On the Record

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July 30, 2005

Medical Cannabis Data Raids: A Security Case Study

This is the text of a talk that I presented today at "What The Hack," a computer hacking conference in Boxtel, Netherlands. You can find more information about this very interesting event at their web site. During the talk, I also presented information from a federal search warrant which lists the kind of data authorities are seeking during raids on the medical cannabis community in San Francisco. You can view this affidavit here

Here is the text of my presentation:

This talk focuses on an interesting data security problem generated by the United States’ "war on drugs," its attacks on civil liberties, and efforts to defend against these attacks. I work mostly as a technology and science reporter. But for the past several years, I’ve also been covering the drug war and specifically the medical marijuana movement in California which has led the fight to reform drug laws in the U.S.

Lots of people smoke cannabis to get high. But the cannabis plant is also very useful for easing a number of serious medical conditions including chronic pain, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, migraine headaches and the nausea associated with chemotherapy. San Francisco became the center of medical cannabis use during the beginning of the AIDS crisis when AIDS patients found that it relieved their pain and helped spark their appetite.

Despite its usefulness, those who support medical cannabis are experiencing severe security problems. This community is under intense pressure from federal law enforcement authorities who raid the houses and businesses of people involved in this political movement. Agents also raid medical cannabis growers and dispensaries where medical cannabis is distributed and sold to patients. The number one item authorities seek in these raids is not cannabis, or suspects, or firearms - it's data. I’m going to talk today about what kind of data they are looking for, how they are getting it, how this community is trying to protect itself.

These are not theoretical threats. My country, the United States, appears to be going through a collective mental health crisis in which half the nation feels compelled to make war against Iraq to secure illusionary security based on flawed intelligence - and it is also making war on its own citizens. 750,000 Americans are arrested every year for cannabis, usually for simple possession. Most are arrested by state and local police.

American has the largest prison population in world, both per capita and in absolute numbers. There are two million people in prison in the U.S., about half are there as a result of drug charges. It's interesting to note that the prison guard's union is the single largest contributor to political campaigns in California and has consistently opposed changes in drug laws. But the drug laws have not proven to be an effective public policy. After fourty years of police actions and billions of dollars spent arresting, prosecuting and imprisoning people, drugs are as plentiful as ever in the U.S. The prosecution of soft drugs like cannabis has helped push people to cheap, easier to produce, more dangerous drugs like methamphetamine which is now very popular.

In the meantime, marijuana remains the number one cash crop in California - which is the number one agricultural state in the U.S. If the U.S. legalized and taxed cannabis, my country would not have an annual budget deficit of $368 billion a year and be cutting education and healthcare to pay for a war. Efforts are afoot in California to tax and regulate cannabis there first, activists hope that the rest of the nation will follow.

Attempts To Defend The Community

As a result of the U.S. government's failed marijuana policy, raids on the medical cannabis community have transformed a political war into a data war. Let's look at specific threats, some attempted solutions, and how tools developed by hackers can help these people secure sensitive information. By aiding this community, hackers are squarely on the side of the democratic majority. The U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld the right of federal authorities to arrest cannabis patients even if they exchange no money for their cannabis and consume it entirely inside the state of California. But polling data indicates that seventy to eighty percent of Americans support the right of sick people to use medical cannabis. In 1996, California passed a state law. the Compassionate Use Act, which permitted doctors to recommend cannabis for their patients. Since then, nine other U.S. states have passed similar laws. But the federal government does not recognize these laws and considers all marijuana use illegal and all people who grow and sell cannabis drug traffickers.

When they prosecute medical cannabis defendants in federal court, federal authorities know that sympathetic local juries won’t convict medical cannabis providers. So they suppress evidence that the cannabis is for medical use. Federal authorities especially target growers and those associated with growers. They often file conspiracy charges for which they need no actual drugs as evidence - just information. Growing or conspiring to grow more than 100 plants gets you a mandatory minimum federal prison sentence of five years in the U.S., and if you are growing over 1,000 plants, you go to prison for ten years. Van Phung Van Nguyen, a 26-year-old dispensary operator from San Francisco arrested in a June DEA raid, is currently facing ten years in prison for running a medical cannabis dispensary. He is one of many defendants facing federal charges as a result of recent raids there.

The medical cannabis community is vulnerable. Many people in this community are ill and they are not, by in large, technologically sophisticated. Most of them (except for some of the larger growers or dispensary operators) don’t have a lot of money. Many are small business people, if they have any business training at all. To help protect this group, the people of San Francisco, which has 40 medical cannabis dispensaries and the largest concentration of the estimated 100,000 medical cannabis patients in the US, first tried a radical approach known as Democracy.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors (or city council) passed a resolution calling San Francisco a sanctuary city forbidding local police form helping federal authorities arrest or prosecute people in the medical cannabis community. But as often occurs here in Europe, the police have informal agreements between themselves. I filed a state freedom of information request for information on these agreements and was ignored.

In the last round of San Francisco DEA actions in June, it was clear that the local police were providing intelligence to federal authorities and were present at the raids. Local police are rewarded for their cooperation. Federal law enforcement agencies also provide funding for local police forces who want to maintain good relationships with them. So in summary, the sanctuary resolution has essentially failed.

ID Card System

Local police and federal authorities have also raided doctors and seized patient records to find out who is using medical cannabis. So the city of San Francisco set up an anonymized identity card system to help prevent the seizure of patient data. The way it works is that you show the San Francisco Department of Public Health your letter of recommendation from your doctor and a form of ID. Health officials call your doctor to verify the information and then hand it back to you without keeping a copy. Patients also need to sign a medical release form, show proof that they live in San Francisco, and indicate whether or not they want a caregiver to also get an ID card. Each card costs $25.

