Cannabis Club’s Assets Frozen

Members of a Berkeley cannabis club called for the support of the City Council Tuesday after their assets were frozen following a series of raids on Los Angeles County medical marijuana dispensaries last week.

The Berkeley Patients Group, one of three medical cannabis clubs in Berkeley, discovered Monday that its assets had been frozen after a warrant was delivered to their bank by Los Angeles police, said Becky DeKeuster, the group’s community liaison.

“We went to make a payment,” said group spokesperson Debby Goldsberry. “I went to the counter and they said ‘your accounts are frozen.’”

The frozen assets were savings the group intended to use to make a tax payment to the state as well as their operating funds, DeKeuster said.

“We have staff who are volunteering their services at this point, it’s scary,” DeKeuster said. “Our next step is to look at our legal options, it’s not going to stop at the City Council.”

The group’s assets were frozen and are pending seizure following a federal investigation, said Sarah Pullen, a spokesperson for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Los Angeles, which worked with the Los Angeles police in freezing the funds.

Pullen said she did not know how much money had been frozen or how many bank accounts were effected in the operation.

“If the investigation shows that they are subject to seizure then the warrants will be issued to seize the assets and then it goes through the federal forfeiture process,” she said.

Kris Hermes, a spokesperson with Americans for Safe Access, said one of the ten groups raided in Los Angeles last week was a sister organization to the Berkeley organization.

The Berkeley Patients Group, which serves approximately 2,500 residents, is a medical marijuana dispensary as well as a clinic providing services ranging from acupuncture to therapy, DeKeuster said.

The group is asking the Berkeley City Council to make the city a sanctuary for the distribution of medical marijuana.

Many city council members said they supported the club and hoped to make clear that the Berkeley police should not cooperate with the federal administration in any sort of similar raids.

“I think it’s atrocious what happened down in Los Angeles,” said Councilmember Darryl Moore. “Our medical dispensaries are serving some of the most needy in Berkeley.”

The use of marijuana for medical purposes is legal in California under Proposition 215, which passed in 1996, with over 80 percent of Berkeley voters approving it.

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