The Sacramento Bee has a strong piece this morning by Peter Hecht outlining the very real effects of the latest federal crackdown on medical marijuana in California.  There is an excellent description of the raid on Matt Cohen of Northstone Organics in particular and the resulting chill that spread across those growers who are attempting to work with law enforcement.  Cohen was an example of a grower who appeared to do everything legal.  He appeared to operate a non-profit cannabis organization that worked closely with law enforcement to be environmentally and socially responsible.  The article has a powerful account of the raid including this,

On Oct. 13, Cohen was indiscreetly greeted with a battering ram at his door.

“You don’t have to knock it down. I’ll open it,” the tall, pony-tailed Cohen said he shouted to DEA agents. “And please don’t shoot the dogs.”

Cohen said officers handcuffed him and his wife, Courtenay, 31, demanding to know where he kept guns and cash. He said he had no weapons and just $5.

The whole piece is well done and really worth your time to read but this quote in particular says it all,

“It’s paranoia season up here right now,” said Fran Harris, who with her husband, James Taylor Jones, runs a tie-dyed clothing store in the town of Laytonville and grows marijuana for medical users under the county-supervised program. “Matt (Cohen) may have been targeted to send a message. He was trying to promote doing it the right way. And the federal message is there is no right way.”