Feds raid Washington state medical marijuana dispensaries

By Laura L. Myers
SEATTLE (Reuters) - Federal agents and police raided state-sanctioned medical marijuana dispensaries across western Washington on Tuesday, targeting storefronts deemed to be engaged in illegal drug trafficking and money laundering.
The dispensaries singled out by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration were essentially operating under the state's medical marijuana law to conceal criminal activity, U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan said in a statement.
Federal officials did not immediately disclose the number of suppliers shut down in the sweep.
But the Cannabis Defense Coalition, a nonprofit advocacy group for marijuana, said on its website that 15 "medical cannabis access points" in at least six western Washington cities -- Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, Puyallup, Lacey and Rochester -- were raided on Tuesday.
A spokeswoman for Durkan's office, Emily Langlie, said one person was arrested by federal agents, and that additional arrests had been made by sheriff's deputies in separate raids across three counties although she could not say how many.
Search warrant affidavits unsealed in federal court cited evidence that the dispensaries targeted in the sweep were involved in large-scale drug distribution and money laundering.
Storefront cannabis shops are neither explicitly permitted nor banned under a 1998 voter-approved state law that legalized pot in Washington for medical purposes, but they have widely proliferated nevertheless.
State law does allow collective medical marijuana gardens of up to 45 plants, or a maximum of 15 plants per patient.
Although cannabis is still listed as an illegal narcotic under federal law, 16 states and the District of Columbia have statutes decriminalizing marijuana for medical reasons, according to the National Drug Policy Alliance.
NOT GOING AFTER PATIENTS
Tuesday's sweep marked the first major federal crackdown on pot shops in western Washington since Governor Christine Gregoire in April vetoed most provisions of a bill that would have established a new regulatory system for medical marijuana.
Gregoire has said she was swayed by a legal opinion from U.S. prosecutors threatening to target not only dispensary owners but state regulators who would enforce the proposed new law.
Federal prosecutors said they were not going after patients who have a legitimate medical need for pot.

Click to expand...