TRANSCRIPT: SCOTT IMLER'S VISIT TO THE DRUGSENSE CHAT ROOM

Dean Becker: Glad you could make it Scott, what can you tell us that has
happened in the last few days about the LACRC?

Scott Imler: Not much in the last couple a days. Mostly just patients
trying to find new sources. It's very sad

Ben Masel: Scott: were there signs of surveillance before the raid?

Scott Imler: We didn't notice any. The warrant said they were around on
four separate days. but we didn't see them.

Resinball: Scott I emailed a column about the raid to my mom. She doesn't
smoke -- and she said that was one of the sadist articles she read in a
long time...

Scott Imler: Resinball -- Yes it is sad. After four and a half years of
accepted medical use--now back to the streets.

Lindy: Scott: I'm a Canadian Exemption holder, we are having the same
problems in Canada. Cops are busting medicinal grow shows and locking up
sick people. Source is the problem here, too.

Scott Imler: Lindy, we worked for five years to become self sufficient and
grow enough for our own group. Every time we got close, we would lose a
chunk of the crop to the police driving us right back on to the black
market. It's seems so self defeating from their point of view.

Ben Masel: Do the affidavits mention HOW they surveilled?

Scott Imler: Ben- They basically stood outside and counted people coming in
with nothing in their hands and walking out with small paper bags in their
hands.

Judy Osburn: The affidavit supporting the 9/28 raid on our LACRC Ventura
off-site garden described the Sheriff raid last year and 3 flyovers of the
garden

Judy Osburn: That was the affidavit signed 1 hr after the GAO left LACRC

LJ: What does the attorney's say about the warrant?

Scott Imler: He says it's strange that it was signed by a visiting judge
from Florida.

LJ: Isn't a judge supposed to have some knowledge of the person requesting
the warrant - so there's a trust there?

Scott Imler: LJ--There are many vacancies because the Repubs wouldn't
approve any of Clinton's appointees. the result is a bunch of visiting
retirees. this one a Nixon appointee.

Judy Osburn: Some of the DEA agents at our place and most of their sheriff
escort appeared to also believe we were legal while they were here

Scott Imler: In West Hollywood the Sheriff's refused to escort the
DEA. They had to come by themselves. They didn't seem to mind though.

Judy Osburn: I don't know why the DEA raided the 2 LACRC gardens, but I
believed one agent when he told us that they argued with their prosecutor
re: raiding us

Ben Masel: So long as they are afraid to face juries, new clubs can surface
every time they take one down. But keep records offsite.

Scott Imler: Ben-I have to disagree about the records. They are an
organization's proof that the operation was medical.

Lindy: Scott: You may have answered this earlier, but how many people have
been charged?

Scott Imler: No one has been charged at this time. It usually takes a
while. Our understanding is that they are currently reviewing our records,
bank statements, tax returns, etc.

1Trippin981819254: Scott...were you doing research? Do you still have it if
you were?

Scott Imler: UCLA did a two year research project with about 150 AIDS
patients in 98 and 99. We kept all our disbursement records and know how
much and what kinds of marX folks used. But the DEA has it all.

Judy Osburn: Our cost of production for which we were reimbursed was lower
than any in the state, and that is what we paid taxes on.

Ben Masel: Judy: If price reflected only expenses, would it be deductible?

Judy Osburn: Of course our actual taxable income was far lower than the
1099 form we filed. Deductions are up to my MacInTax program

Scott Imler: I find it interesting that "cannabis clubs" are called
profiteers. Why is it alright for us to buy our marijuana at black market
prices from the "movement" people, but somehow wrong if we pool our
resources to provide for ourselves? Our programs financing depended on
sharing the costs among all members AS ABLE and the harvests AS NEEDED. No
one was ever denied access because they didn't have money.

Scott Imler: Our overall program costs per gram ran right around $11.80 per
gram or $35.40 per eighth -- Excluding our mortgage. I don't consider that
exploitive--just the cost of doing business for 960 people trying to
produce their own and take care of everyone.

