*****Please forward to your lists*****
National Flood Your Rep Day
Take Action on May 31st
In response to the May 29th DEA raid on the Aiko Compassion Center, a medical marijuana facility in Santa Rosa California (see AP story below for details), ASA is calling for a national Flood Your Rep Day. Use this link to contact your elected officials. Input your zip code, personalize the message and tell them what you think. Call, mail a letter, fax a letter, or email and demand accountability for the DEA war on the sick and the dying.
GO HERE TO CONTACT REPS!
http://capwiz.com/norml2/issues/alert/?alertid=100506&type=CO
AP Story:
DEA raids Santa Rosa medical marijuana club
05/29/2002 Associated Press Newswires Copyright 2002. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) - Federal agents raided a medical marijuana buyers' club here Wednesday and arrested two people, part of a tug-of-war between local and federal officials over the sale of pot for medicinal purposes.
A U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman said two addresses were searched, including the Aiko Compassion Center near downtown. Marijuana, cash, a car and a weapon were seized.Authorities declined to identify the arrested pair, saying all information about the case was sealed by a federal judge.
Santa Rosa attorney Rich Ingram said the men were Edward Bierling of Santa Rosa and Dan Nelson. Bierling is a medical marijuana user, said Ingram, who is his lawyer. Neither Ingram nor club manager John Sugg would provide more information about Nelson. Both men are scheduled to appear Thursday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Ingram said.
"We have not targeted marijuana clubs. We have investigated marijuana trafficking groups," said San Francisco DEA spokesman Rich Meyer. "As we develop leads, we follow those leads. If one takes us to a marijuana club, then we continue that investigation." According to one witness, at least six DEA agents stormed the store around 10:45 a.m.
"They made a big show of it," Mark Nabavi, who runs the Printing Express store next door, told the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. "They took down everyone's license plate number." In February, DEA agents raided a San Francisco medical marijuana club and arrested four people. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that it is illegal to distribute marijuana for medical purposes. But some local law enforcement officials have said their job is to enforce the laws of California, where voters overwhelmingly approved medical marijuana use in 1996.
The Aiko Compassion Center serves more than 100 people, according to Ernest Knapp, a spokesman for the Sonoma Alliance for Medical Marijuana. In Sonoma County, certified users can obtain a letter from a panel of doctors and are allowed to possess up to three pounds of pot.
With AP Photo CASRP
Steph Sherer Executive Director Cannabis Action Network http://www.cannabisaction.net and Americans for Safe Access http://www.safeaccessnow.org 1678 Shattuck Ave. #317 Berkeley, CA 94709 phone: 510-486-8083 fax: 510-486-8090