Ramsey uses influence to keep wasteful funding for marijuana arrest forces

The article states: 

"Since 2009 alone, the task force has made 261 arrests, seized 53 weapons and destroyed drugs with a street value of $25.3 million."

I wonder how much of that is terrorizing medical marijuana cultivators and patients.....?

State support extended for Butte Interagency Narcotics Task Force

By GREG WELTER - Staff Writer

Posted: 11/21/2011 12:14:09 AM PST

Click photo to enlarge

Carl Sturdy, who heads BINTF south in Oroville, looks over marijuana evidence taken during a...

CHICO -- With dozens of county drug enforcement agencies facing extinction due to state funding cuts, the Butte Interagency Narcotics Task Force has learned it will be among just 18 in California to continue to be supported by the Department of Justice.Officials with the agency have been scrambling over the last several months to come up with a plan that would continue the operation, begun in 1985, and were prepared to go it alone.
Mike Maloney, BINTF board president and Chico's police chief, said the recent decision now means Butte will retain one state-funded BINTF commander position, but at this point he doesn't know who that will be.
Carl Sturdy currently heads BINTF south in Oroville, and Jeff Smith commands the northern office in Chico. Maloney said one of them may remain as commander, or a new person could be appointed. "It may depend on who has seniority," Maloney said.
There are currently about 400 sworn state officers working with 55 drug agencies around the state, and Sturdy said he's been warned that up to 200 of them may lose their jobs.
The DOJ ordered the Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement to cut $71 million from its budget over the next two years. While that will be a death knell for most agencies, Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey said it means the state will continue to cover the rent and utilities at BINTF offices in Chico and Oroville until June 30, 2012. "That's huge for us," Ramsey said.
Maloney said BINTF hopes to have a

---

Advertisement

---

modified operational plan in place by the first of next year, but said the need to find new locations for the north and south offices is not as urgent.Consolidating the two operations for financial reasons had been discussed, but may not be necessary now. "Losing BINTF south would be devastating to our area," said Oroville Police Chief Bill LaGrone.
With just one commander overseeing two offices, Maloney said a sergeant from his department and one from the Butte County Sheriff's Office will be assigned to handle day-to-day operations in the north and south offices, resulting in a net gain of one position.
Each law enforcement agency in the county currently assigns one officer to the BINTF team.
In the past, state funding has covered a portion of the pay for BINTF officers, and that may continue, at least for now.
There is no guarantee of state funding after June, Ramsey said. "That's another budget year."
Maloney credits BINTF's longevity and productivity with its selection as the only drug enforcement agency north of the Bay Area to continue getting state support.
Since 2009 alone, the task force has made 261 arrests, seized 53 weapons and destroyed drugs with a street value of $25.3 million.
In addition, BINTF pioneered a highly effective Drug Endangered Child program, which remains a model for similar programs throughout the U.S.
Maloney added it didn't hurt that Ramsey, a member of the BINTF board, has a sterling reputation with law enforcement at the state level.
On a historical note, it's generally acknowledged that methamphetamine got its start in Butte County, and flourished here.
"At one time, Butte and Imperial counties rivaled each other as the biggest producers of meth in the state," Maloney noted.

Chico ER: Oped by Jay Bergstrom

Letter: Council can stand up for citizens

Chico Enterprise-Record

Posted: 11/06/2011 01:31:34 AM PDT

I think all Chicoans should ask their city councilors to file an amicus brief on behalf of Americans for Safe Access in their lawsuit charging the feds with violation of the 10th Amendment, requesting declaratory and injunctive relief from their recent attack on medical marijuana in California —briefs from the council, or as citizens, should consensus be unreachable. The council was moving toward regulated, safe access of medical marijuana, under state law, and was vetoed.

The Supreme Court has opined that the feds do have the right to enforce their federal drug laws, as Diane Monson of Oroville and District Attorney Mike Ramsey can attest.

But the veiled threat of prison for the council and staff from U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner is way past just enforcing their law. The council was terrorized into their regressive action.

It's either that or the whole bunch are rubes who still believe "Reefer Madness" is a documentary.

— Jay Bergstrom, Forest Ranch

Butte County Sheriffs Claim to "Kick Ass" on busting people for plants

  Pubdate: Thu, 03 Nov 2011
Source: Chico News & Review, The (CA)
Copyright: 2011 Chico Community Publishing, Inc.
Contact: chicoletters@newsreview.com
Author: Tom Gascoyne

PROLIFERATION OF POT

Sheriff's Deputies Bust Several High-Volume Marijuana Farms

Harvest time in Butte County is winding down, and the Butte County sheriff's Special Enforcement Unit had a fruitful October, uprooting 4,056 female marijuana plants and gathering 6,654 pounds of processed marijuana.  It also arrested 10 people-alleged growers, their helpers and a pot hauler.