Scott Imler: It is a difficult pill to swallow to be attacked by our own
government at a time like this. I think the raid was a terrible
miscalculation and will backfire.

LJ: I agree, I believe between you guys down south and Mollie up here they
have gone one toke over the line my friend.

Dean Becker: I agree Scott, the throes of a dying animal, dying DEA

Scott Imler: I think there is plenty of reason to be concerned about
further erosion of fundamental rights in the name of national security.

LJ: do the majority of the clubs provide for those who cannot afford to buy?

Scott Imler: I don't know. It was part of our agreement with the community
and the Sheriff that no one would be turned away who met the other
requirements. Roughly 25-30% didn't pay anything and were essentially
subsidized by the others. Every participant knew the score ahead of time
and that all contributions were voluntary.

LJ: wish there were more of those kind of sheriffs!

Judy Osburn: LACRC is strong because the more able-bodied or financially
capable provide for those who are least able to provide their own medicine

Judy Osburn: I have always felt that our organization is among the most
capable of prevailing. But the federal government's ability to prevent
information from reaching a jury is rather terrifying.

Scott Imler: BS--The negativity is generated by those with agendas broader
than medical marijuana who resent the narrow focus that we have
pursued. I'm sorry for that, but it's not my doing.

Judy Osburn: After talking to Ann McCormick I am convinced the feds
initiated the terrible rumors in order to divide and conquer

Kevin Zeese: As someone not involved in the dispute between Scott and
others, I would say it was because some people did not want to take
responsibility/blame for their on actions and were looking for someone to
blame.

Scott Imler: The LACRC has lost many members over the last five years, each
like a member of our family. the world if full of pain and death. It's
also full of light and hope. We've tried to focus on the latter while
struggling with the grim realities of our collective fate. All we have in
the end of any endeavor is what we have given to one another. At the
LACRC, whatever the outcome, we still have each other.

Scott Imler: COMPASSION. I guess I've come to the conclusion that you
can't teach it or mandate it or even vote it in. You can only model it and
hope that other come to know it in their own hearts.

allan: Scott- that mode of behavior is known as a Bodhisattva to the Buddhists

Scott Imler: I think it's central to most major religions.

Scott Imler: Non-LA Reformers should 1)support Frank's rescheduling bill
and call your congressman. Keep up the pressure. Write LTE's every time
an article appears in a paper.

be: yes, at this time Scott , might I recommend calling senators. They are
not opening much mail.

Scott Imler: Good suggestions. E-mails --faxes, phone calls work best
these days.

BigBong: what is LACRC?

omega: Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center

BigBong: what is it's URL?

Craig: BB LACBC.ORG

Scott Imler: We try to keep abreast of the latest info and disseminate it
through a quarterly newsletter to our patients and their 450 or so doctors.

Scott Imler: This is a new ball game. No cannabis center has ever been
raided by the feds. These would be federal criminal charges and they have
the Oakland decision in their pocket.

Craig: Scott, What's your next move ? Is this not the perfect time to fight
back? We need to file some big lawsuits and have us some medical marijuana
riots?

Scott Imler: We are considering a number of legal options including filing
suit ourselves. But we are not in this alone. Our approach has to be
worked out in cooperation with public officials and law
enforcement. That's the die we cast five years ago and is the road we must
follow.

omega: so is it felony drug dealing charges you are up against Scott?

Scott Imler: manufacturing, maintaining a drug house, and money laundering.

Scott Imler: There are decisions and there is the "spin" around
decisions. Whatever the reality, reformers lost the spin battle on the
Oakland decision. If you have any doubts ask the folks in the 45 non urban
counties in California where local police are enforcing federal law.

Scott Imler: They were gathering evidence for those charges. We were
manufacturing, we were maintaining a place for manufacturing and I'm not
sure what money laundering means. Probably spending money.

