close to harvest."

Machado and his crew still tend to the vegetables and hops plants that
grow on the farm. Among his other concerns are replacing the tent he
claims DEA shredded the morning of the raid.

"They cut into my tent looking for something," he said. "For some
reason they took half my clothes. I don't know why they only took
half, but they did."

Machado said the raid will not deter him from growing medical
marijuana in the future.

"I'm going to grow again as soon as possible," he said. "I don't know
if it will be indoors, in a greenhouse, but I'm going to grow medicine
soon."