The city then issues you and your caregivers an ID card that contains your photo, a thirteen digit ID number, the date the card was issued and when it expires. If a cop stops you, they can phone the Department of Public Health phone number on the card and give them the ID number to confirm bona fid patients and caregivers. This card does not contain your name and address or any other identifying information that could be entered into a database of cannabis users. The State of California is set to run an ID card program for the whole state which our Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, attempted to stop.

Dispensaries Collect Data

But some counties and dispensaries also issue their own ID cards containing more informaton and collect data that can be used against patients. Some dispensaries also keep transaction and banking records that are seized by authorities when they raid these facilities. They sometimes communicate with growers in ways that make it easier for federal authorities to locate these people. Ironically, the city of San Francisco is now proposing dispensary regulations that would require the dispensaries to create and retain transaction records that make both dispensaries and patients vulnerable to federal prosecution.

In my job as a reporter, I began to keep track of the kind of information federal authorities were seeking in medical cannabis raids. I also asked dispensaries and patients if they took measures to secure their information. Some people had never heard of some of the security measures I asked about, some of them had. Some sought more information on their own and asked others for help. On my blog, www.ontherecord.org I have posted this talk together with a PDF of an affidavit for a search warrant connected to a series of raids made by federal authorities in San Francisco in June. The affidavit lists the kinds of information authorities are looking for. They are often seeking information to support charges of a “conspiracy to manufacture, distribute and possession with intent to distribute controlled substances; principally marijuana.” So what do they seize? Mostly data you’d expect, some you wouldn’t. Here’s a list:

Federal authorities want records of price, quantity and times when cannabis was purchased, possessed, transferred, distributed, sold or concealed. They want accounting of transactions, amounts of substances, cash outstanding, funds owed or expended, ledgers. Especially important are records that they can use to indict and identify co-conspirators, customer and supplier lists, correspondence (including e-mail), receipts, journals, pay and owe sheets for employees. They are keen to determine the sources of the cannabis including names, address and phone numbers of growers and other identifying information.

Investigators also seek information on cannabis grow locations, storage lockers, businesses, offices or homes owned or leased by alleged traffickers. Books and magazines which explain how to grow marijuana are sought as are documents about gun ownership or registration. In addition, authorities look for communications equipment, phones, pagers, beepers, and answering machines. Agents ask for permission to answer or record any incoming phone calls while they are searching a location, and are not required to identify themselves.

Other information sought includes personal telephones and address books, letters, cables, telegrams, telephone and other utility bills, especially electricity bills which are used to prosecute growers who use lots of power for lights and ventilation systems. Photographs, yearbooks, audio and video tapes are sought. One grower had a film maker following him around. The film seized in the raid identified many of his friends and neighbors. Keys, personal IDs and other identity documents, bank cards and bank account information is also seized. Dispensary operators using a checking accounts to pay rent on leased properties are charged with money laundering based on depositing the proceeds of marijuana sales into their checking accounts.

And of course investigators are looking for cash. Local police authorities, such as the Los Angeles Police Department have recently taken to seizing bank accounts of dispensary operators. Banking statements, wire transfer records, money orders, checks, travelers checks, deposit receipts, stock certificates, money wrappers, counting machines, income tax returns are all targeted.

Also sought are any documents about purchase, sale or lease of real estate, motor vehicles, precious metals, jewelry or anything other large ticket items purchased with alleged illegal drug proceeds. Any travel data, airplane tickets, credit card receipts, hotel and restaurant receipts, maps and written directions to alleged grow locations are included in search warrants. Any information about the ownership of the dispensaries, leases, public licenses and business statements., contracts, warrantees on equipment, partnership and corporate documents, and safety deposit box records are seized. This is a very long list, I’m sorry if I am boring you. Police are tediously thorough.

Investigators especially look for computer passwords. They also search for and seize computer files, and data storage devices. Sometimes they cart off the hardware. In the recent raids against dispensaries, federal authorities argued that data may be stored under deceptive file names and they need time to sort through it. They note that it is impractical and even invasive to search for this kind of data on site - and they worry that there may be destructive code embedded in the system. Plus they need to employ “data search protocols” to recover erased, compressed, password protected, or encrypted files. So when they arrive at the raid site, authorities bring in their own machines to mirror entire hard drives and take away the peripheral media such CDs, floppy disks etc. Copies of stored data are returned to the defendant.

So now you may be thinking, “wow, it really sucks to be in the U.S., but fortunately, we live in Holland, or Germany or France or the UK.” Unfortunately, the DEA is now beginning to claim jurisdiction over anyone accused of growing cannabis anywhere in the world. On July 29th, local police in Vancouver Canada collaborated with the DEA to raid the offices of the British Columbia Marijuana Party. They also raided the party’s bookstore, and TV studios and a cannabis seed business ran by members of the party. One of their top priorities in the search were customer records. Four people were arrested and the DEA is expected to try to extradite them to the U.S. to face prosecution there. The raid was carried out under Canada’s Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Act.

Defending Data

The easiest way that this community has found to protect its data is not keep any. Dispensaries are beginning to understand it is not a good idea to retain lists of patients or patient data. They are also resisting demands by the city of San Francisco that they keep transaction receipts.