Judy Osburn: I don't think the spending of money can be called laundering
but putting it in the bank may be

Dean Becker: It's called doing the books, depositing the receipts, running
a business, not money laundering

omega: why is synthetic THC a schedule III drug and cannabis a schedule I
drug, simple. VERY SIMPLE

Scott Imler: Greed

omega: cannabis has many commercial uses, and medical uses that blow away
any other medicines

JayB: Scott, would your describe your records as fastidious, possibly to
the point of persnickety. Toe dat line?

Scott Imler: Yes. I probably would. We put a huge amount of effort at the
front door. We knew going in that we couldn't be everything to
everybody. We only could do what we could do. Most of our members were
the sickest of the sick.

BigBong: Scott have you ever thought of pleading "totally guilty for
political reasons?"

BigBong: throw your self on the mercy of the court and make the judge make
a Pontius Pilate type decision

Scott Imler: Yes. I have considered the possibility of pleading guilty,
but for different reasons.

omega: we are all behind you Scott, imagine that.

Trippin: Scott...take it to the jury..

Scott Imler: If I can take it to a jury without putting the nine AIDS
patients that work here at greater risk, I will do just that.

Scott Imler: Support has been overwhelming and heartening. Our community
knows we tried our best. With that we can survive anything.

JayB: Scott, I heard that David Broder's column for Sunday is a
Blockbuster. This bust has got to seem cruel even to the foamiest of
prohibitionists. Thank you for taking this schmackdown. These weenies
will probably not want to get in front of a jury. Like in Cool with Dr.
Fry. Do you think that charges will be brought at all?

Scott Imler: I don't know a lot about Dr. Fry's operation. I know that a
"bonafide doctor patient relationship" is required under both state and
federal law. As a doctor and a lawyer there situation is somewhat
different from a group of patients but it will be interesting to see the
outcome.

Scott Imler: As for Broder's column, I wasn't aware that it was running on
Sunday. I spoke with him several days ago.

Richard Lake: David Broder's column, NOTHING BETTER TO DO THAN TEAR UP
MARIJUANA PLANTS, is already at
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01.n1893.a01.html It was in the San Jose
paper Friday. [Note: it appeared in many other newspapers on Sunday]

Scott Imler: I am far from pleading guilty. We are still hoping for an
amicable resolution to this misunderstanding--how was that???

Ben Masel: can't plead guilty without charges.

Fat Freddy: Don't plead at all ask them for the victims of your crime,
whoever they are.

Scott Imler: True enough. No charges -- no plea. But there has to be some
kind of action because they have all our stuff and they took all our
money. And we want it back.

Scott Imler: At this point I guess it is up to them to prove that we were
doing something other than what we always said we were doing.

Fat Freddy: That is what they do when you plead Not Guilty. That puts you
in there courthouse. You have to face your Victims, in person.

Judy Osburn: Last year the sheriff in charge of the 2000 raid on the
off-site garden said "They appeared to be doing everything legally-they
even paid taxes. It must be "political" (repeated by transporting officer
to booking officer).

Scott Imler: It does seem a giant waste. We weren't hurting anyone. And
now we have 1000 folks scouring the streets.

Judy Osburn: This year the same sheriff who was in charge last year told us
that because some others were "taking advantage" of Prop 215 "people like
you who are trying to do it right are being hurt." It was a sincere moment
from him.

JayB: We need a cannabis airlift. Direct pickup from the Hindukush and
Dropoff in Santa Monica!

Scott Imler: I think the airspace around the region is a little crowded
right now.

Scott Imler: I'd like to thank everyone for their patience and
support. Please know that we will continue the good fight just as long as
we must. We have come so very far over the last five years and have
prepared for this particular moment as carefully as we could. With God's
help and yours, we will prevail. Grace and Peace. Dean Becker: Scott, you
are a strong person, we can all take a lesson or two from this chat. Thanks!

Lindy: Thanks Scott, good luck in your forthcoming battle.

Richard Lake: Yes, thank you so much for visiting with us, Scott. You have
a whole lot of friends out in cyberspace....