U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration

Fake DEA Enforcers Are 'Busting' Innocent People

Just don't answer the phone​If a DEA agent busts you, but only takes your money and not your pot, that's a good indication that you've been duped. The real U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency told reporters that there is an international scam happening with criminals impersonating special agents as a way ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

Obama to Arrive in S.F. on 4/20: Potheads to Protest President

Obama -- giving 4/20 a new meaning​For his promises not to use federal resources on raiding legal dispensaries, many medical marijuana users voted for Barack Hussein Obama in 2008, as we reported in our cover story last week. Many California medical marijuana users supported Obama for the candidat ... More >>

California: 100 Million Marijuana Plants

You keep growing, they keep seizing​Seizures Rise Under Obama Administration as Cops Bust More Plants Than Ever.The marijuana-related headlines on Wednesday were hogged by a report, issued by a private "cannabusiness" company, that says sales of medical marijuana nationwide will top $1.7 billion t ... More >>

Fiona Ma Goes Raving

Not an actual photo'It wasn't fun per se...'​If you own enough pacifiers that you can match one to your outfit, you probably have a fairly strong opinion regarding Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, author of the "Anti-Raves Act of 2011."The San Francisco representative pulled back that legislation when it m ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

Feds Seize Grow Equipment, Cash from Oakland Pot Factory

Pot growers, we welcome you -- and your seized assets​Backers of Proposition 19 say their legalize-and-tax-it approach to marijuana will raise money for the strapped California government. Recent comments by U.S. attorney general Eric Holder, along with an Oct. 8 federal forfeiture filing connecte ... More >>

SOMA Pot Club Surprised to Learn of Ban on SOMA Pot Clubs

The city would prefer HopeNet's Steve Smith -- and his buddy -- to stay right where they are. And only there.​South of Market's been a de-facto "containment zone" for medical cannabis dispensaries for a variety of reasons: The still-gritty neighborhood has cheaper rents, more vacant storefront ... More >>

Owners Uncooperative

Personality clashes within the cannabis movement have real-life consequences.

San Francisco's Marijuana Arrest Totals Getting Higher

Put out that joint, mister...​What's that smell in the air, wafting from bus stops, parks, and most any street corner? It's evidence of a cavalier attitude regarding open-air cannabis consumption: This is San Francisco, after all -- feel free to puff away freely. Or, maybe not. According to statis ... More >>

Will Tea Partiers Kill Pro-Marijuana Measure?

Fibonacci BlueSo paranoid. So uptight. So stiff. What could cure this? Hmmm...​On today of all days, marijuana is on everyone's mind. But that goes doubly for politicians: Just last week, state Democratic Party chairman John Burton told media that he and fellow Dems (like that Jerry Brown guy) ... More >>

Hope You Enjoyed CMCR Report, Because That's All, Folks

It's not news that marijuana may have healing qualities: after all, medicinal cannabis has been (sort of) the law of the land since 1996, when California voters passed Proposition 215 . Still, it was a very big deal when the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research released the results last Wednesday ... More >>

Chronic City: N. California's Top Federal Prosecutor -- 'Really Not A Change At All' In Medical Pot Enforcement

​Ah, "guidelines." They're a little more lax than "rules," which are a little looser than "laws." When it comes to guidelines, that's their strength -- and that's their weakness. Whereas laws and rules are "broken," guidelines can simply be "ignored."That truism is abundantly illustrated by this w ... More >>

Chronic City: Poll Reveals San Diegans Want To Regulate Marijuana Dispensaries, Not Eliminate Them

Photo: Coaster420, Wikimedia CommonsMedical marijuana: Legal as long as you don't actually buy it anywhere?​It's a classic case of disconnect between public policy and public opinion. As District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis continues with her medical marijuana dispensary crackdown in San Diego, a ... More >>

Awesome Biking Checklist: Pump, Gloves, and $40,000 in Drug-Tainted Cash

D'oh!​When it comes to navigating the streets of San Francisco, life isn't fair for avid bicyclists.Take the case of a Wisconsin cyclist who apparently had the ride of the century planned when, in May, he sent a FedEx package through the San Francisco airport en route to a friend's place in Eureka ... More >>

Chronic City: Feds Lighten Up On Medical Marijuana Just As L.A. Tightens The Screws

Photo by Rotbuche, Wikimedia CommonsLet my people grow.​In a stunning bit of role reversal, law enforcement officials in dispensary-heavy Los Angeles County are gearing up for a massive mobilization against hundreds of pot shops even while the Obama administration backs away from the federal gover ... More >>

