Garden Grove Invites Feds In Against Marijuana Dispensaries

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Leonard Ortiz/The Orange County Register
Kandice Hawes, 30, director of Orange County NORML, protests outside the Costa Mesa City Council in February after they called in the feds to raid medical marijuana dispensaries. Now, Garden Grove’s police chief has done the same thing.

Police officials in Garden Grove, California — apparently unwilling to uphold state law, which allows medical marijuana dispensaries — have invited federal authorities who raided collectives in Costa Mesa earlier this year to do the same in their town.

The Garden Grove Police Department has already been in touch with federal agents, and “they will be coming to Garden Grove in the future,” promised Police Chief Kevin Raney at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, reports Roxana Kopetman at The Orange County Register.
Chief Raney would not give details of the city’s request, but said his department is seeking the help of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in “enforcing federal law.” The Chief seems unaware that he is charged with enforcing state law; maybe he always wanted to be a “federal agent,” or something.

“Wow,” commented Tom Peranteau, office manager at Healy & Associates Law Firm. “So the local police ‘think’ something should be illegal and they abuse their position by calling in the feds for this? Nevermind state sovereignty and our rule of law, eh?”

Garden Grove Strawberry Festival
TRAITOR: Police Chief Kevin Raney says the feds “will be coming to Garden Grove in the future” — at his invitation

Council members and residents had been complaining during the meeting about the “proliferation of dispensaries” in the city; Chief Raney responded to their questions, comments and kvetching by promising federal raids on state-legal collectives.
“Is there going to be one in every single corner,” asked drama queen Maureen Blackmun, vice president of the Central Garden Grove Neighborhood Association, also known as a bunch of busybodies who need to get lives. “Is this going to be our new reality?” Blackmun asked, who evidently hasn’t been paying very close attention since medical marijuana was legalized in California 16 years ago.
Some residents estimated the number of dispensaries in the city at 73, but Chief Raney said the number was closer to 60.
Councilman Bruce Broadwater, not to be outdone by Maureen in the drama department, called the growing number of dispensaries a “nightmare.” Oddly, he didn’t see fit to mention liquor stores, Starbucks or pharmacies.
“Nobody here wants any of them,” Mayor William Dalton said of the marijuana dispensaries, openly lying and showing his contempt for the voters who legalized medicinal cannabis years ago.
Chief Raney said the police have been “wrestling with the issue” (Why wrestle with something that’s supposed to be LEGAL? Aren’t there any real crimes in Garbage Grove?) for the past two years, when about five to eight of the dispensaries first opened in the city.
The city stopped registering marijuana dispensaries in January, pending unresolved legal disputes in California. State law allows for the medical use of marijuana, while federal law prohibits it for any purpose.
That same month, federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided two Costa Mesa dispensaries and several homes supposedly connected with the storefront shops.
Costa Mesa, facing multiple lawsuits from several dispensaries, requested federal “assistance” in shutting down 27 known active medical marijuana collectives after passing a city ordinance against them (once again, showing contempt for the wishes of California’s voters).
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