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to victory by Kevin Zeese

DEA raids fuel angry protests by Dale Gieringer

Feds escalate war on the sick in San Francisco

By Rob Kampia, Executive Director for Marijuana Policy Project

At a time when our nation is absorbed by the war on terrorism, the DEA is waging an all-out war on medical marijuana patients. The Bush administration warned that there was a high likelihood of a terrorist attack on a Tuesday in early-February. They were right: That same day, DEA thugs raided a medical marijuana clinic in San Francisco, charging four activists in the Bay Area with the "crime" of providing medical marijuana to patients who are legally authorized to use it under state law. Each of the four defendants now faces between five years to life in prison.

Significantly, the clinic was authorized by the local prosecutor, who expressed his outrage that the DEA is trampling the will of California voters in its 'sick' crusade against sick people. In an incredible show of arrogance, DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson scheduled a speech in San Francisco for that night. He tried to claim that the DEA is merely enforcing federal drug laws - and that medical marijuana isn't really a priority. But the crowd didn't buy it; catcalling him and shouting "LIAR" when he said science has shown that smoking marijuana has no medical benefit.

As you may know, the Bush administration ran two TV ads during the Super Bowl and newspaper ads in the week that followed, claiming that people who buy drugs are really funding terrorism. If that were true, why would the Bush administration's DEA shut down a medical marijuana clinic, thereby forcing hundreds of patients to buy marijuana from illegal dealers on the streets instead of a locally sanctioned clinic? And this isn't the first time. Let's not forget that in October 2001, the DEA pushed 1,000 patients into the streets of Los Angeles after shutting down a clinic in West Hollywood.

The Bush administration is pursuing a harm-maximization, hate-filled, destructive policy. It's time to "just say no" to the DEA. Please visit http://www.mpp.org/USA to tell the DEA's funders - the United States Congress - to come down hard on the DEA.

For those people with no access to the Internet, contact by regular mail:
Marijuana Policy Project
P.O. Box 77492
Capitol Hill
Washington, D.C. 20013