USA Today Article On Landlords And Raids

[Any Other Illness]

DEA targets landlords in pot battle
By William M. Welch

LOS ANGELES — The U.S. Justice Department is unleashing a potent new
weapon in its battle against California’s hundreds of medical pot
clinics, threatening landlords with arrest and property seizures for
renting to tenants who flout federal drug laws.

Intensifying its crackdown on pot sales that are legal under California

law but illegal under U.S. law, agents of the Drug Enforcement Agency
executed search warrants Wednesday in raids on 10 marijuana
dispensaries across Los Angeles.

As agents were moving in, Los Angeles’ city council voted 11-0 to
tentatively approve a one-year moratorium on more medical marijuana
stores, which have exploded in number in the past two years.

Federal officials estimate there are 400 storefront and office
operations selling medical marijuana in Los Angeles and L.A. County, up
from just 20 two years ago and more than double the number at the start
of the year, DEA Special Agent Sarah Pullen says. Law enforcement
officials contend the sales have become a source for recreational pot
users.

“It’s clearly not about compassion or care at this point,” Pullen
says. “It’s about money.”

The most serious threat to California’s voter-approved pot sales came
in a letter last week from the DEA to 150 property owners or managers
informing them that a tenant is operating a marijuana dispensary on the
property in violation of federal law.

The letter warns that California’s pot law, approved as Proposition
215 a decade ago, “is not a defense to this crime or to the seizure of
the property.” Landlords, the DEA warned, could lose their buildings and
land and face felonies with 20-year prison sentences.

“It scared the hell out of my client,” said Barry Parker, attorney
for property owner Kash Holdings LLC. It rents space to Karma Collective.

As a result of the DEA notice, Parker said Karma Collective had agreed
to close and vacate its space within a month. He predicted many other
landlords would evict.

“It’s just too risky a situation for a landlord to take on, at the
same time potentially costly,” he said.

David Kestenbaum, attorney for Karma Collective, said landlords who get

such a letter have no choice but to evict pot-selling tenants. “It
will effectively, in my opinion, shut down the clinics that are open and
force patients ... to again go back to buying it off the streets,” he
said.

Supporters of marijuana for medical uses say it can relieve pain for
people with cancer, AIDS and other diseases.

Kris Hermes, spokesman for Americans for Safe Access, a pro-marijuana
lobby, called the warning an “attempt by DEA to intimidate these
operators and force these facilities to close.”

His group has not opposed the moratorium, reasoning it could be a step
toward city regulations recognizing legal pot sales. He said the
DEA’s timing appeared intended to shut down as many clinics as possible just
as a city moratorium takes effect, preventing stores from reopening at
another location.

L.A. Councilman Dennis Zine, sponsor of the moratorium, wrote DEA
Administrator Karen Tandy on Wednesday protesting the focus on
landlords. He asked “that you abandon this tactic.”

“Voters in California and in Los Angeles support the medical use of
cannabis and want safe, well-regulated access,” he said.

Don Duncan, whose California Patients Group distributes medical
marijuana from a store in Hollywood, said his landlord had not received
a letter but felt threatened nonetheless. He said the store has been
operating for a year and a half and sells to as many as 100 patients a
day.

“It’s very disconcerting, frankly,” he said. “It’d be a shame
to work this hard and be shut down based on intimidation. ... Right now we’re
waiting to see what happens.”

Less than 24 hours after he spoke, Duncan’s dispensary was raided by
DEA agents, Pullen said. Duncan did not answer his phone Wednesday.

USA TODAY (July 25, 2007)