Eddy Lepp, a champion of the medicinal use of marijuana had his farm raided by the DEA yesterday. The local rag, who couldn't be bothered to publish an interview conducted with him earlier this year, decided to freely quote Lepp now that he's been busted... DEA raids Lepp's pot farm By John Lindblom - Record-Bee staff UPPER LAKE For Eddy Lepp, who claims to have the largest acreage of legally grown marijuana in the country, it was a bitter harvest Wednesday as Federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officers, assisted by Lake County Sheriff's deputies, destroyed 40 acres of plants and arrested him. Richard Meyer, a special agent and public information officer for the DEA's San Francisco office, placed the value of marijuana removed from Lepp's property, conservatively, at $80 million. Lepp will be formally charged probably for possession with intent to distribute before a U.S. Magistrate Court in San Francisco today. "He will have to be here in San Francisco for an initial appearance," said Meyer. "The judge will read the charges and constitutional rights to Mr. Lepp." Although Lepp's circumstances Wednesday prevented him from speaking to the media, the arrest is another chapter in a long-running feud he has had with the DEA, which he is attempting to sue out of existence. In an unpublished interview with the Record-Bee earlier this year, Lepp said he is seeking $67 million from the DEA for taking 1,700 kilos of ostensibly legal marijuana plants off his property two years ago. The DEA warrant used Wednesday to arrest Lepp and destroy a marijuana crop that is easily visible from Highway 20, Meyer asserted, supersedes California statutes which Lepp believes give him the right to legally grow medical marijuana. But Meyer said it is possible that several federal charges can be leveled against Lepp while none are filed by the state. And Chief Sheriff's Deputy Russ Perdock said that to the best of his knowledge there are no state charges against Lepp. No matter, said Meyer. "According to the United Constitution there is a supremacy clause, which says that in case of conflict federal law precedes state law," he said and added, "According to federal law, there is no such thing as medical marijuana. Marijuana is a dangerous drug that the United States Congress has classified as a Schedule One substance. A Schedule One substance doesn't have any accepted medical use in the United States and a high potential for abuse." Virtually all of California's medical marijuana proponents object to this type of rhetoric by the DEA. "We've got mixed signals here," said William Dolphin, spokesperson for Americans for Safe Access, which is the largest national organization supporting medical marijuana. "The federal courts are saying that people who are allowed marijuana legally by the state of California should be left alone by the federal government, and yet the DEA continues to insist that there is no such thing as medical marijuana. " ... Even when federal courts have said otherwise," Dolphin added, citing two U.S. appeals court rulings in support of medical marijuana the most recent the appeals court's reversal of a 10-year trafficking sentence for Brian Epis of Chico. Meyer said 12 other people were arrested on Wednesday for marijuana-related offenses who will be tried in state courts, but did not elaborate. "We don't have names or places, but they will be charged by state authority, whereas Mr. Lepp is being charged by federal authority," Meyer said. The DEA formula for determining the weight of marijuana is one pound per plant and $4,000 per pound. "We'll tally up the plants seized (on Lepp's property). Right now the tally is 20,000 plants," Meyer said. A man who does not shrink from battles with law enforcement officials and doggedly defends his rights and those of others on marijuana issues, Lepp's arrest was certain to send reverberations through the local and medical marijuana communities. Lepp has claimed that he and his wife Linda have "been personally responsible for helping 4,000 people" who used marijuana for numerous medical reasons. More recently, Lepp began working closely with Dr. Milan Hopkins, who dispenses medical marijuana from his office in Upper Lake. Lepp maintains he has never sold marijuana. In the interview earlier this year, he described how, for a $500 contribution to his ministry, he will grow up to six plants for a patient who is disabled and has a valid doctor's recommendation for marijuana. "The donation covers the cost of labor, fertilizer, water and security, which is intense at the end of the growing season," he told a Record-Bee reporter. "There is never a charge for the plant or the product. We do not sell marijuana. We never have, we never will." The nature of his business being what it is, Lepp has been at odds with the law almost constantly. In addition to a suit he filed against the U.S. Attorney General and the DEA for the earlier bust, he has a case against Lake County, which he said was in appeal. He maintains an up-to-date knowledge of state and federal laws governing marijuana and in the interview with the Record-Bee, said: "What we're doing is demanding that (the DEA) bring forth legislative jurisdiction in other words the authority under which they enforced federal law inside the sovereign republic of California. "They can't do that, they do not have that power. The federal government does not have the authority to enforce federal law inside any of the sovereign states." Lepp also claimed that in their earlier seizure of marijuana on his property the DEA acted on laws that either didn't exist or hadn't been acted on. "The immediate closure of the DEA that's what we ask for," Lepp said in the earlier interview. "They are an illegal operation and are operating under laws that do not exist." Here's a pix of Eddy I took at this year's IC420 Cup in Amsterdam.