Various weapons, other drugs and 19 adult dogs and 19 puppies were also confiscated.

"There is not necessarily more being grown," said sheriff's Detective Doug Patterson.  "We're just really kicking ass.  Last year a lot of our time was taken up policing the dispensaries," he said, referring to a sting operation that effectively closed down the eight operating dispensaries in the county.

The last, North Valley Holistic Health, shut its doors two weeks ago. The county recently made permanent its temporary ban on such places of distribution.

Patterson said local law enforcement is working with federal officials, who began kicking up their war on the state's marijuana industry earlier this summer.

"We are dealing with the biggest and the baddest players," Patterson explained.  "They have not had the attention on them they should have had."

The county uses two helicopters for foothill flyovers to look for gardens in large back yards or in wilderness areas.  He said they also get tips from "pissed-off neighbors."

This summer the county Board of Supervisors adopted an ordinance addressing the growing of medical marijuana as prescribed by an interpretation of the 15-year-old Proposition 215, also known as the Compassionate Use Act of 1996.  Many in the growing community saw the ordinance as too restrictive, and a local group organized a successful referendum.  That ordinance will now be put to a vote of the people in June.

"They are using Prop.  215 [as a defense], but it's blatantly out of control," Patterson said.  "People are getting tired of it.  They see these people who don't work sitting around with thousands of dollars, new cars and partying, and they are tired of it."

A common practice employed by growers is to post a collection of medical-marijuana patients' recommendations at the grow site to validate the size of the garden.

In such cases, the original recommendation holder is contacted, Patterson said.

"And they'll say something like, 'What? Where is it? I gave it to somebody in Marysville.' You can make the scripts on your computer, they are so generic.  And some come from previous years with the dates whited-out and new dates forged on them," he said.

Some of the doctors are less than scrupulous, he continued, offering patients "superscripts" for $250, which allegedly allow the holder to grow up to 60 plants.

"As it is, doctors can only make dosage recommendations that a patient can use in a week and up to a year," he said.  "An ounce a week translates to three pounds in a year."

What follows is a chronological rundown of the major October busts made by the Special Enforcement Unit and based on their press releases.

In the early morning hours of Oct.  4, the unit working with the Butte County Inter-Agency Narcotics Task Force served one search warrant in the 2600 block of Bald Rock Road in the foothill community of Berry Creek and a second in the 4100 block of Keefer Road in north Chico.

The warrants were the result of an investigation that took several months; seven suspects were arrested.  The Berry Creek search yielded 76 "extremely large flowering" marijuana plants, a trimming machine, $15,000 in cash, one firearm and psilocybin mushrooms.  Agents arrested two men from Mexico, one from Georgia, another from Florida and one from Berry Creek.

The property owner was a man named David Najera, who was also allegedly growing pot at a rental property on Keefer Road.  A search warrant was served there, and more marijuana was located.  Najera was arrested.

Two days later, again in the early morning, the unit, working with U.S.  Forest Service agents, raided a garden in the Big Bar area of Feather River Canyon, where they found 25 pounds of processed pot and 3,328 female plants, which were pulled.  There was a camp by the garden that included a kitchen area, a sleeping area, a stove, propane tanks, pots and pans, canned foods, fertilizer and pesticide, No one was arrested on this raid.

That same day the unit issued a follow-up search warrant to another residence in Berry Creek, this one on Simmons Road.

This time, deputies found the house abandoned, and according to the press release, "clothing strewn around the bedrooms, food still in the oven, and the home in general disarray."

No one was located on the grounds, but 81 female plants were found, as was 94 pounds of processed pot, an indoor growing room and a 9mm handgun.

According to the press release, "Deputies believe this home, as with the Berry Creek and Keefer Road homes, was being used to cultivate marijuana for the purposes of sales under the disguise of Proposition 215.  Najera is currently still in the Butte County Jail with bail set at $1,000,000."

Six days later the unit served a warrant on Rocky Top Road in Cherokee and was "spotted by several Hispanic male adults who fled on foot into thick underbrush."

The men had been trimming 91 female marijuana plants before they disappeared.  The deputies located 900 pounds of processed pot and a loaded 12-gauge shotgun.

