Subscriber Comments for
Illegal Marijuana Operations Targeted

Comments in order of when they were received | (reverse order)

COMMENT 276878	2012-05-03 11:26 AM
Before the potheads chime in, these busts seem perfectly legal as the "dispensaries" appear to have been operated as for profit using imported weed.
COMMENT 276895	2012-05-03 11:46 AM
Anyone that thinks that legalizing marijuana will stop crime associated with marijuana is smoking too much of the stuff. Let's suppose that one day the consumption of marijuana is legalized for those 21 and over...just as it is for alcohol. Do you think it would then be OK to walk down the street while smoking a bowl? Probably not, unless you are in a city like New Orleans or Las Vegas. Do you think it would be OK to grow your own weed and sell it to whomever you'd like? Of course not. Just try brewing beer or running a still and selling the booze and see how far you get. The only thing positive that legalizing marijuana will do will be to empty jails of users...and trust me, there are NOT many people in jail simply for smoking marijuana. If marijuana is legalized and taxed, the next thing you will see is people trying to avoid the tax!! So we shift the police pursuit from illegal drug pushers to tax evaders. The crime might change but it won't be decreased.
COMMENT 276896	2012-05-03 11:47 AM
Is the Fed saying its OK to break federal law as long as you do it in the name of charity and keep your supply chain local? I'd like to see the Feds busting the State/local legislators before they go after the citizens. They put a Federaly Banned practice up for a vote, and they approved it when it passed.....seems more like entrapment to me.
COMMENT 276897	2012-05-03 11:48 AM
I did not see one pothead say that it was wrong for illegal operations to be raided. The article yesterday left a lot to speculation. With the facts being released, I think you'll find that those of us in support of prop. 215 would agree that the right thing was done in this case. People who support prop. 215 WANT dispensaries to operate within the law. If it is being taken advantage of, which seems to be the case here, we are against it as it tarnishes the foundation of what we voted for.
COMMENT 276898	2012-05-03 11:51 AM
Just driving pot dealers back to where its dealt outta the trunk of their car. These busts don't do anything. 15 trillion in debt and the USA is worried about over-the-counter sales legal by virtue of Calif democracy?
COMMENT 276899	2012-05-03 11:55 AM
For the sake of those who are sick that actually need the MJ for medicinal use (those going through chemo/radiation using it for curving nausea, etc) I hope that the dispensaries in town will learn to operate within the law.
COMMENT 276900	2012-05-03 12:02 PM
The War on drugs does not work. Does anyone still think it does? I wonder how much money we have spent thru the DEA,LEO and prison system all in the name of the "War on Drugs. It did not work for alchohol and it will not work for drugs. Why do we waist all this money? Oh yeah because of the huge amount of money to be made.
COMMENT 276905	2012-05-03 12:09 PM
Great to see the police spending so much time on marijuana violations while people are getting stabbed, shot and mugged all over town.
COMMENT 276906	2012-05-03 12:11 PM
899 - Never had curving nausea. Is that where you can puke on someone from around the corner so they don't know who did it? 900 - Waisting of money is a national problem. Look at all the fat kids with diabetes.
COMMENT 276913	2012-05-03 12:30 PM
906 - Never experienced money waisting before. It that where you spend a lot on food and it increases your waistline? (...how could I resist?)
COMMENT 276918P	2012-05-03 12:49 PM
I guess 895 has never heard of micro-brews or about open container laws? Same could apply to mj if legalized. The war on mj is an abject failure. Not that I condone it's use but I don't condone wasting large sums of cash on a failed policy either.
COMMENT 276919P	2012-05-03 12:50 PM
Can you imagine if they told the pharmaceutical industry that they had to operate at non-profit status? I would LOVE to see that day. (I know, it will never happen...)
COMMENT 276918P	2012-05-03 01:06 PM
919P, or the health care industry in general? I dream of the day that sickness stops being a money maker for big businesses.
COMMENT 276906	2012-05-03 01:59 PM
I guess 918P doesn't understand a micro-brew has a license to sell their beer and that a micro-brew is NOT someone brewing beer in their garage.
COMMENT 276939P	2012-05-03 02:21 PM
Say, did these guys pay taxes on their profits or income? Probably not. Unfortunately there are alot of freeloaders in our society.
COMMENT 276941	2012-05-03 02:23 PM
These raids are a federal jobs program to keep lots of law enforcement people occupied until they are 50 and can retire at full pay and move to Idaho. I think we should ask the cops- would they rather deal with someone who is stoned or drunk? I've spent some time at the drum circle down at Chase Palm and back when drinking was allowed we had a lot of trouble at the Circle. Once drinking was banned it was a much better situation.
