Checking Bonnie's facts
Was the D.A. leveling with us at her pot-raid news conference?
After the Sept. 9 raids on 14 medical cannabis dispensaries, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis issued a press release gloating about how she shut down the operations of “drug dealers.” Yet, Dumanis provided very little evidence to back up her blanket claims. CityBeat presents this fact check:
Claim No.1: The dispensaries “were operating under the guise of selling marijuana and marijuana-laced products for medicinal purposes.”
According to eight search-warrant affidavits filed in state court and two filed in federal court by the officers leading the stings, in no case did a dispensary distribute marijuana to a client without the required medical doctor’s recommendation. However, 14 tablets of MDMT, aka Ecstasy, were seized from the home of two dispensary operators—Jovan Jackson and Lee Bumpers of Answerdam Rx. Human-growth hormones were also found at the home of Joseph Nunes of Green Kross Collective, the U.S. Attorney’s office told The San Diego Union-Tribune.
Claim No. 2: “Residents living near some of the storefronts have complained to law enforcement and local government about an increase in crimes associated with the dispensaries—including robberies and vandalism.”
Using the San Diego Regional Justice Information Systems—an online service that records and maps all criminal complaints—CityBeat searched for vandalism (often classi afied as “malicious mischief”) and robberies within a quarter-mile of each dispensary and found no significant change in crime. For example, Total Herbal Care’s ’hood (4600 block of Cass Street), saw a drop from 11 vandalism cases and three robberies to three cases of vandalism and two robberies between July and September. The 3500 block of Ashford Street, home of Nature’s Rx, saw three cases of vandalism and no robberies in the beginning of the year but zero cases of either crime between April and September.
Claim No. 3: “As a result of the search warrants, law enforcement seized marijuana at each location, more than $70,000 in cash and six guns.”
CityBeat reviewed eight seizure receipts filed with the central branch of the Superior Court and found that police did seize the entire stock of cannabis products. Yet, there was nowhere near that amount of cash on hand. In total, those eight only accounted for $10,485 in cash, less than 15 percent of the purported total. As the Union-Tribune reported, $38,000, the majority of the money, was confiscated from a single dispensary owner, Nunes of Green Kross Collective. No guns were confiscated as a result of the eight search warrants filed in Superior Court.
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Comments
I know one gun was in a drawer at Movement in Action, the storefront in Vista that was Federally charged. But if the 8 storefronts researched in this report did not have guns, where did the 5 other guns come from? My theory is that they were seized from third party security guards hired by the other storefronts... Is there a way for your paper to check?
Marijuana prohibition was established based on absurd racist fictions—
"Marihuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men's shadows and look at a white woman twice." (Hearst newspapers nationwide, 1934)
"There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the U.S., and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana can cause white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others."
"...the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races"
- Federal Bureau of Narcotics Director Harry J. Anslinger, 1930
"Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality and death."
"Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind."
"[Smoking] one [marihuana] cigarette might develop a homicidal mania, probably to kill his brother." (see US Government Propaganda To Outlaw Marijuana - http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp...)
Considering the moral basis for pot laws is fictional, it should not surprise anyone that marijuana prohibition is continued with more lies?
District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis needs to learn that bearing false witness carries a death penalty in the Bible—
PROVERBS 19: 9 The false witness will not be free from punishment, and he that launches forth mere lies will perish.
"However, 14 tablets of MDMT, aka Ecstasy, were seized from the home of two dispensary operators—Jovan Jackson and Lee Bumpers of Answerdam Rx."
There are many chemicals that may be found in ecstasy pills, but MDMA - 3,4 Methylene-Dioxy- Meth-Amphetamine is the chemical that people want.
MDMT is short for 5-Methoxy-Dimethyl-Tryptamine which is a powerful psychedelic that's typically smoked.
They sound similar but they are very different compounds. Which types of tablets were found?
Rasmarcus- This was one of the questions that Dumanis' office asked for in writing, but never answered. You may be right with the security guards; several did have armed security. This is, of course, isn't unusual. In New Mexico, generally consider the model program since the state licenses dispensaries under strict guidelines, the producers are expected to have adequate security measures. The one dispensary currently licensed--according to its application--employs Tasers, Mace and guard dogs.
Ryanfisher-That information was not available in the search receipts. I'll update if I learn more.
This is an excellent article.
Bonnie Dumanis is a rogue DA, who seems to have a personal vendetta against marijuana. Bonnie has a posse composed of henchmen from the San Diego police department, narcotics officers, the DEA, and NCIS. Ms. Dumanis says "jump" and the posse does her bidding.
Now is the time for a thorough investigation and removal of San Diego's District Attorney. This investigation should focus on the lies the DA has promulgated, and the harm the DA has caused to patients. Bonnie Dumanis' strong armed vigilante tactics and her villification of marijuana patients must stop!
It is clear that Bonnie Dumanis does not like the California laws related to medical marijuana, and therefore she knowingly disregards these laws in an attempt to create a San Diego County free of medical marijuana patients. DA Dumanis is in violation of her duty to uphold the laws of California and must be replaced.
Thank you, GoldCarol, I couldn't have said it any better!
And thanks to Dave Maase for revealing the truth behind the DAs lies. Bonnie is a professional liar, and should be removed from office. She is not representing the law or the people of San Diego.
One additional piece of information pertinent to claim #2 is that Scott Chipman who lives at 2247 Emerald St in PB has been one of those publicly complaining about increased crime because of dispensaries in his neighborhood when he lives no where even close to any of them. Our DA has a responsibility to check the validity of false claims like his and others and not just use them to justify her war.
Since the county continues to piss away taxpayer monies on futile lawsuits in an attempt to override State law as well as the most recent court decision -County of San Diego et al. v. San Diego NORML et al.- this latest round of BS from Dumanis & her LEO cronies is no surprise. She will continue to waste precious tax dollars so that she can appear to be "doing something" for the benefit of the constituents who selected her for office.