On January 28, 2016, San Diego police raided a local, licensed medical cannabis extraction company.
Police smashed through the front door using a sledgehammer, brandishing assault rifles and handguns. Inside, they arrested two employees, cracked open the company's safe, and collected over 30,000 cartridges of cannabis oil, a few pounds of concentrate, and $325,570 in cash.
Police then seized a total of $1.4 million in cash, product, and money from various bank accounts belonging to the business' owner, James Slatic, including his
two daughters' college savings and the savings of his wife, a Veterans Affairs employee.Businesses operating legally in states where marijuana is legal are still being terrorized under federal
civil asset forfeiture laws, which allows the State to seize a citizen's cash and other belongings without charging them with a crime. Worse still, civil asset forfeiture laws put the burden of proof on the accused -- a total subversion of law and justice.
This is theft. This is violence. This cannot go on. Last year, California passed the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act (MMRSA). The three bills are the first statewide set of rules for the marijuana industry, and went into effect Jan. 1, 2016, but "the specifics are still being written and state licenses will not be issued until 2018,"
according to Inc. "This two-year gap
leaves the window open for police to continue to conduct raids and seize assets via federal asset forfeiture laws until MMRSA is implemented at the state level."
Police are taking advantage of these awful laws to make money while they can, constituting a "smash and grab" raid. U.S. law enforcement has
seized $1 billion via asset forfeiture in marijuana cases from 2002 through 2012.
Please sign this petition to tell San Diego law enforcement to STOP conducting raids of legal marijuana businesses and ask the DEA to decline to file charges against Slatic and return his money!On January 28, 2016, San Diego police raided a local, licensed medical cannabis extraction company, Med-West Distributors.
Police smashed through the front door using a sledgehammer, brandishing assault rifles and handguns. Inside, they arrested two employees, cracked open the company's safe, and collected over 30,000 cartridges of cannabis oil, a few pounds of concentrate, and $325,570 in cash.
Police then seized a total of $1.4 million in cash, product, and money from various bank accounts belonging to the business' owner, James Slatic, including his
two daughters' college savings and the savings of his wife, a Veterans Affairs employee.
Businesses operating legally in states where marijuana is legal are still being terrorized under federal civil asset forfeiture laws, which allows the State to seize a citizen's cash and other belongings without charging them with a crime. Worse still, civil asset forfeiture laws put the burden of proof on the accused -- a total subversion of law and justice.
This is theft. This is violence. This cannot go on. We the undersigned urge the
San Diego Police Department and District Attorney to STOP conducting raids of legal marijuana businesses. We also ask the DEA to decline to file charges against Slatic and return his money!