The press release for this raid read: "The persons responsible for the marijuana garden were attempting to legitimize their illegal operation by using Proposition 215 as a disguise."

Later that night, at about 8 o'clock, Deputies Joel Malinowski and Charlie Comer conducted a traffic stop in Paradise on a GMC Yukon towing a large trailer along the Skyway.  Its rearview mirrors were not large enough to accommodate the trailer.

After smelling marijuana in the trailer, agents questioned the driver, 21-year-old Nadeem Khan of Foster City.  Khan had purchased the trailer that day with cash and was transporting 1,966 pounds of processed marijuana loaded into 189 Home Depot cardboard boxes and headed from a grow site in Helltown to a home in Paradise.  The marijuana was grown for a San Jose dispensary called the Purple Lotus.

Kahn was arrested on a felony count of transporting marijuana.

And two days after the that, the unit, this time with assistance from BINTF, the Plumas and Yuba County sheriff's offices and agents from Fish and Game, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Butte County Probation, and the U.S.  Drug Enforcement Administration served four search warrants on Helltown Road in Butte Creek Canyon.

Agents found several people working on plants, but only one, a man from Soledad, was arrested, on a charge of possession of cocaine. Officers found 10 growing sites over four parcels and determined it was being operated by a Bay Area marijuana storefront and was the source of the trailer load found in Paradise and headed to San Jose. Another 2,120 pounds of processed pot and 451 plants were located at the site.

The press release from the Sheriff's Office had a familiar ring: "The people responsible for the marijuana grow sites attempted to hide their illegitimacy by posting Proposition 215 medical marijuana recommendations at each grow site.  Deputies were able to show that the marijuana gardens were not as they appeared but actually a commercial operation hiding under the disguise of Proposition 215 for the purpose of sales."

A few days after that the unit served a warrant in Oroville and found 1,505 pounds of processed marijuana and 209 plants.  They also found in backyard pens 19 adult dogs and 19 puppies and two dozen chickens and roosters.  The property owners were believed to be operating a puppy mill and raising roosters for fighting.

Five people were interviewed and two-Eldred Varnado of Oroville and Phillip Schamburg of Sacramento-were arrested on marijuana charges.

Patterson said these "massive plantations" are growing marijuana to ship it out of state.

"We've been working with the feds getting some financial help," he said.  "The search warrants we do on our own, but if we get the first notion of interstate trafficking, we pitch it to the feds.  Then [the accused] have to deal with federal law enforcement rather than the county.  And that helps with some of our court costs.

"It's kind of crazy; there are shipments of weed going out year round, 80 percent leaves the area or they'll hold onto it here until mid-summer when the price goes up and then sell it."

Drug Warrior Funding Cut. They vow to press on.

OROVILLE, Calif. -- The possible elimination of state funding won't be enough to shut down a drug enforcement program in Butte County.

The Butte Interagency Narcotics Task Force is facing the loss of $500,000 in state funding.
To keep BINTF alive, law enforcement agencies will have to band together to replace two commanders from the state bureau of narcotics enforcement and find a new building for the task force.
But Oroville Police Chief Bill LaGrone says letting BINTF die is simply not an option.
“It would be absolutely devastating for the Oroville Police Department for this task force to go away,” said LaGrone. “We are absolutely determined to keep this thing going, to keep BINTF alive, and to do what is necessary to keep the intervention going of the flow of narcotics into our community.”
District Attorney Mike Ramsey says they should know by the middle of the month if BINTF will be able to keep its funding.

Chico News and Review Examine How Ramsey's Raids on Medical Cannabis have harmed the community.

Where are they now?

Almost 15 months after raids on medical-marijuana collectives, few have been charged and more have suffered

By Meredith J. Graham 
meredithg@newsreview.com

Read 1 reader submitted comment

This article was published on 09.22.11.

Since this photo was taken, Rick Tognoli shut the doors on Scripts Only Service. PHOTO BY MEREDITH J. GRAHAM

Related stories this week: It’s a love/hate thing Our relationship with marijuana—especially here in Butte County—has certainly had its highs and lows. Redding takes on medical cannabis Redding has 16 dispensaries, while Chico has none. Why is that? Dirty business Cartels add danger, environmental degradation to local landscape. Related stories: Co-op owners say they feel ‘violated’ Last week’s raid leaves many with empty hands and heavy hearts. CN&R, 07.08.10. The cannabis conundrum As medical-marijuana grows proliferate, Butte County brings down the hammer on dispensaries.CN&R, 09.02.10. A year after the medical-marijuana dispensary raids, charges are filed Three people from Mountainside Patient Collective charged; DA says more pending. CN&R, 06.30.11.

