OK, I'm not a lawyer. I only occasionally play one on the blog here. But my own poor reading had me convinced that the Feds needed a little more than this to just bust in and seize medical records, no matter what kind of medicine happened to be recorded in said records.

"I know that in order to effectively pursue this investigation," wrote special agent Michael Gutensohn in his application for the warrant, "I need to investigate each of the patients, growers and caregivers associated with" names discovered in the investigation. "I have probable cause to believe that records from the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program will contain evidence and instrumentalities of marijuana manufacturing and trafficking and conspiracy to commit marijuana manufacturing and trafficking offenses," he wrote. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for Oregon confirmed that only records specifically listed in the warrant were seized. However, Gerri Badden said no other records related to the investigation were publicly available and that the investigation may be ongoing. In that case, no other records related to the investigation would be public at this point.

Am I wrong, or does this sound like the same weaselspeak that has been behind every bullshit warrant in the history of the "war" on drugs? Isn't this the kind of crapola that allows cops to blow into somebody's apartment and accidentally kill some septuagenarian while he's eating breakfast?

The laws against marijuana in the country unquestionably are the dumbest laws on the books. Nothing is even close. This is obvious to everyone who's ever smoked the stuff, which is a great many of us, including me. (Pick up your jaws, people.) This is obvious to every sensible law-enforcement official in the nation. This is increasingly obvious even to the slowest of state legislators, and we have some slow ones in this country, god knows. The only people to whom this is not obvious work for the federal government, which continues to stomp around like a bull elephant with a bullet in its brains, crushing people it can't even see.

In October, the U.S. Attorney for Northern California sent a "chilling subpoena" to the county seeking records related to that county's unique medical marijuana arrangement with growers, reported the East Bay Express newspaper.The subpoena sought "names and locations of pot gardeners, county bank records, 'any and all' legal correspondence, etc. The grand jury subpoena stepped all over medical record privacy laws, and the attorney client privilege, lawyers in the case noted."

The stupid is truly strong in this area.

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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