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DEA raids marijuana outlets By Tami Abdollah, Times Staff Writer January 18, 2007

The West Hollywood sheriff's station was notified of the impending raids about 1:30 p.m., one hour before they began, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Lt. David Smith said. Deputies moved in to help control about 50 protesters who gathered in the 7800 block of Santa Monica Boulevard near three of the stores.

California voters approved Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act, in 1996, which made marijuana available by prescription for medicinal uses. SB 420, which took effect in 2004, clarified Proposition 215, and taken together legalized possession and cultivation of marijuana for qualified medical patients.

Ads by Google / Ad Feedback MedicalMarijuana Card8 Clinics to serve you across LA, OC, IE, SD and Ventura www.8002684420.comAccording to Pullen, neighboring businesses and residents had complained about a significant number of the dispensaries, and there had been increased reports of crime in the areas around the outlets.

"Anyone in possession, selling or distributing marijuana is in violation of federal law and subject to prosecution," she said.

"There are hundreds of thousands of patients in California who need safe and reliable access to a medication that their doctors recommend they use and these raids are an example of the federal government going out of its way to interfere with the lives of patients," countered Steph Sherer, founder of Americans for Safe Access, a national advocacy group for medical marijuana use, based in Oakland.

"I think if California has a problem with our law, that our courts and our law enforcement should handle it," she said. "We have no need for the federal government to come and interfere."

The group planned a protest at 8:30 a.m. today in front of West Hollywood City Hall, Sherer said.

The raids came on the heels of separate actions taken Tuesday by the West Hollywood City Council and the Los Angeles Police Commission.

The council Tuesday unanimously approved an ordinance establishing permanent regulations on medicinal marijuana dispensaries, capping the number in the city at four.

The Police Commission, meanwhile, voted to support a moratorium on new marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles and for tougher regulations of existing enterprises. Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton pledged to work with federal authorities to prosecute businesses found to be violating the law.

Richard Eastman, a pro-medical marijuana activist who said he was diagnosed with AIDS in 1995, said he was horrified by the raids. Some of the pills he takes to fight his illness, Eastman said, "take away my appetite, but the marijuana keeps me eating."

As a result of the raids, Eastman estimated that perhaps 2,000 people who ordinarily would buy marijuana for medical purposes "won't be able to get their medicine tomorrow. And it's not like they can go to Sav-On or Thrifty."

The owner of one of the raided dispensaries said Wednesday that she was saddened that people will not be able to have the freedom of choice to use medical marijuana.

"We abide by state and local ordinances, and state laws, in providing a service to patients because they have the legal right by state Legislature to be able to make the choice of having medical marijuana as their choice of therapy," the dispensary owner said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

tami.abdollah@latimes.com

Times staff writer Stuart Silverstein contributed to this report.