WTF! DEA, Denver Police Raid Multiple Marijuana Grow Operations

[99th_Monkey]

This really pisses me off. It's like a rude slap in the face to Colorado voters, who recently legalized recreational weed. WTF is the DEA thinking? This is so backward, so NOT what is needed or wanted by We The People, so egregious it stinks to high heaven.

I certainly hope this shit stops at the federal level once Holder steps down.


DEA, Denver Police Raid Multiple Marijuana Grow Operations
10/28/2014 3:41 pm EDT * Matt Ferner * HuffPo

Federal agents along with local Denver police conducted multiple raids on marijuana growing operations around Colorado's capital city Tuesday morning.

The Denver Police Department declined to speak about the details of Tuesday's raids, citing an ongoing investigation, but tweeted this statement:

The Denver Post reported that the operation involved the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Denver Police Department and the Colorado Attorney General's Office.

ALERT: Area law enforcement are conducting an ongoing investigation involving illegal drug activity. No further info at this time. #Denver

"It's a very large and successful investigation," James Gothe, DEA group supervisor in Denver, told The Denver Post. "We're assisting."

Tak Landrock of Denver's Fox31 reported that cars, cash and marijuana plants were seized at six locations in Denver.

Calls to the DEA and the Colorado Attorney General's Office were not immediately returned.

It remains unclear why the police action was conducted and whether the marijuana grow operations targeted were illegal sites or state-licensed businesses.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/28/denver-marijuana-raid_n_6063066.html

[lob1]

1. They busted a bunch of pot shops here in L.A. too, but they've been

left alone for a while now. Holder isn't doing this on his own. He's following orders.

[99th_Monkey]

2. "orders"? orders from whom?

You aren't suggesting that our "liberal" POTUS would ever give such an order, are you?

[lob1]

3. Why yes. Yes I am. Although I'm sure he didn't mean it.

[iscooterliberally]

4. It's time to repeal the controlled substances act and end the DEA.

I feel like everyone looks at me like I'm the crazy one when I bring this up. The consequences have been far reaching and disastrous. Am I the only one connecting the dots, or am I just seeing things that aren't there?

[99th_Monkey]

6. You are not alone

I'm with you, so there's at least 2 of us.

[mountain grammy]

11. No, you are not crazy or, if you are, I am too!

I agree 100%.

[Phlem]

14. yep.

[Hari Seldon]

5. Just a reminder to vote from the DEA

How could anything go wrong?

[SoLeftIAmRight]

7. The rules and laws are clear.

There are many that are not following the rules. Most people in the business want the bad players OUT.

[99th_Monkey]

8. As stated in the article, "It remains UNclear why the police action was conducted ...

... and whether the marijuana grow operations targeted were illegal sites or state-licensed businesses.

We do not yet know whether the grow sites that were hammered were "the good guys" who were following the state rules & guidelines, or not. Rather than jumping to conclusions I'd rather wait and see.

Regardless of the answer to that however, my clear bias is for full legalization with nominal "regulation" or taxes; so I think this is a misguided travesty either way.

[SoLeftIAmRight]

9. we agree - full legalization

But, we have what we have. Follow the rules. Show that it can be done without criminal activity. I have been working here in Colorado since 2009. I know that there are "bad" people in this business.

[99th_Monkey]

12. Cool. I live in Oregon

and am keeping fingers crossed and getting everyone I know
to vote for the Oregon ballot measure for full legalization.

I think it is running slightly ahead, according to polls.

[mountain grammy]

13. There are bad people in every business, but in this one,

law enforcement is labeling the business as bad. Too much of law enforcement, from the DEA on down, will always view anything connected to marijuana as bad business. These may have been "legitimate" busts, but I'm always suspicious.

Sometimes the definition of "criminal activity" isn't what we think it is.

[wizemom]

33. not as they describe

Last edited Sun Nov 2, 2014, 01:01 AM - Edit history (1)

I am one of the people. I work two jobs and have children. Much of our product is given to patients for FREE. They don't care. They think the busts are no big deal and that we don't have any rights. And 99 Monkey. Be careful. Oregon is next. You will legalize it at the state level and then the DEA will be after you next. They honestly don't care. Just look at the mentality here in California where Sheriff's get caught wearing "f$@$&k the growers" shirts. It's a federal/state loophole that they can profit off of and they love it. Civil forfeiture puts money in their pockets.

[mountain grammy]

34. I met growers in California with hundreds of plants

who say they are "mom and pop" growers, and I believe them, but I have to laugh. We are "mom and pops" here in Colorado with a dozen plants. But I have no doubt our local sheriff would call the DEA and haul us off to jail. In the eighties, we grew a few plants in our basement, enough for a prison sentence. We quit when our daughter was born because we had friends who's kids went to foster care when they were busted with a pound of pot. Just one of the many issues our country sucks at.