COMMENT 276944	2012-05-03 02:33 PM
@939P Very true, and a lot of them make a ton of money!
ROGER DODGER	2012-05-03 02:51 PM
I'm going to start drinking again anyway..It's legal and I feel no pain I'm tired of all this scrap!
COMMENT 276974	2012-05-03 03:47 PM
What is both sad and commical to me is how much time the City wasted on deciding where and how to permit these store-fronts, when they should have just banned them. Now - according to the Independent - All known marijuana stores in Santa Barbara County are now the subject of federal enforcement actions. Sadly our City Council was unwilling to grasp the fact that time, money and energy was being wasted on something that is in violation of Federal Law. Basic Civics lesson: if the Feds can regulate it the State cannot override the Feds.
COMMENT 276906	2012-05-03 03:57 PM
I love it when stoners justify their addiction by pointing to the well-documented hazards of (legalized) alcohol, as if the populus HAS TO choose between abusing one or the other of these substances. How about NEITHER. How about the fact that we have a bad enough problem with alcohol, so why worsen the problem by making marijuana legal? Oh and quit your "I need this for pain" whining. One-tenth of one percent of stoners blaze up for medicinal reasons. The rest just want to get high, just like drinkers like to get a buzz.
COMMENT 276977	2012-05-03 03:57 PM
895: The stupidity in the law lies within the fact that you can lose a job for simply possessing the plant. I don't smoke in public, walking down the street, driving my car, within a mile of a school, or any way that may be construed as irresponsible. However, if I have some weed in the car, completely sober, I will still get in trouble and possibly get a DUI. If it were legal, I'd probably grow it to smoke myself and maybe let some friends get in on the action too. Kinda like when I brew my own beer. I never make any profit, its more for personal enjoyment. Many people aren't trying to grow pot to become some kingpin. Some people just like to have it from time to time, while still remaining an upstanding citizen who wakes up in the morning and goes to work like everyone else.
COMMENT 276979	2012-05-03 04:02 PM
Hmmm... How is it that the LOCAL POLICE are involved at all in this? After all, this is a FEDERAL LAW and according to the Whitehouse, only THEY have jurisdiction when it comes to Federal Laws (like Immigration) and therefore local agencies should not be allowed to get involved (like they are in Arizona). Okay, so it's okay to go after Pot Growers, but it's not okay to go after Illegal Aliens? Sounds like a double standard to me.
COMMENT 276939P	2012-05-03 04:11 PM
If pot becomes legal, there are going to have to be some serious regulations on where and where not you can grow or smoke. I had a neighbor grow a few plants and it smelled like rotting dead skunk. Horrible, even with the windows closed. You don't want to smell that day in and day out. And then you have the awful smell when someone lights up. In the densely populated areas, it's as bad as a cigar smoker in the neighborhood. Pot really isn't a very neighborly vice.
BECKY	2012-05-03 05:42 PM
Quite a few of you "federal overrides state" law guys are mistaken. Depends on the field. Whichever is more restrictive wins in many cases. In my current field, guns and ammo, the state of California laws are far more restrictive than the Federal, and State law prevails here. Same thing with booze. All the highly regulated activities tend to be like this. (Prostitution. Gambling.) What you can't do, can't own, and the hoops you have to jump through to legally purchase a firearm* are unique to each state (*and California would like to make the rules for ammo equally expensive, time consuming, and frustrating. If they make it expensive, irritating, and non-profitable enough, they can just drive the legit guys out of business. The illegal trade then flourishes.)
ROGER DODGER	2012-05-03 06:13 PM
It sure does.
COMMENT 277020	2012-05-03 08:41 PM
Becky the state can take federal laws and regulations and implement additional laws that extend the domain of federal laws, tailored to the needs of the state's jurisdiction. Such state laws may NOT supercede federal jurisdiction. The Arizona case is an example of a state passing laws for immigration regulation that properly are the domain of the feds. The constitution was written to prevent this sort of thing, so that states would not attempt to make treaties with France, for example. What states can't do is decide NOT to comply with federal laws. That's what California has been up to with marijuana, and the feds are clearly not going to tolerate it any longer.
COMMENT 277023	2012-05-03 08:46 PM
If it's 'medical' marijuana, why not let pharmacies dispense it? And while we're at it, let's get real and only give it to those who truly need it. A SB police officer told me that "a hang nail and a hundred bucks will get you a card". How is it that so many young people can have ailments requiring the stuff? It just seems to me that pot heads have found a way around the law.