More than a year ago, law-enforcement officers raided eight medical-marijuana collectives in Butte County, and the lives of those targeted haven’t been the same since. One man nearly lost his trucking business. Another had trouble making his house payment. Several up and left Butte County in the dust (except for occasional appearances in court to try to reclaim seized property).
In the meantime, prosecutors have filed criminal charges in just one case. For everyone else caught up in the raids, it feels like being judged and punished before being brought to the courtroom.
Richard Tognoli is a prime example. As owner of Tognoli Trucking and Grading, he’d done pretty well for himself. Profits from when the economy was healthy were keeping business rolling during recent hard times. He had four trucks and several employees. Then law enforcement raided his collective—Scripts Only Service (SOS)—and, among other things, seized all his bank accounts, including those related to his trucking company and his personal finances.
As of September 2010, Tognoli estimated he’d lost more than $100,000 because of the bank seizures. Now, a year later, he runs just one truck because he wasn’t able to afford fuel and payroll for the other three.
“It’s like I’m back to being a one-truck owner-operator,” he said recently by phone. “It really takes a lot to build a company. It took me years to get where I was. They crippled us.”
As for SOS, Tognoli shut the doors about three months ago.
“What they did to the cannabis club, wiping out the garden and hitting us with zoning-violation fines, there’s no way a small organization working to try to help the disabled community in Butte County is going to be able to stick around,” he said. “We were so completely upside down it wasn’t even funny. We couldn’t pay the phone bill, let alone electric bills and the rest.”
Tognoli has been working all this time, having gone to court on countless occasions to get the physical property seized in the raid returned to him—“We got enough paperwork back so we could file taxes,” he said—and the money has been the toughest nut to crack. A year after the raid and seizure of his bank accounts, Tognoli and his lawyer, Robert MacKenzie, are still fighting to get it all back.
“The judge returned the money but overstepped his authority, in my opinion, by saying that my lawyer had to keep it in his trust account just in case there’s a conviction later on,” Tognoli said. So, the $10,000-plus that could be used to keep his trucking business thriving is instead sitting in a bank account “just in case.”
MacKenzie represents several clients who are trying to get their assets returned to them from the raids—including Tognoli and Paul Fink, who ran Northern California Herbal Collective. Like Tognoli, Fink also runs his own business, an adult bookstore called PlayTime4You. And, also like Tognoli, Fink’s bank accounts were seized (in most other cases bank accounts were frozen but not seized). He also was told he’d get his money back, but it would have to be held in trust by his attorney.
Fink views his decision to open a medical-marijuana collective in Butte County as one of the worst he’s ever made.
“I’ve struggled, big time,” he said during a recent interview in his north Chico home.
The raid and seizure of his bank accounts marked the first in a string of negative incidents for Fink, a 30-something Hispanic man. Shortly afterward, one of his partners at the collective, Trevor McBride, died suddenly of a brain aneurysm. Not long after that, a fire ravaged PlayTime4You’s Esplanade location. As if that wasn’t enough, a few months ago his other partner, William Burney, was charged with murder in the 2008 killing of a Paradise man.
But, to date, despite being raided not once but three times, Fink still has not been charged with a crime. In the meantime, he believes his good name has been caked with mud. When his house was raided last June, officers spoke about Fink to his neighbors as if he was a convicted drug dealer.
“I’ve busted my ass, working two jobs most of my life. It’s not like I’m living the life—I’m scraping by just like everyone else,” he said, adding that he had trouble making his house payment after his accounts were seized. “Right now, I’m trying to survive. I’ve spent so much money on attorneys. I’m paying to prove my innocence when I am innocent.”
MacKenzie agreed. Despite having requested that assets and property be returned to his clients—he’s currently working seven cases related to last year’s raids—he doubts all of it will be returned until the three-year statute of limitations has expired. And that’s even if charges are never filed against his clients.
“The game that’s played here [on the part of the prosecutors] is, ‘How much are you going to pay to get these assets back?’” he said. “Just about anybody would say that drug dealers shouldn’t be able to profit from their illicit gains. Unfortunately that’s created grossly unfair and draconian exceptions to our constitutional rights [of due process].”
This past June, almost a year to the day after the raids, Butte County Deputy District Attorney Helen Harberts filed charges against three individuals involved with one collective, Mountainside Patients Collective. A press release from the DA’s Office promised more charges against people involved with other collectives were forthcoming, but none has yet been filed.
Brothers Jason and Michael Anderson face six charges each, and Kaitlyn Sanchez faces four, related to the cultivation, possession and sale of marijuana. A preliminary hearing has been set for Monday (Sept. 26), the same day Jason Anderson was hoping to have surgery to remove cancer from his ribs and spine.
“A large part of recovering from cancer is remaining positive,” Jason Anderson wrote in an email. He was feeling too ill after an August surgery that removed one rib to meet with a reporter in person. “I would be lying if I told you that the legal charges against me were not weighing heavily on me and that the stress of it all was not interfering with my ability to heal.”
When doctors found on an X-ray what appeared to be a tumor in his chest cavity, Anderson, who was already a medical-marijuana patient and grew his own plants, decided the timing was right to start a collective. Within two months of opening, however, his health began to decline rapidly. When June came along, “We lost everything in the raids and did not re-open,” Anderson explained. None of their property or assets have been returned.
Others involved in last year’s raids continue to fight—Robert Galia, who runs North Valley Holistic Health, is the only one whose doors have remained open despite the odds—and others have thrown in the towel. Doctor’s Orders, which won last year’s Best of Chico category for Best Medical Marijuana Dispensary, shut down and left Butte County altogether. So did some of the others.
The reality is, whether they’re fighting the seizure of their property in civil court or not, they’re all sitting around waiting, wondering if they’ll be charged with criminal crimes, like those involved with Mountainside Patients Collective.
“They’ll hit rather quickly after the first preliminary hearing, after I see how the court’s going to rule,” Harberts said of future charges related to the raids.
So, this holiday season could be very bleak indeed. Or it could yield nothing, as previous threats have been unfruitful.
“I just want all this behind me,” said Fink. “I want to be able to move on with my life.”
Anderson echoed his thoughts.
“My first hope is to live. That is the reality I currently face,” he wrote. “Beyond that I hope to not go to prison for providing cannabis medicines to qualified patients. … I hope to continue to fight for patient rights until we see the day when the senseless prohibition of this plant is a distant memory and people do not have to go through the pain and suffering I am [going through] due to insane laws and archaic policy.”