Damn. That just sucks. That is a lot of weed though, I understand helping people but why did he have to grow so much? He should have known he was going to get screwed eventually.
Lol. You should be a respectable stoner. I'd only steal if I knew what was going to happen. I like reading threads like this one because they inform me on what's going on in the marijuana world.
You know, it really sickens me how the DEA blatantly deny proven facts about medical marijuana while pumping in propaganda pertaining to falsities. I also have no, and I mean no idea why there isn't more awarness about this isuee. It's completely asinine that federal organizations like NIDA can deny the supply of government grown marijuana to independant researchers looking to conduct studies with them hat the FDA have already approved. It's just wrong that the DEA can go around, with complete disregard to the law, seize patients marijuana, and then actually refer to the U.S. constitution! Yeah, that's right, the DE-Fucking-A is going to rely on the U.S. constitution when they're probably responsibile for 90% of the rights in it being denied to U.S. citizens. Whatever happens to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Isn't that basically outlined in the fucking constitution? Grr... It just pisses me off that this shit has to happen. This whole country is fucked up. The way we run the things, the way we elect presidents, the way we're said to have freedom, but in fact we actually don't. In America, you have freedom, and if you question that fact you're an unpatriotic, civil disobediant, fucking terrorist. It's like it's 1984 or some shit. I'm just going to buy me an island off U.S. waters, and whoever want to come live with me can. The DEA would still probably try and bust us, though.
you can't be too pissed at the DEA, although they do enforce unjust laws, they are doing what they are told, you should be pissed at our gov't. our congress, our supreme court judges are the ones that let this go on, the DEA goes after whoever the law states is the bad guy and they go after them by any means necc. the DEA isn't the problem, the laws and the judges that upheld them are.
If half of them smoke pot, then wouldn't the DEA be pretty relaxed about pot? I bet it's that one guy (Anslinger I think) he was like a politician or something..and he started the whole anti-drug campaign in the 1930s .. didn't he form the DEA or something like that? Well he's probably making a LOT of money doing what he's doing.. seems like the whole thing is so one guy can get a lot of money. WOW that guy had a lot of weed..he looked like a cool stoner too
The reason Eddy had so much pot growing is that he was supplying 4000 medical marijuana patients with their medicine. The state of California had absolutely no problem with Eddy's activities, and it is they who are mandated by the US constitution to provide for the health & welfare of it's citizens, not the Federal government. The federal gov't refuses to even acknowledge ANY medical benefits from marijuana despite new studies done that prove it. The US is a country based on lies, and this is one of the big ones. LIBERATE CANNABIS NOW!
the dea busts their own operations for fucks sakes. the dea and cia are responsible for bringing more drugs into north america than any gang or other organization has. marijuana laws were founded on racism and are propped by further misinformation. it's like a mechanic telling you what work you need done on your car...sure there are honest mechanics out there, but the way people trust the dea is idiotic because they're the sole beneficiaries of telling you pot is bad....just like a mechanic is the sole benifiary when he tells you your radiator needs replacing when it obviously doesn't. they're just making work for themselves.