Dispensary operators are beginning to think twice about using credit cards to pay expenses or recording IP addresses on their web sites. If they visit grow sites, most of them know to turn off their cell phones to avoid being tracked. While the post-911 U.S. Patriot Act expanded government surveillance powers, allegedly to fight terrorism, many of the requests for phone taps and surveillance involve drug investigations. Most people know enough not to discuss sensitive issues on their cell phones or via e-mail, but people are still indiscreet. Our own intelligence operative aren’t that discreet themselves. Italian authorities announced this week that they have issued arrest warrants for 19 people, believed to be CIA operatives, who were on a mission to kidnap an alleged radical Muslim cleric in Italy. The agents were tracked via their cell phone use.

Some dispensary operators, growers, patients and caregivers, lawyers and journalists are starting to use security tools to keep their data private. Some know how to open Hushmail accounts or use free or commercial versions of PGP or Ciphire to encrypt their e-mail. Some use Neocrypt and PGPdisk to create encrypted partitions on their harddrives where files can be protected. Some are aware of TOR and use onion routing to anonymize their web surfing. As with most security tools, there is often a trade off between usability and insecurity. With PGPdisk, for example, you have to figure out how much of your drive to encrypt, if you want encrypted or clear text in a network of PCs, and if deleted unencrypted files or swap files are secure. And since it's proprietary software, you can get locked out of your own drive if your license expires.

Fewer members of this community are aware of less-known tools like GAIM for instant messaging or Adium for instant messaging on Macs. Password management tools are largely unknown. Some dispensaries have taken steps to make rapid data destruction possible and may be aware of Darik’s Boot and Nuke (DBAN) which you can read about here. Secure voice such as the Cryptophone software for windows systems hasn’t really caught on.

There are other practical security issues that this community deals with. Patients who need to travel with their medical cannabis face arrest by airport security officials who work for the federal government and their computers may be searched by airport officials. Those who are arrested and go to jail awaiting trial, or sent to prison after conviction, are often frequently moved by corrections officials. Keeping track of them behind bars can be difficult for their friends and families.

Journalists like myself who cover this movement can be subpoenaed to reveal information and the names of confidential sources. Several journalists were subpoenaed in the case involving the unmasking of CIA agent Valerie Plame. One, Judith Miller of the New York Times, has done three weeks in prison on a contempt charge so far. It’s possible that journalists and others could also be put in jail on a contempt charge for declining to provide passwords to decrypt documents.

Finally, I’d like to point out that federal drug investigators have created an extensive informant system in which those charged with crimes are given reduced sentences and other rewards for turning other people. This has helped to account for an almost 800 percent increase in the number of women going to jail on drug crimes in the U.S. in the last ten years. Women are often peripherally involved in drug operations and have less information to trade. Therefore, they often do longer sentences than the male defendants in these cases.

While there is obviously a need to develop trust within the medical cannabis community, its a difficult challenge for this group. People are frightened of going to jail, often ill and in pain, and dispensary operators compete against each other making it difficult for security procedures to be replicated across a group of cannabis providers. And any cooperation among members of this community can be construed by the authorities as proof of drug distribution conspiracy. So the challenges are great, but good technology tools and education can be an important line of defense until the marijuana laws are overturned. Current data security tools and their successors can help keep people stay out of jail.

Please keep the needs of this community in mind when developing new privacy systems and intelligent user interfaces. So far, there has been no federal trial of medical cannabis defendants who actively used these data security techniques to minimize evidence. So we don’t know for sure if they work for this community or not. Stay tuned. I welcome your questions.

Posted by ann at 06:03 AM

July 22, 2005

Dispensary Charges Public Hearing Process Is Rigged

San Francisco’s Green Cross medical cannabis dispensary, which had its building permit suspended June 10th due to neighborhood complaints, is charging that the city is ignoring its own public hearing process in a rush to shut the facility down. The dispensary, which has refused to close, has been the subject of two neighborhood meetings and a July 15 planning department hearing.

“When we looked at what happened behind the scenes, the illusion of democracy in our city offices is dispelled,” wrote dispensary owner Kevin Reed yesterday in an e-mail to supporters.

Reed says a city supervisor who has been fielding neighborhood complaints, is attempting to circumvent the dispensary’s right to due process by pressuring the planning department to revoke the permit outright. This dispute demonstrates once more what happens when a city fails to set up a troubleshooting board or commission to address concerns from both dispensaries and their neighbors – a scenario that could be replicated in cities across the country as more states vote to permit the use of medical cannabis.

Neighbors of the Green Cross say their complaints about traffic violations, street reselling of cannabis, lingering marijuana odors and the dispensary’s proximity to schools are not being adequately addressed. They also question why dispensary patients don’t look outwardly sick. The dispensary says they have changed their operation to remedy concerns, but are being held up to an impossibly high standard of operation by people who simply don’t want a medical cannabis dispensary in their neighborhood.

Reed also charges that the dispensary has been a target of vandalism and racist attacks from patrons at a nearby bar where neighbors have met to discuss their complaints. The involvement of bar patrons in this struggle suggests tension between the alcohol and cannabis cultures in San Francisco which has more cannabis dispensaries than any other city in the U.S.

On July 15th, San Francisco’s Zoning Administrator, Larry Badiner, held a hearing to consider revocation of the Green Cross’ building permit. Reed says he went to Badiner’s office the day before to make copies of letters detailing complaints against the dispensary submitted as part of the record for the hearing. Reed says he found a memo dated June 8, two days after the second neighborhood meeting to discuss neighborhood concerns. City planner Dan Sider, who wrote the memo, sought immediate revocation of the Green Cross permit because city supervisor Bevan Dufty had requested that the dispensary be shut down.