Ramsey gets over on Chico City Council with idle threats and friends in high places

Chico City Council gamed on dispensaries

Ramsey harshes its medi-pot high by bringing in a ringer

This article was published on 08.25.11.

On July 5, following “almost 30 months of research, deliberations, discussions, and consideration,” as City Manager Dave Burkland described it in a memo to the Chico City Council, the council approved an ordinance that would have allowed establishment of two medical-cannabis dispensaries in the city.
Two councilmen, Bob Evans and Mark Sorensen, voted against it on principle, and Mayor Ann Schwab opposed it because she thought that, at up to 10,000 square feet each, the dispensaries would be too large.
On Aug. 16, the council did an about-face and repealed the ordinance on a 5-2 vote, with Mary Flynn and Scott Gruendl dissenting.
What happened? In a nutshell, the council got gamed.
The big winner was Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey, who brought in a ringer in the person of U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner. Wagner issued a veiled threat to prosecute council members and even city staff for “facilitating” commercial cultivation activities by passing the ordinance.
Mind you, nobody thought Wagner would follow through on the threat. Most cities in California allow dispensaries, and none of their officials have been prosecuted. Redding, for example, has an estimated 17 dispensaries. Chico is small potatoes.
Besides, imagine the uproar that would result from arresting elected officials for doing something that is perfectly legal under California law. It wasn’t going to happen.
But the threat was sufficient to scare City Manager Dave Burkland, who recommended repeal, and at least two council members, Jim Walker and Andy Holcombe, who voted for it after supporting the original ordinance.
To his credit, Holcombe was willing to support an ordinance allowing smaller dispensaries (1,500 square feet) that could fly under Wagner’s radar. He also noted the city wasn’t repealing its ordinance allowing cultivation, which is also illegal under federal law. And he wondered where “seriously ill” people who had legitimate recommendations for cannabis but who were disabled or lived in apartments were going to obtain their medicine.
This is a question Mike Ramsey has failed to answer. Now he’s been joined by the Chico City Council.