Chronic City: Fresno's Freakin' -- But Marijuana Dispensary To Stay Open

Medmar ClinicMedmar Clinic is under legal attack from the City of Fresno.​You've gotta pity the poor, put-upon city officials of Fresno. After all, they've only had 13 years to suss out Proposition 215, this newfangled medical marijuana law that's being forced upon their fair city by more progress ... More >>

Chronic City: Aptly Named 'Joint Resolution' Succeeds; California Senate Urges Change in Federal Medical Marijuana Rules

​By a 23-15 vote, the California State Senate yesterday approved a "joint resolution" urging the federal government to stop Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) raids on medical marijuana patients and providers. The Sen. Mark Leno-authored resolution additionally calls for the nation to "create a compreh ... More >>

Chronic City: To Tax Pot, Or Not? Oakland Votes Tuesday

Photo: chron.ronThe color of moneyMail-in voting closes Tuesday on Measure F, a new ordinance in Oakland which would impose a special tax on sales of medical marijuana in the city's dispensaries. The measure would make Oakland the first city in the United States to have a business tax category for m ... More >>

Chronic City: Oh, Noes! Fewer Narcs! Budget Crisis Could Mean Fewer Drug Busts.

Is it game over for the state's narcotics officers? California's budget crunch could cut almost a third of the agents from the Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, according to Attorney General Jerry Brown.Budget negotiators, facing the financial meltdown of the state treasury, have proposed lopping $20 ... More >>

Chronic City: Dispensary Operator Charlie Lynch Gets 366 Days In Federal Prison

Reason.tvCharles Lynch In a courtroom crowded with spectators and supporters, Morro Bay medical marijuana dispensary owner Charles Lynch was sentenced today in federal court to one year and one day in prison.Lynch, 47, appeared this morning in the Los Angeles federal courtroom of U.S. District Judge ... More >>

Chronic City: An End To The War On Drugs -- Impossible Dream? Political Ploy? Or Inevitable?

Gil KerlikowskeNew White House Drug Czar and former Seattle police chief Gil Kerlikowske didn't wait long before making big waves as the top drug enforcement officer in the country.  In his first public appearance since being confirmed on May 7, Kerlikowske, in a new interview with the Wall Str ... More >>

Supes Condemn Raid on San Francisco Pot Club, Call For DEA to Mellow Out

Fair enough, it was somewhat lost in the glare of our governor -- once caught on film wearing a shirt emblazoned with the sentence "Arnold Is Numero Uno" while smoking a joint and eating a massive piece of cake -- said he's open to debate on marijuana legalization. But, yesterday, a resolution passe ... More >>

Marijuana Advocate 'Flabbergasted' at DEA Raid of S.F. Dispensary

BummerLast week, Attorney General Eric Holder announced a policy shift away from the Drug Enforcement Agency raiding marijuana dispensaries in states that have approved medical marijuana. So, it came as something of a shock that DEA agents today raided Emmalyn's California Cannabis Clinic at 1597 Ho ... More >>

Medical Marijuana Still Under Fire

Dude, the City of Berkeley Is My Pot Dealer!

Stoners Release Collective Sigh: Gimmicky Pot-Enhanced Snack Company Busted

Stoners Release Collective Sigh: Gimmicky Pot-Enhanced Snack Company Busted

America and Marijuana: “Medicinal” My Ass

Messing Around with Salvia

The Bizarro Endorsement

Liberal candidate may get a boost from the police organization that condemns him

Drive-by Reporting

A primer for out-of-town journalists flocking to the Pelosi power story

Trip Fantastic

Untouchable

Half of U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan's lawyers have quit. But as he remains bunkered against criticism, who's minding the shop?

Undercover of the Night

Violent shootouts and dangerous love in Mann's visceral cop series update

Feelin' Their Thizzle

How the culture of Ecstasy has changed as the drug moved from raves to hip hop

Bait and Snitch

Lying under oath, threatening witnesses, revealing the names of federal agents -- it's just another day on the job for one of the DEA's paid drug informants

Letters to the Editor

Week of January 22, 2002

Letters to the Editor

Week of August 21, 2002

American High

With Traffic, Steven Soderbergh takes on the unwinnable war

In Heaven There Is No Beer

Polkacide is San Francisco's longest-running musical in-joke

The Grid

The Electric Clearlight Acid Mess

The bust of LSD bagman Waldron Vorhees, aka Captain Clearlight, opens a windowpane on the city -- and on the narco-cop nincompoops

Dog Bites

Down by Law

Tom Waits raises dough for pal Don Hyde's defense

Drug Story (Part I)

Discovered by brain researchers in the early '60s and resurrected by bodybuilders in the late '80s, the semi-illicit compound GHB is now marketed on the club and smart-drug circuits as a sexy wonder drug. But beware GHB's knockout punch.

Laboratory Rats

Acid House

Acid House

Dog Bites