IN THE DARK

Crowds Repelled a Raid on a Popular Cannabis Club, but the Feds
Returned That Night, Busted Down the Door, and Left the Place Open to Thieves

Days before new regulations for San Francisco's medical marijuana
dispensaries were due to take effect, the federal Drug Enforcement
Administration targeted a popular cannabis club and found itself in
an unexpected showdown with angry locals.

A dozen DEA agents swept into the city Dec. 20, raiding the home of
Cathy and Steve Smith, operators of the HopeNet medical cannabis
dispensary, and two of their cannabis grow sites.

The DEA team arrived at dawn, marched Steve Smith outside in his
underwear, handcuffed him, and searched the house. Smith said the
feds didn't realize he and his wife ran a dispensary until the feds
discovered a business card during the search.

Two truckloads of DEA agents shadowed Cathy Smith's son William
Curran as he prepared to open the dispensary later that morning. But
when the agents weren't able to produce a search warrant, they
returned to their trucks and sat grim faced as about 50 medical
cannabis supporters arrived and surrounded their vehicles. Protestors
held up signs announcing that a raid was taking place, and passing
cars honked in support of the dispensary.

"The outrage that we see here will grow in San Francisco if they
don't butt out of medical cannabis," Sup. Chris Daly said in front of
HopeNet, which provided free or low-cost cannabis to 1,000 patients.
"HopeNet, by all accounts, is a model facility, and one of the most
prominent, most sensitive, and, most importantly, one of the most
compassion-oriented medical cannabis facilities in San Francisco."

After a four-hour standoff, which drew a San Francisco Police
Department tactical unit for crowd control, local police officers
left the scene. DEA agents also retreated, and activists declared
victory and went home. But the DEA returned to the dispensary after
dark and broke down the door. According to DEA spokeswoman Casey
McEnry, agents had federal warrants for all the searches.

The following evening, thieves apparently breached the dispensary's
damaged security gate and carted off a computer, a stereo, and
presents gathered for children who had been orphaned by AIDS.

Standing in his ransacked dispensary last week, Steve Smith showed
how DEA agents meticulously bent the prongs of the electrical plug
that connected his holiday lights. "There was nothing here, no
patient records," Smith said. "They just kicked the door down and
unplugged Christmas."

McEnry said the raids were a result of a two-year investigation
sparked by an anonymous tip. The information led to a home in the
Sonoma County town of Penngrove, where the DEA seized 217 marijuana plants.

That investigation led agents to the Smiths' home and adjacent grow
room, on the 200 block of Cara Street, where they seized 122
marijuana plants, as well as an unknown amount of processed cannabis.

Marijuana brownies and butter were confiscated from the HopeNet
dispensary at 223 Ninth Street.

Agents also raided a warehouse on Cara Street and said they seized
another 500 plants. Steve Smith said only 140 of the plants had
roots, and the rest were cuttings.

"It is a clear violation of federal law to cultivate, possess, and
distribute marijuana," McEnry said when asked why federal agents
would raid a medical cannabis cooperative operating under California
law. "Today, as the DEA, we enforced federal drug laws and conducted
a lawful search of these four locations, and we seized marijuana."

Earlier in December, DEA agents shut down 13 medical cannabis
dispensaries in San Diego. "I think they will target others," said
Steve Smith. "This is a test to see if the community will stand up to them."

Two days after the raid, Cathy Smith and a dozen supporters visited
Mayor Gavin Newsom's office to ask for his support. But the mayor,
who has not commented on the raids, was not there.

"I think city officials need to provide some answers and ask why this
is happening," Kris Hermes, legal campaign director for the medical
marijuana patients group Americans for Safe Access, said. "Why was
one of the most cherished dispensaries in the city raided when they
just spent half a year developing regulations which were ostensibly
put in place to avoid that?"

Sup. Ross Mirkarimi - who authored the legislation setting guidelines
for medical cannabis facilities and patients in San Francisco - told
the Bay Guardian he wants to know if the DEA is persecuting San
Francisco for having dispensaries or some other reason.

"It seems like information is scant from the DEA to the police or the
mayor - or they are just not sharing it," Mirkarimi said, calling on
Rep. Nancy Pelosi to step in if the feds won't talk to city
officials. "The elected family of San Francisco needs to be more
vocal about our insistence that this is a Prop. 215 state, and this
is a law we passed, and to respect that law."

District Attorney Kamala Harris reemphasized her support for medical
cannabis. A spokesperson for Harris said that neither her office nor
the police were involved in the raid.

No arrests have been made in connection with any of the raids. But
McEnry says the DEA is working with the San Francisco U.S. Attorney's
Office to review the evidence and arrests are possible.

Steve Smith says he hopes to have HopeNet open again by New Year's
Day and that he and his wife will ask the city for permission to give
away free cannabis to registered patients on the steps of City Hall
on Christmas. But he says the $20,000 confiscated by the DEA was his
life's savings and the dispensary's operating funds.

"If there are charges filed, we'll be under hundreds of thousands of
dollars of bail that we can't possibly come up with. Bail me out or
at least feed my dog," Smith said. "And if there are any brave souls
out there who would like to help a couple hundred people with
compassion [free medical cannabis], please take my place."