Maybe Mike Ramsey is not the only one needing a recall. Seems like 3 other Supervisors lie to waste County resources on non-problems too

Pot ordinance going to the voters

By ROGER H. AYLWORTH-Staff Writer

Posted: 08/10/2011 12:18:26 AM PDT

OROVILLE — Butte County's controversial marijuana cultivation ordinance is slated to go to the voters next June, due to a successful referendum petition drive.

In a 21-minute hearing Tuesday, a divided Butte County Board of Supervisors voted to put the ordinance on the ballot in the June primary.

The decision came on a 3-2 vote, with Chico Supervisor Larry Wahl, Oroville Supervisor Bill Connelly, and Paradise Supervisor Kim Yamaguchi voting to put the ordinance before the voters for an up or down decision.

The ordinance prohibited marijuana cultivation on any lot smaller than a half-acre, required growers to register with the county and provide the names of all those for whom they were growing. Additionally, it put limitations on the number of plants that could be cultivated on a parcel based on property size, and forbade the growing of any plants within 1,000 feet of a school, church, childcare facility, or a drug and/or alcohol treatment center.

The ordinance had been the topic of intense debate since March, with three massive public hearings and more than 15 hours of often rancorous public testimony. The supervisors approved it during a special meeting May 24, conducted in a pavilion at the Butte County Fairgrounds to accommodate the massive crowd.

An organization called Citizens for Compassionate Use, was immediately formed and it launched a petition drive to block the ordinance. 

On July 27, the county Clerk/Recorder Office certified the referendum petitions had sufficient signatures to halt enforcement of the ordinance and to force the board to take one of three options:
* It could repeal the measure; 
* It could vote to put it on the ballot for the next planned election, in this case the June 2012 primary; or,petitions had sufficient signatures to halt enforcement of the ordinance and to force the board to take one of three options:


* It could schedule a special election of its own.

Before the board voted, County Chief Administrative Officer Paul Hahn, said a special election would cost Butte between $450,000 and $500,000. Piggy-backing the referendum on the June primary would cost $50,000 "or substantially less," Hahn said.

Compared to previous hearings, a relative handful of individuals spoke to the board, mostly urging the supervisors to repeal the ordinance and be done with it.

Robert MacKenzie, who described himself as the attorney for the Citizens for Compassionate Use, said the group had a substitute ordinance for the board to consider, if they chose to repeal the existing measure.

"I would like to repeal the ordinance and come up with another ordinance that works," said Chico Supervisor Maureen Kirk.

She made her proposal a motion.

Board Chairman Steve Lambert, whose district stretches from the southwest corner of the county to parts of Chico, seconded the motion.

"My thing is, we need to address this now," explained Lambert.

He said if the county waited until June for a resolution of the situation, the county would again be in the middle of a marijuana growing season. Lambert said he didn't want to wait another year or spend $50,000 to deal with this concern.

The motion died when Connelly, Wahl, and Yamaguchi voted no.

Wahl said the opponents of the ordinance asked for a referendum, "They asked that it be put before the entire people of Butte County, and I think we should honor their wishes."

Kirk said, "I don't think our ordinance is legally defensible even if it passes ... I think if we put it to a ballot we will waste the money and then face a lawsuit."

Yamaguchi, Connelly, and Wahl then voted to put it on the ballot.

Staff writer Roger H. Aylworth can be reached at 896-7762 or raylworth@chicoer.com.

Will Butte County waste taxayer money trying to uphold Ramsey's restrictive ordinance?

Medical Marijuana Advocates Prepare for Possible Election

POSTED: 5:21 pm PDT August 8, 2011

EmailPrint

AAAText Size

UPDATED: 6:42 pm PDT August 8, 2011

CHICO, Calif. -- Medical marijuana advocates in Butte County will soon find out if the county's ordinance regulating growing and distribution will go before the voters.
Tomorrow the Board of Supervisors will discuss the ordinance passed last May.
Opponents of the ordinance successfully gathered enough signatures on a petition to keep the ordinance from going into effect.
Now the Board must either repeal the ordinance or put it on the ballot.
Citizens for Compassionate use, which circulated the petition, will be at the meeting with a proposal of their own.
“We're not against having an ordinance here in Butte County, just ordinance 4029,” said Weston Mickey. “We're all just anticipating that they rescind. Hopefully they do, but if not it will be an uphill battle, but it is a battle we're willing to take on and we feel that we can win.”
The Board will take up the ordinance at tomorrow's meeting at 1 p.m. in the Board of Supervisors Chambers in Oroville.

