Feds strike medical pot growers (Who cares about state rights anyway?)

[Flabbergasted]

Grand jury seeks patient records after DEA raid on Portland house
By Nick Budnick

The Portland Tribune, Aug 3, 2007, Updated Aug 3, 2007 (47 Reader comments)

L.E. Baskow / Portland Tribune

The case of raided medical marijuana grower Don DuPay (left), seen with his son, Lee, and renter Jon Kappelman, reflects tensions inherent in Oregon’s 1998 medical marijuana law. State and local law enforcement must obey it, but the federal government doesn’t have to.
A secret federal grand jury is duking it out with the state of Oregon to obtain the confidential records of some medical marijuana patients, the Portland Tribune has learned.

The ongoing grand jury probe has included a federal Drug Enforcement Administration raid on the home of one of Portland’s most high-profile medical pot activists, Don DuPay.

“They threatened to arrest me if I did not cooperate with their federal investigation,” DuPay, a former Portland police detective, candidate for Multnomah County sheriff and longtime co-host of the cable access show “Cannabis Common Sense,” said, recounting his faceoff with the lead DEA agent during the raid.

“I was probably carrying a homicide detective badge before this punk was born,” added DuPay, who is 71. “I said, ‘As far as I’m concerned, you’re a baldheaded punk.’ ”

At press time, DuPay had not been arrested. But he said that on June 14 the feds seized growing equipment, guns and surveillance cameras as well as marijuana that he said he had been growing for 40 patients registered by the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program.

The clash between the state and the federal governments reflects tensions inherent in Oregon’s medical marijuana law, which was approved by 55 percent of voters in 1998. While state and local law enforcement are required to obey the law, the feds are not.

“From a federal standpoint, there is no such thing as medical marijuana,” said Bernie Hobson, spokesman for the DEA’s Seattle regional office.

The grand jury is being operated by the U.S. attorney’s branch office in Yakima, Wash., in cooperation with a branch office of the DEA in that city.

“I’m aware of the case you’re talking about, yes, sir,” Hobson said when contacted by the Portland Tribune. “Unfortunately, I’m not able to talk about pending investigations.”

The federal government reportedly has issued confidential legal demands, called subpoenas, for patient information from both Oregon’s medical marijuana program and the Hemp and Cannabis Foundation, a group that employs doctors who prescribe marijuana to patients under the Oregon program.

http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=118609925649231700

[rudy23]

1. Big pharma

trying to get rid of the competition

[Rex]

2. Corporations can't profit off of THC, not like viagra so the Feds

who work for corporations do all they can to make sure the paymasters make money and the wheel keeps turning.

States? Like they matter to the Unitary Branch. Ha! States rights, go fuck yourself!

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

3. Don't forget

those powerful churches, whose main problem with psychotropic drugs is that they remove the need for the 'middle man' and offer direct connections with the universe/spirit/god.