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House Judiciary Chair Questions DEA Tactics

May 6th, 2008
Posted by Caren Woodson

I am delighted to share with you some good news from Washington DC:

ASA’s ongoing campaign to hold the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) accountable for its continued efforts to undermine state medical marijuana laws is working. We are pleased to announce that US House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) has sent a letter to DEA Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart challenging the DEA’s actions!

As a follow-up to a public statement he made in December, Chairman Conyers’ letter questions DEA directly about its heightened raid activity across California and its intimidation of property owners owners with threats of prosecution and asset forfeiture because they rent to medical cannabis dispensaries. Chairman Conyers is the highest ranking elected official to question the DEA’s tactics since medical cannabis raids in California escalated dramatically in 2007. This letter is an important and necessary step towards Congressional hearings by the House Judiciary Committee, which oversees the actions of the DEA.

Over the past several months, ASA and advocates all over the country have lobbied Chairman Conyers to convene hearings. Dozens of legal, tax-paying dispensaries have been shut down or evicted by their landlords, and many more face the same fate if Congress does not intervene.

Our work with the House Judiciary Committee was bolstered by a statewide effort to get California’s elected officials to call for an end to the harmful tactics of the DEA. ASA and its allies were successful in garnering strong letters of support from several elected officials, urging Chairman Conyers to hold hearings. Among those who spoke up were Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby, Los Angeles City Councilmember Dennis Zine, and the mayors of Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, and West Hollywood.

Please visit www.AmericansForSafeAccess.org/ConyersLetter to read the letter from Chairman Conyers.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 1:04 pm and is filed under Americans for Safe Access (ASA), California, Congress, DEA, Federal, Medical Cannabis, Raids. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “House Judiciary Chair Questions DEA Tactics”

  1. Skymt Says:
    May 7th, 2008 at 12:22 am

    Wow!

    I suspect this will lead to a vague responce, citing biasad research, the raids will be classified, and none of the old medias will want to touch it.

    But I HOPE it will expose the scandal, and bring change for all those who suffer!

  2. Don Duncan Says:
    May 7th, 2008 at 11:42 am

    This is great news! We need to keep talking with Chairman Conyers and his Democratic colleagues on the House Judiciary Committee about how best to proceed after Acting DEA Administrator Leonhart fails to respond by the July 1 deadline. The collective alliance in LA is lining meetings with the district offices of the five Democratic representatives in the area on the committee.
    Check out the thread in the Discussion forums at http://www.safeaccessnow.org/punbb/viewtopic.php?id=1217

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