CN&R on ordinance repeal Ramsey orchestrated. Council feels "bullied..."

City Council back-pedals on medi-pot ordinance

Panel also votes to retain redevelopment agency

By Meredith J. Graham 
meredithg@newsreview.com
More stories by this author... 

This article was published on 08.04.11.

Related stories: City Council approves dispensary ordinance Decides to take “baby steps” by allowing only two businesses to operate. CN&R, 06.09.11. Chico cops revolt against pot ordinance The medical-marijuana law will allow for two dispensaries in town, but police say it violates federal law. CN&R, 07.28.11.

“We’re being bullied.”
That was the general feeling conveyed at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting related to medical marijuana, the “we” being the city and the bully being the federal government. Under vague threats of prosecution—city staff, including council members, could go to jail for conspiracy, according to U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner—the council backed down, voting to repeal the dispensary ordinance it passed just last month.
“When you get a letter from the U.S. attorney addressed to yourself, that really opens your eyes,” said Mayor Ann Schwab. She was referring to the letter Wagner sent her just days before the council approved the ordinance July 5. “The eyes of the federal government are on us as elected officials.”
City staff tended to agree. City Manager Dave Burkland and City Attorney Lori Barker made a trip last month to Wagner’s Sacramento office to try to understand better what the city could do to keep from being prosecuted. Neither could offer any specifics gleaned from the meeting, other than the dispensaries’ facility size seemed to be an important factor. The message that did get through, loud and clear, was that city officials could face prosecution for conspiracy by allowing for facilities meant for the manufacture and distribution of marijuana.
“I don’t understand how a conspiracy charge could be held up,” countered Councilman Andy Holcombe, also an attorney. He pointed to several ways in which the ordinance could be reworded to clearly state the intent of the law is to provide safe access to medicine for seriously ill patients. “It really comes down to intent.”
Surprisingly, only 16 members of the public showed up to offer their opinions on the matter, and they varied from members of the Chico Police Officers Association, which has already come out publicly against the ordinance, to those involved in local dispensaries, who pleaded for the ability to offer a safe, legal way for patients to obtain their medicine.
Some, like Chamber of Commerce President Jolene Francis, suggested that not repealing the ordinance would be “calling their bluff.” Others, like local blogger Quentin Colgan, considered repeal nothing short of cowardice. “This is when we need the City Council to stand up for us—stand up to the bully,” he said.
“We are being bullied. But we’re being bullied by the federal government,” acknowledged Vice Mayor Jim Walker. “I don’t like this at all. I think we should take a breath and revisit this—maybe six months is the right amount of time to do that.”
Holcombe shot back: “We’ve taken enough breaths; it’s time to exhale. We’re not thumbing our noses at anyone—this is about protecting sick people. I think we can—and should—stand up to the bully.”
In the end, though a majority of the council seemed to agree that some sort of similar ordinance ought to be in place at some point, a motion to repeal by Councilman Mark Sorensen carried 4-3, with council members Holcombe, Scott Gruendl and Mary Flynn—who posed the curious question of how Chico happened on the U.S. Attorney’s radar in the first place—dissenting.

DA Mike Ramsey Uses Fed Connection to Bully Chico City Council to denying patients access

Giving in to bullying

DA Ramsey gets his way—but at what cost?

This article was published on 08.04.11.

With their decision (see Newslines, page 9) to repeal their medical-marijuana ordinancepertaining to collectives and dispensaries, members of the Chico City Council who supported the ordinance because it provided safe access to cannabis for qualified patients lost a round to District Attorney Mike Ramsey and the Obama administration.

Basically, they gave into bullying by U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner, who threatened city staff with prosecution if they facilitated dispensaries. It’s obvious he did so at Ramsey’s behest.

Credit the DA with consistency on this front. He’s opposed dispensaries from day one and has done everything in his power to get rid of them.

President Obama and the U.S. Department of Justice have been anything but consistent, however. The president campaigned promising to end the war on drugs and establish a progressive policy designed, as much as possible, to take the profits out of the drug trade. Early on, Attorney General Eric Holder made it clear that his agency would not enforce federal laws against marijuana in states where medical-cannabis use was legal.

That’s all changed. Now a U.S. attorney is threatening to prosecute local officials for trying to implement California law. It’s shameful.

Mind you, we have no illusions about medical marijuana. Proposition 215 is widely abused. But there are many people who have a legitimate need and use for medical cannabis. Not all of them can grow their own. Some are disabled. Some live in apartments. How are they now supposed to obtain their medicine?

