75A - PH - MEDICAL MARIJUANA - PROHIBIT

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DEA targets marijuana providers 01.13.07~Tribune By Rone Tempest Until federal drug agents arrested. him earlier this month., Shon Squier was one of Hayward's most successful and generous young businessmen. Customers lined up outside his downtown storefront, particularly on Mondays, when he offered free samples to the first 50 visitors......But Squier's success as a dynamic medical marijuana entrepreneur also was his downfall. Federal drug agents raided his home and business, arresting Squier and his store manager, freezing bank accounts containing $1.5 million and confiscating several expensive cars, motorcycles and $200,000 in cash. Medical marijuana advocates claim that the raid constitutes unfair, selective enforcement by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) of the estimated 170 medical marijuana dispensaries in the state, including 85 in the San Francisco Bay Area.... The federal drug agency...contends that the amount of money involved proves that the medical marijuana trade is high-stakes drug dealing, complete with the same high-rolling lifestyles. "These people will tell you they are just uiterested in the terminally ill," said Gordon Taylor, DEA special agent in charge of the California eastern federal district, "but what they are really interested. in is lining their pockets with illegal drug money.....With the proliferation of medical marijuana dispensaries of all sizes across the state, the DEA and Internal Revenue Service recently have concentrated their investigations on young, high-profile operators such as Squier, 34, and Luke Scannazzo, 26, co-owner of a Modesto dispensary. Scarmazzo got the DEA's attention by producing a rap video that showed him counting stacks of X100 biIis; blowing billows of smoke at the camera and flipping off federal agents......between January and. June of last year, Scarmazzo, who has a previous felony conviction, and his associates recorded $3.4 million in sales of marijuana products with brand names that included "911,"AK47" and "Train. Wreck."...... Source: http://www.marijuana.corn/420/drug-war-headline-news/51833-ca-dea-targets- marijuana-providers.html DEA raids 11 marijuana outlets Agents seize drugs, guns and cash, prompting W. Hollywood protests. Twenty are detained, but no charges are filed. By Tami AbcioIlah, Times Staff Writer /January 18, 2007 Federal agents Wednesday raided 11 medical marijuana outlets in Los Angeles County, seizing several thousand pounds of processed drug, hundreds of marijuana plants, an array of guns and bagfuls of cash. The simultaneous raids, part of an ongoing investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, were the largest such operation in the county in recent memory......The action by federal agents angered some local officials and was taken despite a state law permitting possession and cultivation of marijuana for qualified medical patients.....Sarah Pullen, spokeswoman. for the DEA's Los Angeles field division, said agents seized large quantities of marijuana-laced edibles that included "anything from ice cream. bars to lollipops to cookies to candies and candy bars."..... 14 75A-109