Congressional Leader Conyers asks DEA why are they targeting medical marijuana?

A congressional leader, citing complaints from Bay Area mayors and lawmakers, wants the Drug Enforcement Administration to explain its increased use of “paramilitary-style enforcement raids” and property forfeiture orders against medical marijuana patients and suppliers in California.

With drug trafficking and violence from international cartels on the rise, “do you think the DEA’s limited resources are best utilized conducting enforcement raids on individuals and their caregivers who are conducting themselves legally under California law?” House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., said in a letter to the agency.

He also noted the DEA’s recent tactic of sending letters to hundreds of property owners who rent to medical marijuana dispensaries, advising them that they could be prosecuted and lose their property under federal law.

Property forfeitures, Conyers said, have typically been reserved for “the worst drug traffickers and kingpins” and might have the unintended effect of driving medical marijuana distribution underground. Medical marijuana advocacy groups say the letters have led to evictions and closures of dozens of supply shops that had been operating with state and local approval.

The congressman also asked how much the DEA was spending on the raids.

The letter, dated April 29, was addressed to the DEA’s acting administrator, Michele Leonhart. Agency spokeswoman Rogene Waite declined to comment on the questions Wednesday, saying only that “the federal government does not recognize medical marijuana. … The DEA, of course, would be part of the federal government.”

Conyers attached a copy of a resolution approved by San Francisco supervisors in February, attacking the DEA for “its irrational policy and hysteria” and calling on the city attorney to support property owners facing prosecution or forfeiture for renting to medical marijuana dispensaries. The Los Angeles City Council also has condemned the federal agency’s actions.

Conyers also cited statements by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums criticizing the DEA, and a resolution introduced by state Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, urging that Congress pass a law ending federal raids and prosecutions in states that have legalized medical marijuana.

There should be a law ending deferal raids on ALL medical marijuana users not just patients in States who have laws regarding it.

Seattle medical marijuana march info…

Supporters of marijuana for medical purposes plan a rally Saturday in Seattle’s Westlake Park.

The rally in support of the medical use of marijuana will coincide with similar marches in around 200 other cities, organizers said.

Participants are expected to gather at Volunteer Park in Capitol Hill and set off for a 1 p.m. march to Westlake Park in Downtown, a distance of a little more than two miles.

The rally at Westlake Park is scheduled to be held from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

The rally comes just two days after musician Timothy Garon, 56, died following a third denial of a liver transplant he needed to survive.

Garon had advanced hepatitis C and had used marijuana with medical approval as part of his treatment regimen. His attorney believes Garon’s marijuana use was the reason a University of Washington Medical Center committee denied the liver transplant.

Denying sick people organs because they use cannabis as medicine?