“We need to revoke the Green Cross’ permit. I know that this doesn’t follow our typical procedures or policies, but this is a unique case, a unique land use and we’ve been specifically asked by a supervisor,” wrote Sider in the memo. “The most likely grounds for revocation would be Code Section 202 c which states that – essentially – no noxious use shall be allowed for operator. Should the operator appeal this decision to the Board of Appeals so bit it, but we have been asked to take immediate action. “

“The memo shows that city offices may act on petty politics, disregarding their internal policies and making decisions even before the hearing designed to get input from neighbors,” wrote Reed who has appealed the suspension of the permit.

Reed says the zoning administrator’s office has agreed to receive written comments on the dispute until July 26 in preparation for a Board of Appeals hearing on August 17. The hearing will take place at San Francisco City Hall in Room 400 at 5 pm. E-mail can be sent up to July 25 to Larry.Badiner@sfgov.org

Residents of the neighborhood surrounding the dispensary are being urged by Reed to write letters in support of maintaining the dispensary’s permit. Reed is also asking that those in Dufty’s district call and write letters to Dufty because “his actions make a mockery of the public hearing process.”

Dufty did not return calls for comment on the dispute. His aid, Amanda Kahn, said the planning department changed their action on the permit from revocation to suspension to allow community discussions to take place.

Both Dispensary and Its Neighbors Fret About Crime

Eighty-five percent of the Noe Valley neighborhood where the Green Cross dispensary is located voted for California’s Compassionate Use Act (Prop. 214) which allowed the use of medical cannabis. But in the smaller sub-neighborhood of Fair Oaks adjacent to the dispensary, both neighbors and dispensary operators continue to make serious allegations of harassment and bad judgment.
Neighbors have complained that the Green Cross has attracted crime to the neighborhood that suffered a rash of burglaries this spring. To help address security concerns, Reed says the dispensary invested in $50,000 worth of upgrades installing 16 surveillance cameras to monitor the adjacent street and alley.

Reed says the dispensary has itself been targeted by criminals. On May 22nd , the morning after the nearby Liberties bar held an Irish music festival, Reed says he arrived at his dispensary to find the locks super glued and the light bulbs removed from the front of the building.

After entering through the back and reviewing his security videos, Reed says he saw one man repeatedly exit and enter Liberties, is located at the corner of 22nd and Guerrero Streets. The man began his activity starting at 2:44 am and continued for an hour and a half. Reed said the man used a bar stool from Liberties to reach the light bulbs and remove them. The man also tampered with the locks and pounded on the windows.

Reed said he called the police who reviewed the security video. The police then went to Liberties and informed the owners that damages should be paid to the Green Cross so the dispensary would not press charges. Later that evening, Reed said the owner called him to say that the bar would pay the damages.

The following day, May 23rd, neighbors of the Green Cross met at the Liberties bar to discuss what they said was the escalating crime in the neighborhood – allegedly brought on by the opening of the Green Cross in July 2004. Neighbors said they were concerned about increased burglaries and thefts, hostile and intimidating behavior from nuisance drivers/parkers and drug dealing.

Residents also complained about loud music and the smell of marijuana smoke. They asked police to look at crime records to determine if the dispensary was attracting crime. Supervisor Dufty and San Francisco Police Captain John Goldberg from the Mission Police Station were invited to the meeting – the Green Cross was not.

Reed says he learned about the meeting from neighbors who were distraught that the Green Cross had been excluded from the gathering. Nevertheless, Reed says he took the neighbor’s complaints seriously and responded by sealing doors and installing ionizers and an air filtration system. He also added phone lines to quickly answer calls from neighbors and a new lock system to make sure the dispensary’s door would open and close as quickly as possible. The dispensary banned on-site cannabis smoking by customers and later forbid patient staff members from cannabis smoking as well.

A second neighborhood meeting was held on June 6 at a nearby church. The Green Cross was invited to speak on a panel. The meeting was attended by almost 200 people and went on for two hours. According to minutes of the meeting, the police determined that there was no correlation between the opening of the Green Cross and an increase in crime in the neighborhood. Capt. Goldberg reported that the overall crime rate for the neighborhood had actually decreased slightly from last year and the increase in burglaries did not appear to be sparked by the club or the people who buy cannabis there.

Residents expressed concern at the meeting about dispensary patrons allegedly smoking cannabis outside the club and reselling their cannabis in the neighborhood. Goldberg said at the meeting that on one weekend evening, dispensary customers were seen blocking driveways, crosswalks and fire hydrants. Goldberg also alleged that officers saw people distributing marijuana in their cars after returning from the club - but never saw money changing hands. He said sixty to seventy people were observed going in and out of the club.

According to the minutes, neighbors complained that “this business does not benefit the neighborhood”, creates “the potential for drug dealing and theft” and does not “foster a spirit of local community.” Residents also charge that although at least one neighbor requested a hearing when the dispensary applied for its permit, none was granted.

"It seemed like things were getting out of control," Fair Oaks Street resident Veronica Gaynor told the Noe Valley Voice. "People felt like they were losing their neighborhood."

Karen Saux, who with Gaynor helped organize the meeting, told the Noe Valley Voice that dispensary patrons were upsetting residents. "Some of their customers are intimidating," said Saux. "Anyone who dares to ask someone not to park in their driveway gets verbally abused."
Among the people commenting at the June 6th meeting was Craig Morton who ran the Shear Delight hair salon next door to the Green Cross for more than ten years. Morton said the noise and smell of marijuana from the club forced him to sell his business.

