:: iTEMS OF INTEREST ::

Medical Pot Providers Are Targeted
June 23, 2005 -Los Angeles Times, Article

Federal drug agents launched a crackdown on medical marijuana providers Wednesday, charging a husband and wife in Sacramento and raiding more than 20 San Francisco dispensaries.

In San Francisco , agents conducted searches of three pot clubs and more than 20 homes and businesses, capping a more than two-year investigation into an alleged trafficking ring.

In Sacramento , Dr. Marion Fry, 48, and her husband, attorney Dale C. Schafer, 50, were arrested on a sealed indictment handed down a week ago. The document charges them with conspiracy to grow and distribute marijuana between August 1999 and September 2001 from their storefront California Medical Research Center in Cool, a Sierra foothill community northeast of Sacramento .

One of the criminal defense attorneys involved in the case, said he thought Wednesday's arrests and sweep may have been prompted by the U.S. Supreme Court's medical marijuana ruling two weeks ago. In Gonzales v. Raich, the high court said federal law prohibiting the sale and distribution of narcotics superseded state medical marijuana laws.

California is one of 10 states that allow the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.