COMMENT 277057	2012-05-04 07:06 AM
Hortipharm was NOT found guilty, they were forced to plea by a corrupt DA. They arrested innocent people and then placed a Grand Jury when they saw the team of high-profile lawyers (who would never have accepted the case if it was not a clear win). Then they forced the owner to plea by tying all the cases into a single case (everyone would go to a long trial unless he made a plea - all his employees and his wife). In my opinion, this was all an insidious effort to protect the name of the DA's office who in fact was just trying to illegally steal property from a legitimate business for political and financial benefit. Welcome to something a little closer to the truth.
COMMENT 277086P	2012-05-04 08:04 AM
A few points: 1. Labeling those who oppose cannabis prohibition as "potheads" is insulting and childish. Assuming that a stranger is not paying taxes is making a guess; it is not a fact. 2. If cannabis were rescheduled under the Controlled Substances Act from Schedule 1 (no medical use) to Schedule 2 (some medical use), pharmacies could dispense it. 3. Cannabis was used in the USA as medicine before its prohibition. The AMA opposed the removal of cannabis from the pharmacopoeia. 4. Our politicians will never undo the prohibition of cannabis. Only we, the people, will ever get the job done. And as can be seen in the present case, the government will oppose any and all efforts to permit cannabis use, even as medicine. 5. That a plant that anyone can grow and whose use has never resulted in the death of anyone is treated as a menace in a country that trumpets freedom, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is an abomination. That people can lose their jobs, their freedom and their reputation for its use is the real crime.
LOLA	2012-05-04 08:06 AM
Sounds like prohibition to me. So much money and time wasted on this issue, when real crimes are out there like burglary, auto theft etc... If somebody wants to sell pot, tax them. If somebody wants to use pot, who cares. Others are literally killing themselves with alcohol and no deaths due to pot have ever been reported. Just sayin....
COMMENT 277100P	2012-05-04 08:18 AM
My friend picked me up. I don't drive because I am too medicated against pain to safely drive. We went to Goleta beach to have a beer and burn one on the IV side. He thankfully does this and at times we barbque a steak. It was freezing outside so we sat legaly in the handicapped parking spot. Three Sheriff's cars pulled up. A cop asked me what we were doing? I said "having a beer and a joint". He gave us open container tickets but said nothing about the MJ when I showed him my prescription. Double standard and priorities askew, you betcha 979!
COMMENT 277110	2012-05-04 08:31 AM
Just another horrible waste of taxpayer dollars!
COMMENT 277126	2012-05-04 09:00 AM
CIA torture rooms and blatant destruction of the video evidence against court orders....then it's, "look forward not backwards"... Illegal "robo-signing" and forclosing by the banksters....oh that's just a "technicality" and we must move on for the sake of the economy. Cops assaulting & gassing peaceful protesters....tuff tarts, stuff happens, get over it. Christo-Gun nuts with lots of military grade assault rifles....check, A-ok that's what the founding slave owners had in mind. But, Oh the humanity....a person smoking an herb must be made to suffer fines, prison and property confiscation. Welcome to The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.
COMMENT 277227	2012-05-04 12:20 PM
marijuana is all about sensitivity and love. alcohol is about insensitivity and aggression. therefore, alcohol is the legal, accepted, american drug. recently, a respected psychiatrist published a study of thousands of post traumatic stress syndrome patients (veterans) who were successfully treated with cannabis where all other treatments had failed.
COMMENT 277241	2012-05-04 01:29 PM
I find all the anti-Medical Marijuana diatribes very interesting. Apparently few-to-none of these parties has actually read the U.S. Constitution. As John Wayne would famously said, "Listen and listen GOOD." Control/regulation of alcoholic and non-alcholic "recreational" drugs was left to the States to determine, under our Constitution. Nothing has changed since the Constitution was ratified 230 years ago. Prohibition of alcohol, in 1919 required a Constitutional Amendment, or it would have been ILLEGAL and unenforceable. The 18th Amendment was REPEALED, in 1933, which returned regulatory authority to the States. Under the U. S. Constitution, Californians have the right to use popular referendum, or to elect legislators who will uphold the will of the voting majority regarding to the legal status of Alcohol, Marijuana, and other "controlled" substances. It is NOT up to the Feds, to enforce State Law!.
COMMENT 276906	2012-05-04 02:31 PM
277241 - I'd be happy to point out all the ways your reasoning is absolutely wrong but I don't have enough room.

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