"It reached the point where I felt I was run out," Morton told the Noe Valley Voice. "I did vote for Proposition 215 because I am a person with HIV and I thought I might need it someday. But I had a very negative experience with the whole thing. There were no regulations in place to protect me.”
Reed counters that the hair salon, which moved into Morton’s former location, has benefited from dispensary patrons and is thriving. He says he purchased the business a television as gift to help block any residual sound from the dispensary.

Many of the complaints by neighbors at the meeting seem to indicate a discomfort with medical cannabis patients in general and lack of regulations. Residents note that there are two schools and a youth center within 1,000 feet of the dispensary. Despite the fact that the city issued patient ID cards on the recommendation of doctors as provided for by state law, neighbors claim that the city has provided “no oversight to ensure the legitimacy of who is and who is not a medical cannabis patient.”

Neighborhood resident and medical cannabis patient Jason Coben, who says he suffers from chronic neve and cartilage deterioration, sent a June 16th message to a neighborhood e-mail list which read, "I am one of those people that many of you like to refer to as 'not looking very sick.' All this talk of shutting [the Green Cross] down is an extreme overreaction, and smacks of politicians pandering to a vocal minority. They are providing a valuable service in a professional manner, and it would be to the detriment of a lot of us if they were to close.”

But most of the neighbors attending the meeting said they want they dispensary gone. “The Green Cross has made superficial improvements to its operations, but it has not addressed the ethical issues,” concludes the minutes of the meeting. “The majority of neighbors who have voiced their concerns asks that the Green Cross behave as a responsible neighbor and move out of this neighborhood to a more appropriate location.”

Green Cross Adjustments Deemed Insufficient

After the June 6 meeting, the Green Cross says it made more changes to its policies. A full-time security guard was hired to patrol outside the dispensary during the business day and deny access to customers who are double parked, parked illegally or blast loud music. To address concerns that out-of-town patients were crowding the neighborhood, the Green Cross also limited entry to patients who carry Green Cross patient ID cards or those issued by the San Francisco Health Department.

The dispensary also attempted to get supervisor Dufty to mediate. After the June 6th meeting, Dufty handed a note to Green Cross representative Paige Mullins indicating that Dufty wanted to meet with her. But Reed says repeated calls to the supervisor have been ignored.

“Did you honestly mean anything you wrote in that note,?” asked Reed’s attorney Arcolina Panto in a letter to Dufty. “Did you know that Liberties was involved in the crime of vandalizing the Green Cross? Do you have any evidence whatsoever that the unverified complains of neighbors are true? What have you seen with your own eyes?”

Dufty has not returned phone calls for comment on the dispute. But he told the Noe Valley Voice that “The Planning Department did not do its due diligence. The Green Cross has an inordinate impact. I don’t think any business with that kind of intense activity could exist in that location.”
After the June 6 meeting, Dufty asked city zoning administrator Larry Badiner to suspend or revoke the dispensary’s permit. Badiner forwarded the request to the Department of Building Inspection which suspended the permit on June 10.

The dispensary’s permit was suspended due to violation of the Planning Code section that forbids “A use that creates conditions that are hazardous, noxious or offensive through emission of odor, fumes, smoke, cinders, gas, vibrations, glare, refuse, water-carried waste or excessive noise.”

The Green Cross appealed the suspension on June 22. Reed says the suspension violated his due process rights and refused to close. He says his successful business is being held to an unfair standard by neighbors who simply don’t like his customers and have few new complaints aside from the parking concerns.

According to Reed, some people who disapprove of the Green Cross continue to harass the dispensary and its employees. While neighborhood meetings have been respectful, Reed says some opposition has sometimes been hateful and racist. Some of the objections seem to echo fears of hippies that the city’s conservative residents had back in the 1960’s.

"You have ruined the neighborhood with your little marijuana nightclub, posing as a health care clinic," reads an anonymous e-mail message received by Reed on June 16th. "Most of your customers fit the same profile: male, under 30, non-white, skater punk/home boy/gang-banger aesthetic. Since when do so many members of this demographic have such serious medical conditions?"

"The truth, as I see it from 22nd and Guerrero, is that the patients, young and old, come and go without posing a threat to anyone here, and I fear that the main offense they have committed is embodying a look that we are conditioned to believe is threatening," long time neighborhood resident Charlie Pizarro told the Noe Valley Voice. "With the Green Cross, we have a locally owned small business that is filling a need in our community, and is doing so in a way that I believe is respectful of all of us who live here….Unlike the patrons of the bars and restaurants around here, the patients of the Green Cross do not scream through the neighborhood drunk at 2 a.m. They do not urinate on my house or turn over garbage cans.”

Reed says patrons of the Liberties bar continue to be abusive. On June 26th, Reed says a man drove by the Green Cross several times in a black Range Rover and made incomprehensible comments to the security guard outside the dispensary. Eventually, the man parked and entered the Liberties bar. When he exited, the man allegedly began to yell at the security guard and accused the guard of attacking him. He told the guard that he was calling police and said into his cell phone, “an African American just shot me.”

Reed said the Green Cross guard did not respond to the man who went back into Liberties. About an hour later, the man left Liberties and approached the security officer again. When another Green Cross employee left the dispensary to assist the guard, the man saw a black woman sitting at a table outside Liberties. According to Reed, the man began screaming at her, using profanity and the word “nigger” several times. The man allegedly had his arm raised above her as if he was about to hit her.

