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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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US: Feds expand war on medical marijuana to patients and small-scale growers
California NORML Press Release
Thursday 05 Sep 2002 SAN FRANCISCO -- The U.S. Justice Department has begun to escalate its war on medical marijuana by pursuing small-scale providers and personal use growers in California. Recent raids contradict prior claims by DEA chief Asa Hutchinson that the DEA is not interested in minor medical marijuana cases. Speaking at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, Hutchinson claimed, "I don't know of any instance in which there's been a federal targeting of any user; that's not within the federal priority system. We have gone after traffickers. If you have 500 marijuana plants, that is of concern " In recent weeks, however the federal government has attacked patients with much smaller, personal use gardens with no connection to trafficking. Recent actions belie prior DEA claims that medical marijuana is not a major enforcement priority. A survey of current federal cases by California NORML shows that there have been more arrests for medical marijuana than terrorism in California since Sept. 11th. In Washington state, which also has a medical marijuana law, U.S. attorneys in the western district have announced that they will no longer adhere to Clinton guidelines of not prosecuting cases of fewer than 100 plants. Seattle defense attorney Jeffrey Steinborn says that prosecutors told him they are under orders from Attorney General Ashcroft to target medical marijuana providers. So far, over a half dozen medical marijuana growers have been sent to federal prison this year for activities they had reason to believe were legal under state law. The latest is Brian Epis, convicted for growing marijuana for a Chico patients' group, who faces sentencing in Sacramento on Sept. 23. In California, medical marijuana accounts for 50% of all federal marijuana cases filed in the U.S. district court in San Francisco this year. By way of contrast, only about 1% of California's 3 million marijuana users are medical patients, according to a recent survey by California NORML. Medical marijuana advocates say this shows federal drug enforcement priorities are seriously distorted. "The feds are targeting honest providers who openly supply medicine to sick people under state law rather than large-scale criminal traffickers who clandestinely supply the recreational market," comments California NORML coordinator Dale Gieringer. For a complete listing of federal medical marijuana cases since Sept. 11 see http://www.canorml.org/news/fedmmjcases.html
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