Denver DEA: Drug Rings, Not Medical Pot

DENVER (AP) – Denver’s top Drug Enforcement Administration agent

says he’d rather his agents focus on international drug rings than

medical marijuana growers.

Denver DEA Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey Sweetin in an

interview with The Denver Post editorial board Monday says that

aggravating factors must be involved before his agents raid a

medical marijuana grow.

Those factors include links to criminal organizations, feeding

the marijuana black market or operating “far over the line” of

state law. Sweetin’s comments come less than a week before

sentencing for Christopher Bartkowicz, who was arrested Feb. 12 in

a high profile raid.

DEA agents raided Bartkowicz’s home after he told a television

station about his marijuana growing operation in his basement.