A neighbor, who lives across the street from the Green Cross, ran outside to assist the woman. Reed says the man swung at the neighbor throwing him to the ground. The police arrived shortly and arrested the man.

The July 15th public hearing held by the San Francisco Planning Department and the Department of Building Inspection considered passionate arguments for and against the dispensary - and reviewed how the club has changed its operations to address neighborhood concerns. Each person got two minutes to speak and people were asked to submit suggestions for what the Green Cross could do to further address neighborhood concerns short of closing down. Badiner declined to have Sider’s memo read aloud at the meeting insisting it was already part of the record.

According to an account by Green Cross member Madge Van Orden, both sides in the dispute made emotional arguments in the dispute. One angry neighborhood resident focused on the alleged negative impact of the dispensary on her grandchildren and displayed one of her children at the podium, while Green Cross supporters offered “drawn-out tales of their suffering and pain.”

Van Orden notes that San Francisco police “appear suspiciously unresponsive to the neighborhood problems” and such lack of enforcement on issues such as illegal parking “allows quality-of-life crimes to force closure of medical cannabis dispensaries.” She further notes that “ineffective attention from legal administrators who supposedly support medical marijuana has had a large hand in the problems for which the Green Cross is being held responsible. The club is under fire because it attracts excessive traffic due in part to stranded customers from other area clubs shut down by public annoyance issues.”

Reed said there were no new complaints aired against the dispensary and bought up the ongoing harassment by Liberties patrons. While he has responded to community concerns, Reed says Liberties is not held to the same high standards. “I think it was a fair hearing of thoughts!” writes Reed.

Reed also noted that crimes against the dispensaries continue. The same week that the hearing took place, Reed noted that a dispensary at 10th and Mission Streets was held up by three armed robbers. Some of the other forty some dispensaries in the city who are following the Green Cross dispute, fear that even if they secure permits like the Green Cross has done, they could still be targeted for shut down by a group of neighbors and a sympathetic supervisor.
The patients group Americans for Safe Access described the permit revocation process as a “witch hunt” and pointed out that the timing corresponded with federal raids and court decisions against medical cannabis supporters.

Badiner said at the hearing that his decision to revoke the permit came down to whether the club is located in an appropriate neighborhood and whether it can be run in a way that addresses concerns of residents. According to Van Orden, Badiner was especially concerned about how many customers the Green Cross attracted from outside the neighborhood.

“Badiner agreed that the character of the neighborhood has changed, but acknowledged that Reed is working hard to address concerns,” writes Van Orden. “He claimed Reed has some amount of responsibility for the actions of his cliental, but wasn’t sure how much. He expressed doubt that any amount of effort could satisfy the problems, but claimed to be open to suggestions for constructive solutions, at least until Monday’s deadline for fact-gathering and comments.

In her account of the hearing, Saux said via e-mail that, “it was clear by the presence of the patients that the Green Cross does provide a great service to people with illnesses. They emphasized that they need a safe dispensary in a safe neighborhood, and I completely understand and sympathize with that.”

But Saux added that the address ongoing nuisances created by the dispensary. She said several people in the building above the Green Cross wrote letters documenting their continuing problems with odors “So on the smoking issue, I don’t think that the Green Cross has adequately addressed the problem,” wrote Saux. “Staff continue to smoke on the premises, which is affecting upstairs neighbors, pedestrians on 22nd Street, and clients seated outdoors at the Liberties.”

Saux said problems in front of the dispensary have abated, but traffic problems have moved to other parts of the neighborhood. She said that she and her fellow neighborhood activists get e-mails every day with additional complaints and observations about the club. “The parking issue has been addressed by the presence of the security guard on 22nd Street,” writes Saux. “The guard does not patrol Fair Oaks, however, which is where the problem has moved.

Saux says neighbors also testified to drug dealing and other crime on Fair Oaks Street and Guerrero Street. According to Saux, neighbors provided their police report numbers and verified that these incidents were directly related to Green Cross patrons. “I don’t believe that these events would be happening on Fair Oaks Street if the Green Cross were not in its present location,” wrote Saux. “This is not to say that we do not have crime, we do. But there is a constant level of activity: people smoking pot in parked cars, people doling out what they’ve just purchased at the Green Cross, and the more serious incidences that were relayed at the meeting.”

Saux says that both sides are still angry and upset with the City for allowing a situation like this to develop. “I would have to say that we acknowledge that an effort has been made to address the issues since the June 6 neighborhood meeting,” wrote Saux. “But the neighbors are not satisfied with the results.”

Posted by ann at 03:53 AM | Comments (1)

July 15, 2005

Cannabis Dispensary Holds An Open House

Updated 7/16

In their quest to pare down the forty some medical cannabis dispensaries in San Francisco, city officials have first singled out dispensaries that have drawn complaints from neighbors. Because the city has yet to set up an official dispensary review board, the targeted dispensaries say they are vulnerable to political pressure from neighbors who simply don’t like the idea of dispensaries in their neighborhood. Unhappy neighbors say the disputed dispensaries disrupt their quality of life and present hazards they want to eliminate.

One embattled dispensary, Health and Wellness Alternatives at 935 Howard Street in San Francisco, was shut down by court order two weeks ago after a neighbor initiated a civil action. The dispensary is holding an open house this weekend to try to generate a discussion with local residents. The dispute surrounding this dispensary has sparked an especially unpleasant situation for city officials – an outspoken neighbor and others opposed to the facility, squaring off against a quadriplegic medical cannabis patient fighting hard to keep his business open. The dispute illustrates just how ugly, expensive and time consuming a neighborhood dispute can become when a city has fails to implement a grievance process that addresses problems before they explode.

