Federal agents raided several medical marijuana dispensaries Wednesday in Washington — a state which just decriminalized the drug last year.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Seattle office confirmed in a brief statement that "several search warrants were executed today involving marijuana storefronts" in the Puget Sound region around Seattle.
It gave no further details, and the number of raids remained unclear Wednesday evening.
One of the dispensaries was the Bayside Collective in Olympia, the state capital, where seven government vehicles converged Wednesday morning.
Agents with guns drawn seized business records and about $2,500 worth of marijuana intended for cancer patients, Casey Lee, who works at the clinic, told NBC station KING of Seattle.
"It's humiliating," Lee said. "They don't get to see the cancer patients."
Washington was one of the first states to legalize possession of up to an ounce of marijuana last year. But it remains illegal under federal law, and Lee claimed one of the agents told him, "Things are going to be hell for you."
"One of the DEA agents said: 'This is your second raid and your third robbery. Why do you keep doing this?'" Lee said.
"I just told him it's because we just enjoy helping people, and he told us that he wasn't expecting that answer."