Hash
New Member
Los Angeles, Calif. - When Los Angeles police raided and shut down his Wilshire area cannabis clinic earlier this month, owner Scott Fiel thought he was going to be a lone voice in the uphill battle against local authorities.
But when news of the raid and closure of the cannabis clinic hit the Internet and was broadcast from a Christian radio station, his clinic – which serves around 15,000 people living with cancer, HIV/AIDS and other chronic illnesses – was soon flooded with thousands of calls from concerned patients and medical marijuana activists, Fiel said.
"You know I thought I was alone in this whole thing but there were so many people who stood behind me," said Fiel during a phone interview on Monday, the day before he re-opened his clinic located on 4520 Wilshire Blvd.
According to investigators, police entered the United Medical Caregivers' Clinic on March 15 around 3 p.m. after receiving a resident's complaint about people smoking marijuana joints along Wilshire Boulevard and Muirfield Road, not far from the location of the clinic.
Police said they obtained a search warrant and confiscated 200 pounds of packaged marijuana and $180,000 in cash after discovering that the cannabis club had no legal permit or license to sell the drug.
Two of the clinic's staff members were arrested on felony charges of illegal possession of marijuana for sale and released on $20,000 bail each the next day.
It has been just over two weeks since the raid but the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office has been reluctant to file charges against the two staff members, citing a lack of evidence.
"We did not make a case against them because there was insufficient evidence," said Sandi Gibbons, spokesperson for the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office.
According to Gibbons, the case is still under an ongoing police investigation.
Like other supporters of medical marijuana laws, Fiel has defended the integrity of his clinic and his goals to serve the community – and feels confident that the controversy resulting from the raid will soon blow over.
"There should never have been charges, it is in the books," he said, referring to Proposition 215, also known as the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, a state law which allows the distribution and sale of marijuana for medical use.
Others have also denounced the LAPD raid as a form of police harassment.
"It is not acceptable for state or local law enforcement to go in and raid dispensaries, let alone arrest its operators and seize their property," said Kris Hermes, legal director of Americans for Safe Access, an Oakland-based group that advocates medical marijuana use.
Fiel, who was in Northern California at the time of the raid, flew down to Los Angeles the following day and bailed out his two employees who claimed their attempts at explaining to police about their right to sell medical marijuana without a permit fell on deaf ears.
Source: The Los Angles Independent
Copyright: 2005 The Los Angles Independent.
Contact: https://www.laindependent.com/link.asp?smenu=65&twindow=Default&mad=No
Website: https://www.laindependent.com/link.asp?smenu=1&twindow=Default&mad=No
But when news of the raid and closure of the cannabis clinic hit the Internet and was broadcast from a Christian radio station, his clinic – which serves around 15,000 people living with cancer, HIV/AIDS and other chronic illnesses – was soon flooded with thousands of calls from concerned patients and medical marijuana activists, Fiel said.
"You know I thought I was alone in this whole thing but there were so many people who stood behind me," said Fiel during a phone interview on Monday, the day before he re-opened his clinic located on 4520 Wilshire Blvd.
According to investigators, police entered the United Medical Caregivers' Clinic on March 15 around 3 p.m. after receiving a resident's complaint about people smoking marijuana joints along Wilshire Boulevard and Muirfield Road, not far from the location of the clinic.
Police said they obtained a search warrant and confiscated 200 pounds of packaged marijuana and $180,000 in cash after discovering that the cannabis club had no legal permit or license to sell the drug.
Two of the clinic's staff members were arrested on felony charges of illegal possession of marijuana for sale and released on $20,000 bail each the next day.
It has been just over two weeks since the raid but the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office has been reluctant to file charges against the two staff members, citing a lack of evidence.
"We did not make a case against them because there was insufficient evidence," said Sandi Gibbons, spokesperson for the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office.
According to Gibbons, the case is still under an ongoing police investigation.
Like other supporters of medical marijuana laws, Fiel has defended the integrity of his clinic and his goals to serve the community – and feels confident that the controversy resulting from the raid will soon blow over.
"There should never have been charges, it is in the books," he said, referring to Proposition 215, also known as the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, a state law which allows the distribution and sale of marijuana for medical use.
Others have also denounced the LAPD raid as a form of police harassment.
"It is not acceptable for state or local law enforcement to go in and raid dispensaries, let alone arrest its operators and seize their property," said Kris Hermes, legal director of Americans for Safe Access, an Oakland-based group that advocates medical marijuana use.
Fiel, who was in Northern California at the time of the raid, flew down to Los Angeles the following day and bailed out his two employees who claimed their attempts at explaining to police about their right to sell medical marijuana without a permit fell on deaf ears.
Source: The Los Angles Independent
Copyright: 2005 The Los Angles Independent.
Contact: https://www.laindependent.com/link.asp?smenu=65&twindow=Default&mad=No
Website: https://www.laindependent.com/link.asp?smenu=1&twindow=Default&mad=No
