POT SHOP OWNER STACY HOCHANADEL WANTS WARRANT VOIDED

A former Palm Desert medical marijuana dispensary operator and his
two managers, who are facing trial on drug charges, will ask today
that a search warrant used in the case be quashed.

Stacy Hochanadel, the former owner of CannaHelp, and managers James
Campbell and John Bednar, all 31, were arrested in December 2006, and
charged with felony possession of marijuana for sale, transport and
sale of marijuana, and keeping a place to sell controlled substances.

The three contend they were running a legal medical marijuana
business under Proposition 215 and Senate Bill 420. Under California
law, marijuana can be sold on a not-for-profit basis to patients with
a doctor's prescription, although it is illegal under federal law.

In ordering the three to stand trial, Judge Eric G. Helgesen of
Tulare County said Dec. 7 it appeared the defendants violated the law
because the dispensary was profitable, generating well over $1
million in sales.

Bednar's attorney, Phillip La Rocca, said Thursday that evidence from
a search warrant on the dispensary should be ruled inadmissible
because the affidavit filed in support of the warrant, "misstated the
law on medical marijuana and was full of conclusions not supported by facts."

According to the affidavit, a sheriff's investigator said
surveillance of the El Paseo dispensary indicated the customers
weren't really sick.

"That's something that's not observable, and the magistrate who
approved the search warrant was misled," La Rocca said.

Marijuana and financial records were seized at CannaHelp, 73359 El
Paseo, in December 2006 during a raid by the Riverside County
Sheriff's Department.

During December's preliminary hearing to determine if there was
enough evidence to order the defendants to stand trial, sheriff's
investigator Robert Garcia testified that CannaHelp generated $1.6
million from the sale of marijuana.

He also conceded the defendants never tried to hide their business
from law enforcement and that it would be unfair to compare them to
street-level drug dealers.

Garcia testified that an undercover officer twice purchased marijuana
on the premises for what he said was a back problem.

He also conceded that CannaHelp tried to comply with the law and that
the dispensary refused to sell to the first undercover officer who
tried to purchase marijuana because employees could not verify his
doctor's prescription.

The three defendants have been allowed to remain free on their own
recognizance on the condition that they do not obtain marijuana in
excess of what the law allows. All three men are medical marijuana
cardholders with prescriptions for the drug. They also cannot sell
the drug or provide it to patients in a care-giving capacity.

If convicted, they could be sentenced to 16 months to two years in
prison, prosecutors said.