L.A. Times' Sandy Banks wrote an
article on Saturday criticizing the DEA's raiding tactics. By DEA standards, the raid on Organica Collective was par for the course: they dressed to the nines in protective gear, handcuffed employees and patients alike, and confiscated everything they could. As Banks points out, all of this was completely unnecessary for a dispensary "with such a mellow vibe that its business card features a dove and a cross."
But Banks wasn't entirely on the money with her assessment of the raid. First of all, she puts the word patients in quotes. As in "the business has been growing so fast, dozens of new 'patients' sign up each week." They aren't "patients." They're patients. Big difference. Secondly, she claims she has "seen too many healthy-looking young people go in and out" of dispensaries. Maybe the reason they look healthy is because the cannabis they take gives them their appetite back so they can become healthy again after chemo or while they have AIDS. Or maybe their outward appearance is one of specious health. Hell, anyone who saw
Randy Pausch in the last few months of his life experienced cognitive dissonance; he looked perfectly healthy, but in reality his liver had 10 deadly tumors (disclaimer: to my knowledge, Prof. Pausch did not use cannabis to treat his cancer).
Obviously Banks is implying that these patients don't actually have cancer or AIDS or glaucoma or MS, and maybe they don't. But really, that shouldn't matter. People get their doctors to prescribe them Klonopin when they don't have anxiety, Prozac when they're not depressed, Valium when they're not in pain. Should the DEA raid CVS or Duane Reade just because people are picking up prescriptions for drugs they don't "need?" Prescriptions are a private matter between doctors and patients, not a public matter between patients and paramilitary organizations.
Sandy Banks is right that the DEA doesn't need to get into full combat gear to raid a dispensary. (They also don't need to
hire mercenaries, but that's a subject for Malakkar to blog about). However, Sandy Banks is wrong when she says "an orderly crackdown is overdue." Crackdowns are not what medical marijuana patients need; what they need is legalization on a federal level so that the DEA can stop wasting time and money by busting into and stealing from peaceful, crime-free operations.
Posted by Ellen Parkhurst