[Phlem]

16. The government is conducting criminal activity as we speak.

But now that they're reaping tax rewards it's OK.

They just don't want to lose any revenue, pot is still pot.

I use it medicinally but why does my medicine still cost the same "street price" that it used too?

money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money!

[SoLeftIAmRight]

24. The "street" price is lower than the med price...

and the quality is better.

Most of the big grows use lots of "natural" products to fight the pest and molds.

There are lots of problems in this industry.

[Phlem]

26. I've actually talked to a shop worker

on her break and she say it's all about tourists right now at the legal shops. Hence a Seattle shop owner can charge $20 for 1 gram.

It's an old trick, " this is my last gram and I'm not getting anymore for 2 weeks, so it's $$$".

And no "The "street" price is lower than the med price" it's not. I've been to Lifevine in Seattle: www.medmj-wa.com and it's the same there as it is on the street. There are several cheaper lines and upon observation they were of worse quality. The same way it's done on the street level.

Been there done that.

[SoLeftIAmRight]

28. In Colorado there are thousands of "red card" growers

I think many of them supply their "clients" and also their friends.

The first is legal the second is not. Either way, lots of lower priced high quality meds.

[Phlem]

37. I know

Washington is actually farther behind than a lot of places the US.

That's the rub.

[Alittleliberal]

35. You're wrong.

Street price is absolutely lower then store price.

[Phlem]

36. depends on where your at.

But at this point in Washington State, your right. Let's see what happens now that Oregon has completely opend it up.

Also if the stores don't lower their price, it still be sold on the streets.

[Phlem]

15. OMFG.

I'm going unicorn hunting anybody else?

[sulphurdunn]

10. The police state is the state.

[truedelphi]

17. You have to realize that both big Pharma and big For Profit Prison Industry is

Very Dead set against any marijuana legalisation happening that is of the people, by the people and for the people.

We in California have watched under the "Republican lite" Obama/Holder Administration, a vast percentage of our dispensaries going from thriving businesses to closed up operations. Inside the "groovy" liberal San Francisco Bay Area, some dispensaries now must serve one quarter of a million people. (!!!!!)

Never forget that all Mr Holder had to do was to sit down and to sign off on stating that he is re-regulating cannabis either off the Schedule of Drugs completely or at least pushing it down several notches.

It is one thing to get the people in this or that state to vote in some constructive policies. It is totally another to hold on to the new policies. There are dark forces with immense monetary power, legal structures, including owning the judiciary etc. out to destroy the marijuana movement. And beleive you me, they say one thing and do another.

This is life under the new Fascistic State of "But his wife's arms are cute!" America, where most people believe that fascism requires goose-stepping troops and anti-Jewish synagogue smashing.

(In the Fourth Reich, it is poor blacks and those in general who are homeless and poor, anyone defying the Police State, and anyone defying the situation with regards to marijuana and Big Pahrma and For Profit Prison, who will be first feeling the weight of the fascistic boot.)

[99th_Monkey]

18. You speak truth

IMHO.

However, I do feel the horse has already left the barn on full legalization,
and it's just a matter of time; so it's idiotic to continue ruining people's
lives and/or business investments.

I suspect the local police went along so they could seize property & cash
merely on suspicion. Greedy fucks.

[truedelphi]

23. I would gree with you tht "Time is on the side of the people" on this one -

Except if they strt to be more totalitarian.

All we need is one false flag tht they can somehow connect to cannabis growers, and then it could be game over.

The people of the nation of Afghanistan were among the most wonderful farmers of every type of herb and flower ever created on God's green earth, and now that nation is rubble.

I hope and pray it doesn't come to that, but when I realized tht agent provacateurs were behind the rioting and burning and looting of local community stores in Ferguson,while the local police refused to stop them, I get very scared. A kristelnacht, USA-version, and one that didn't involve synagogues, but just black people's property, so Big Whoop, I guess.

[truedelphi]

31. Congress often creates laws, and then if you take the time to actually read the laws passed by

Congress, you immediately r ealize how some other vested intermediary/authority was given the power in that statute.

Of course, the third way Democrats want all of the loyalists for the party to believe that Congress needs to do it, but Congress is very conservative. (Hmm, what a coincidence!) Only something like 3 to 15% of all Congress people believe in re-scheduling marijuana. (Whereas the majority of polls that involve us citizens show over 50% of all Americans want pot re-scheduled.)