The operator of the club, Charlie Pappas, says the city botched efforts to mediate a dispute with his neighbor Laura Weil who has led a city-wide campaign to close him down. Weil says she supports medical cannabis, but charges that Pappas is bad neighbor. She alleges that a patient left the dispensary’s parking lot and drove the wrong way down her one-way street endangering local children. Pappas denied this happened. Weil objected to the dispensary’s use of the parking lot that is adjacent to her house and said the dispensary strewed trash in the area. Pappas said he uses the parking lot as little as possible and has cleaned up trash near the property. Weil also expressed fear that those leaving the dispensary would be “too stoned” to drive and present a hazard, a claim that Pappas firmly rejects.

When Pappas asked City Supervisor Chris Daley to intervene in May, Daley referred him to James Keys, a volunteer in his office who may have tried to exercise power he didn’t have. According to Pappas, Keys suggested that he merge his dispensary with the Mendo Healing dispensary to become a “model dispensary” and thus reduce the number clubs in San Francisco. If Pappas gave up his space to Mendo Healing, Keys allegedly promised that he would be given “fast-track zoning” for another medical cannabis dispensary. Steph Sherer, director of the patients group Americans for Safe Access, said she also heard Keys make the offer. But Keys later denied that he was involved in any such deal. Daley said he had no knowledge of the offer and refused to return Pappas’ calls.

Since Daley failed to resolve Weil’s concerns, the city’s Zoning and Planning Department and the City Attorneys office got involved sending Pappas a notice that he was the subject of the complaints from Weil- and asking him to show sales receipts proving that he opened after the city’s dispensary moratorium that went into effect April 1. In a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle June 10th, Pappas said he supported efforts to regulate the clubs, but condemned the use of Planning and Zoning as a “hatchetman” to reduce the number of dispensaries. Given a short deadline to produce his business records, Pappas sent the city a business permit and lease dated well before April 1 plus letters from volunteers and patients saying the dispensary began operations in mid-March.

“I reject the notion that the medical cannabis dispensaries opening near the moratorium should summarily be closed,” wrote Pappas to the planning department complaining about lack of due process. “Medical cannabis dispensaries should be judge on their operation and service to patients as well as neighborhood concerns.”

Pappas received more letters from the planning department at the end of June detailing Weil’s complaints. Pappas rejects her assertion that he failed to obtain the needed conditional use permit because it would require a public hearing and he knew the neighbors would oppose him. Pappas countered that wanted to be given a change to operate to show he could be a good neighbor and have the hearing when dispensary regulations were in place.

In a letter to planning department officials last month, Pappas said also he received incomplete information in his visits to planning and zoning in February. He says he is being singled from other dispensaries most of which also lack the correct permits. “I have a neighbor with a history of complaining who unfortunately, like the Bush administration, repeats the same untruths over and over again,” wrote Pappas. “I am a mature, responsible, intelligent, and disabled individual uniquely qualified to serve and provide medical cannabis patients access to medicine.”

Weil disputes Pappas’s assertion that that allegations against him come from only one disgruntled neighbor. “Given the number of neighbors who have contributed to the effort it is simply not a credible argument,” writes Weil via e-mail. “I have not spoken a single untruth throughout this process, and deeply resent that accusation. To compare me with the Bush administration is frankly bizarre.”

Unable to convince city officials that Pappas should be shut down immediately, Weil pursued a civil action against Pappas. She filed a petition for a temporary restraining order which a judge granted.
Alternative Health and Wellness has now been shut down for two weeks. Pappas notes that San Francisco's Mendo Healing dispensary was also recently shut down by a civil court action brought by neighbors.

Weil said the case against Alternative Health and Wellness was very straightforward. “The courts issued a temporary restraining order based on the factual evidence that the operation required a conditional use permit and opened without one,” wrote Weil.

According to Pappas, Weil’s lawyer has offered to let him stay open until September 29 if he then agrees to close for good. Unter the terms, Pappas would not be able to reopen his dispensary until he gets a conditional use permit. Pappas said Weil's lawyer has also negotiated with Pappas’ landlady to let him out of his lease but he has not confirmed this.

Pappas says he is willing to agree to the terms because it gives him an opportunity to open another dispensary when the San Francisco dispensary moratorium is lifted. He says he would like to launch another cannabis club if he can get financial backing. Pappas says he is already working with another dispensary to which he has been able to refer his patients. Pappas says he hopes to convert his former dispensary space at 935 Howard into a center used by a number of dispensaries to provide services such as massage, acupuncture, counseling and free food to medical cannabis patients.

In the meantime, Pappas is still challenging the “strong evidence” cited by city attorney’s office that he opened after the moratorium. Pappas said he has not heard from the city attorney for two weeks since replying to the charges. According to Pappas, he has also been waiting since April for the building department to review the minor repairs he has made to the holes in the walls in his dispensary. Pappas says the actions against him are “a joke” because he was the least threatening dispensary in the city and not a profiteer. Pappas claims that there is now a methamphetamines laboratory down the street from Weil that presents a much greater threat than his dispensary every did.

Pappas says the disputes with Weil and city have cause unnecessary hardship for the five to ten patients who use his dispensary. He is holding an open house on July 15, 16 and 17 to meet the neighbors and try to initiate a dialog that he hopes will resolve some of their concerns.