That’s a question Mike Ramsey has yet to answer.

Source: http://www.newsreview.com/chico/giving-in-to-bullying/content?oid=3088214

IT IS CLEAR MIKE RAMSEY DOES NOT INTEND ON FOLLOWING STATE LAW AND COULD CARE LESS WHERE PATIENTS IN NEED GET THEIR MEDICINE. WHY IS HE WASTING THE COUNTY RESOURCES ON THIS FIGHT?

Reaction to Repeal of Chico's Medical Marijuana Ordinance

Advocates are calling the repeal of Chico’s medical marijuana ordinance a "major setback," but city officials say it was necessary after local police refused to enforce it and federal prosecutors threatened to press charges.
After much discussion, the Chico City Council voted 4 to 3 to repeal the medical marijuana ordinance just weeks after the ordinance passed by the same margin. Vice Mayor Jim Walker, who changed his vote from last month, says he felt bullied by federal prosecutors.
"I knew going in that we would have to make changes, wasn't sure what those changes would be. I knew that we would we would have to make amendments somehow," Walker said.
Those changes came in the form of an outright repeal of the medical marijuana ordinance the Chico City Council had been fine tuning for nearly three years.
The move came less than a month the council approved the ordinance despite a letter from the U.S. Attorney who warned the ordinance violated federal law. Council members say after reading the letter and talking with the U.S. Attorney, they felt it was best to take a step back.
"It was very clearly said what you are doing is illegal and we will prosecute, and I think they are looking for a place to make a case,” Walker said.
Proponents of the ordinance say they are disappointed that the council let themselves be bullied by the federal government, but say they accept the decision.
"If they reiterate a threat, it's going to scare people. Obviously it scared our city and that's understandable. I'm scared of the federal government and the district attorney. They have power I don't," Dylan Tellesen of the Citizen Collective said.
Even though the ordinance was repealed, both sides say they will continue working toward a plan that can satisfy local, state and federal law enforcement.
"We just need to step back, reconsider it but I'd really like to move forward with the intent of Prop 215 in the future," Walker said.
"Every time a challenge comes up, it's an opportunity for more clarity. Time to come back and represent the facts, get everyone in a comfortable place," Tellesen said.
There is word that council members are discussing plans to tweak the ordinance.
The city attorney is also researching the law and will present her findings in six months.


Source: http://www.khsltv.com/content/localnews/story/Reaction-to-Repeal-of-Chicos-Medical-Marijuana/93CqlRIsM0mJs0BMZ_fahg.cspx

Drug task force shortages due to funding cuts, yet Ramsey continues quest to prosecute legal providers of medical cannabis. Does he get paid per felony filed?

State Drug and Gang Task Forces at Risk

Reported by: Britt Carlson Email: bcarlson@khsltv.com Last Update: 7/06 9:25 pm

Print Story | Share

A critical law enforcement tool in California is at risk for closure.     All of the north state's drug and gang task forces are in limbo because of a $71 million cut to the Division of Law Enforcement within the Attorney General's Office. Butte, Glenn and Shasta Counties all have these interagency task forces that are dedicated to keeping drug and gang-related crimes at bay.     But they're all at risk of shutting down, which could have a major impact on public safety.  California's first line of defense against drug cartels and gangs has taken a hit. Chief of the Chico Police Department Mike Maloney says, “The one dedicated resource we have in Butte County that focuses on those higher level drug offenders is BINTF, and if we end up in a position where they're gone, the impact will be profound.”  50 state drug and gang task forces had state funding eliminated in the current budget.     It calls for a $35 million reduction this fiscal year, totaling $71 million the next.    It could also result in the loss of $40 million in Federal funding.  Maloney adds, “If you combine the absence of those task forces with the impact of prison realignment that we're about to experience, we're looking for some difficult times public safety wise.”  And rural areas like the north state will feel the most significant impacts.  Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey says, “They don't have the resources, we've leveraged these resources by coming together with the Department of Justice’s help.”  Just two years ago, these task forces were in the same position, but enough protests from voters made legislators reconsider.  “There’s negotiations that are going on with the Attorney General, the Governor, and the Legislature that they will find other sources of funds rather than cut the public's number one priority: that being public safety,” says Ramsey.  Without all the investigations, surveillance and arrests these task forces make, officials fear it will only lead to more crime.  Both Chief Maloney and Ramsey say they've already written letters to north state legislators protesting the cuts and they encourage citizens to do the same.