Nikos Leverenz, Deputy Director of the Alliance's California Capital office, was on-site at a DEA raid of a medical marijuana dispensary earlier this month. He describes the experience below.

On Thursday, July 7, I received word from our allies at Americans for Safe Access that the Sacramento County Sheriff was involved in a raid on a medical marijuana dispensary in Rancho Cordova, a community just outside of Sacramento.

The involvement of state and local law enforcement in DEA raids on medical marijuana dispensaries violates the express will of the voters, who placed the Compassionate Use Act into California law in 1996 (Prop. 215).  The Raich decision from the United States Supreme Court last month did not strike down the Act.  Further, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer has issued two bulletins to California law enforcement agencies on their duty to comply with the Act.  The first directs that they should not “change their current practices for the non-arrest and non-prosecution of individuals who are within the legal scope of [the Act].”  The second goes a bit further, finding that “Raich imposes no mandatory duty on California peace officers to enforce the federal Controlled Substances Act against individuals whose possession, use or cultivation of marijuana is lawful under California law.”

As it turns out, the Sacramento County Sheriff isn’t listening.  When I arrived on the scene, a sheriff’s motorcycle was displayed conspicuously in front of the dispensary, with media representatives from all three local network affiliates, The Sacramento Bee, and Capital Public Radio.  In plain view inside the dispensary were several deputies talking with the Sheriff’s spokesman, Sgt. R.L. Davis.  I gave a television interview with a news reporter from the ABC affiliate, and after talking with some patients and advocates, I somehow became the de facto spokesperson for the advocates there. 

Sgt. Davis stated that the Department was there only to investigate the unlawful operation of a business without a license, and that they had nothing to do with suspected “controlled substances” violations.  He did say that the Drug Enforcement Agency had been informed about the discovery of “controlled substances,” and that they would have nothing further to do on that part.  Demonstrating a high degree of PR savvy, he intentionally left out any mention of marijuana. 

After Sgt. Davis gave his briefing, I stated that the Raich decision did not overturn Prop. 215, and that state and local law enforcement could not act in violation of that law.  On the question of the operation of a business without a license, I noted that Board of Equalization (BOE) was now working on that very issue. The week prior, I attended a stakeholder meeting at the BOE’s Sacramento office on the subject.

Having already been stunned by the terrorist bombings in London earlier that day – the Tavistock Square bus bombing was two blocks from where I attended law school in the Summer of 1998 – I was saddened that I had to become essentially a “first responder” to a different sort of crisis near my hometown.  What compounded my sadness was the fact that I could do nothing, beyond my advocacy on behalf of patients and their care providers.  That night and the next morning, I felt further invalidated – as the news accounts and the Bee article didn’t see fit to put me into the coverage.  Perhaps an articulate multi-racial 31-year old in a dress shirt and slacks did not make for a good image compared to those wearing “Jamaica” shirts and the like.

Later, I found out the penalty for operating a business without a license in Sacramento County: a misdemeanor that carries a fine of up to $500.  So the Sacramento Sheriff saw to it that thousands of dollars in human resources and administrative expenses were committed to go after someone for a $500 fine. Go figure.