Anyway, since you won't take the time to read the actual law, here it is in a nutshell for you:

The 1970 Controlled Substances Act, which created five tiers of restricted drugs, clearly states the Attorney General may "remove any drug or other substance from the schedules if he finds that the drug or other substance does not meet the requirements for inclusion in any schedule."

If a substance is banned by international treaties – as marijuana is – the law grants the attorney general the power to place it "under the schedule he deems most appropriate."

[READ: Kofi Annan Urges 'Rising Up' Against Drug Prohibition]

Also, you might want to ask yourself why Congressional critters don't want to approve of marijuana? Well, the influence of Big for Profit Pharma and For Profit Prison holds them to honor the quid pro quo of the campaign contributions. And that is in the better of the situations. Some of the Big Pro Illegal Drugs situations include members of the Bush Crime family, who for decades has made a fortune on drugs being illegal. It is also true that with Mexico owing one third of its economy to illegal drug monies, often one of the cartels will clean up some young yuppie-like family member and then ship him here to the states, and then that person opens up a bank. From there, that person can support anyone who is virulently anti-drug, as they run for Congress.

Supposedly Obama is a "Constitutional Scholar," so when even he urged that Congress be given a chance to re-schedule cannabis, it had to have been that

A) he is a stupid person, who cannot understand the legal jargon of the law Congress passed, that is The 1970 Controlled Substances Act

Or
B) he owes someone something to keeping marijuana illegal. Think about how heavily the Big Financial people invested in his campaigns. And think also of how these same institutions were caught red-handed laundering tens of billions of dollars for the cartels, and how Holder gave the executives a free pass to stay out of jail, proclaiming these institutions too big to fail.

But on the flip side, some young Afrian Amerian who gets caught with a single joint in their pocket in some American city might spend as much as 47 days in jail!

Corruption, thy name is America!!

[otohara]

19. Maybe Discovery Entertainment Is Filming An Episode

of Weed Country or Pot Cops.

In what little I saw the copper says "if I can save one child from their first bong hit, it's all worth it".

Medicine Man is coming soon and it will be like a normal day at the dispensary or grow locations. None of this bullshit
DEA raids and guns a blazing.

[99th_Monkey]

20. OK. From your lips to God's ear

re "none of this BS anymore"

[onecaliberal]

21. The Feds or government in general doesn't give two shits about people

or what they want.

Such a huge crock of shit.

[Jackpine Radical]

22. Our new drug czar is Michael Botticelli. Here's part of an NPR interview:

http://www.npr.org/2014/09/08/346879456/new-drug-czar-tackles-weed-prescription-pain-pills

BOTTICELLI: I think when you look at the movement of states - Colorado and Washington - in terms of legalization as well as medical marijuana, really presents for us a significant public health issue. I think that legalization and, quite honestly, industrialization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington - I think really presents some issues as we've seen with marketing with alcohol and tobacco industries.

We see escalating use. We know that marijuana is addictive. About 1 in 9 people who use marijuana regularly become addicted. So it does present some challenges, I think, in coming at this from a public health perspective.

SIEGEL: Does it mean that people like you have to think in terms of federal regulations of marijuana rather than federal criminalization of marijuana?

BOTTICELLI: I don't. I think, you know, we remain firm in our opposition to legalization of marijuana. And again, I think that the movement toward legalization, I think, sends the wrong message, particularly to the youth of our country. And we've seen that born out in our statistics. So, you know, the perception of risk of marijuana use among youth is now lower than tobacco.

That last comment is insanely scary. Or scarily insane--take your choice. The Feds think kids are WRONG to perceive tobacco as a higher-risk substance than weed?

Like, holy fuck, I thought we were on some sort of path to rationality on these matters. But obviously not.

Thanks, Obama.

[99th_Monkey]

25. Gads.

I live in Oregon where we hope to get full legalization in Nov. election.

We already have medical mj in place and i've got a card, which works well for me.

When I hear how stuck in the bygone daze of Reefer Madness most DC policy makers
still are, it is sobering ... and it makes me wonder what's really going on behind the
scenes with Big Pharma positioning itself o cash in, once legalization goes national.

[Phlem]

27. Fuck!

Can some one please tell my I voted for Obama?

[TeamPooka]

30. Prohibition is a failed public policy. Again. nt

[wizemom]

32. not just colorado....

Same thing happened here in California over the last month. All Medical Legal growing. Non criminals lives now ruined because DEA in a joint venture with the San Diego Sheriffs Dept, has gone rogue. I can't believe that the Police and Sheriff who are state entities are allowed to do this to people. Many of these people are law abiding, hard working individuals with families. WTF is right!