CALIFORNIA: U.S. RAID SETS OFF PROTESTS

Federal agents raided three medical marijuana clubs, in San Francisco,
Oakland and Petaluma, arresting four people and adding fuel to a dispute
between local and federal officials. The administrator of the Drug
Enforcement Administration, Asa Hutchinson, met a hostile audience later in
the day at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco as he explained the Bush
Administration's stepped up drug war. The San Francisco district attorney,
Terence Hallinan, said that city officials had not been informed of the
raid and that it and Mr. Hutchinson's simultaneous visit were the latest
insults in an ongoing battle between local and federal officials. "The
city's chief law officials do not agree with the federal government's
actions," Mr. Hallinan said. Mr. Hutchinson said the raid was apolitical
and reflected the drug agency's responsibility to uphold federal law.

(NYT)