According to Weil, there is little Pappas can say to soothe worried neighbors. “I am sorry that Charlie selected such an inappropriate location for his dispensary, acted so irresponsibly and alienated the neighborhood so quickly and completely,” writes Weil. “I hope he is able to learn from the experience, find a more appropriate location and leave our beleaguered little neighborhood in peace.”

“Of course I would close if rejected by my neighbors but I’m hoping that a majority will approve my responsible operation and service to patients and view me as a worthwhile addition to the neighborhood,” wrote Pappas in a July 4 letter to the San Francisco Chronicle. “Finally, as a 57 year old disabled uncle to 4 nephews, a niece and a grandniece, I vehemently object to the implications that Health and Wellness Alternatives’ operations are detrimental to children.”

I have spoken at length with both Pappas and Weil. You can read the transcript of my conversation with Weil herePappas' replyand Weil's rebuttal to his comments.

Posted by ann at 10:38 AM | Comments (1)

July 08, 2005

In Transit: London To Istanbul

Each year, I try to leave the U.S. to talk face to face with people in other parts of the world. Traveling helps me regain perspective on my own country, especially in times of turmoil. Two weeks ago, I left San Francisco for London where I spent a week before heading off to Istanbul.

Departing San Francisco was difficult. The San Francisco police and the DEA had raided several medical cannabis dispensaries and dispensary operators were in jail or wanted by authorities. I did not want to leave and yet I had family in London whom I longed to see.

Now comes news of the bombings in London and I wish I were back in the UK with my sister and her husband who are spooked by the destruction. The London of last week was a sunny, lush, relaxed series of walks, meals and visits with beloved, calm, worldly people. We strolled in the park and attended an art opening. There was a lovely overnight with friends at their country house reached by a series of buses and tube lines full of polite, chatty English commuters,

It was a relief to be in England because it felt less frightened and tense than the U.S. There were no evident armed guards at Heathrow and the teenagers on the tube returning from the LiveAid concert told us how peaceful and optimistic the crowds there were. The suffering in Africa could end they said. With intelligence and compassion anything was possible.

Among our English friends, there was also a keen desire to defend their own rights and not capitulate to American paranoia. When the Labor government initiated a push for national ID cards during that week, our English country companions lamented that the U.S. government had pressured their leaders into adopting this measure - which the London School of Economics and many others predicted would only further erode civil liberties and do nothing to improve actual security.

Peaceful, charming, level-headed London is now transformed by the bombings. One of the bombed tube lines was the train my brother-in-law took every morning to work. He was absent that morning to attend my nephew’s school graduation. Another bombed subway station was located a block from my sister’s office. She walked home that night. They were unharmed, but fifty people have died, hundreds are wounded. Moslem terrorists are blamed. People are frightened. I fear that the government’s push for greater surveillance of its citizens is around the corner.

It should be noted that none of the thousands of video surveillance cameras that tracked us through the London underground prevented the bombings. No ID cards or shutdown of the subways or cell phone networks or armed guards can prevent some person with a knapsack full of explosives from injuring others. The solution lies in greater understanding and respect between cultures, the ending of the war in Iraq and a refusal to accept cruelty and loss of freedom in the name of illusionary security.

When we reached Istanbul, we checked into a hotel across the street from the Hippodrome the park that has served as the cultural and political center of the city for the last 1,000 years. We exchanged shy smiles with the Moslem tourists and residents who came to see the same art and shop in the same markets. The women in their headscarves are so covered up - yet so openly curious about us and the world around them.

We went to the traditional baths and marveled that in this secular Moslem society, where we could be invited to eat cucumbers and tomatoes with the male bath attendants dressed in nothing but their towels and respectful hospitality. No, we explained to everyone who would listen, we did not vote for Bush, or the war. We are the other Americans. We are peaceful people.

In the evening we packed our headscarves and journeyed to the Blue Mosque, an exquisite 15th century building which radiated gravity, grace and serenity. After the 10:30 call to prayer was over and the worshippers had left, we went in to say our own prayers surrounded by Moslems and non-Moslems from around the world. We prayed for peace. We prayed for the end of fear.

Posted by ann at 09:44 AM | Comments (3)

July 03, 2005

Wo/men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana March

The Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM), raided by the federal government in September 2002, is marching in downtown Santa Cruz, California on July 16 at the Pacific Garden Mall.

The March will begin at the corner of Pacific Avenue and Cathcart Streets
walking north and proceed to Church Street, then assemble at Santa Cruz
City Hall where a press conference will be held at 1pm.

WAMM is expecting more than 1,000 people to participate in this
demonstration of community solidarity opposing the recent decisions by Congress and the
Supreme Court that leaves sick and dying Californians
vulnerable to persecution from the federal government.

In a symbolic act of compassionate access, WAMM patient members will lead
the March carrying live medical marijuana plants. This solemn event will
honor the 154 WAMM members who have died since its inception in 1993.

WAMM received the first ever federal injunction against additional federal raids last year. Since the Supreme Court's Raich decision on medical cannabis, WAMM founders Valerie and Mike Corral expect the government to petition the courts to lift the injunction. They also expect to be targeted by federal prosecutors and are already under investigation by the IRS which has referred their case to the criminal division.

The irony of these investigations is that WAMM is purest example of a medical cannabis collective which charges no money for its cannabis and never purchases the marijuana its patients use. The collective grows its own cannabis and depends on donationed cannabis when the government seizes their crop. The government will lose this fight. It has already emboldened federal judges to defy the policies of the U.S. Justice Department and placed the most critically ill patients in the center of the medical cannabis debate.

Posted by ann at 01:36 AM | Comments (0)