FEDERAL AGENTS RAID CORONA POT DISPENSARY

Federal agents on Tuesday arrested the operator of a Corona medical
marijuana dispensary and raided his shop as dozens of patients and
employees protested outside the business.

The raid and arrest were part of a series that took place in Southern
California on Tuesday. Operators of medical marijuana dispensaries in
Hollywood, San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay also were arrested,
according to Drug Enforcement Administration spokeswoman Sarah Pullen.

The DEA, local police, Internal Revenue Service agents and the U.S.
Attorney's Office took part in the investigations leading up to the
raids and arrests, she said.

Drug Enforcement Administration agents and Corona police officers
investigate Healing Nations Collective Medical Marijuana Dispensary
in Corona on Tuesday.

Prop. 215, approved by California voters in 1996, decriminalized the
use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. But the sale and use of
marijuana remain illegal under federal law.

Pullen said Tuesday's raids were part of the agency's enforcement of
federal drug laws. She said the dispensaries had come under scrutiny
because of the scale of their sales operations.

The DEA previously has conducted raids on medical marijuana
dispensaries throughout California, including in such Inland cities
as Riverside and Palm Springs.

The Corona dispensary raided on Tuesday, Healing Nations Collective,
had sales of more than $1.2 million in a nine-month time period, Pullen said.

"Our goals are to target the most egregious traffickers out there," she said.

The raid on the strip-mall dispensary on West Grand Boulevard began
about 6 a.m. Agents also raided the Corona home of its operator,
Ronald Naulls, and searched a storage unit in the 2500 block of
Hamner Avenue in Norco. Corona police assisted in the investigation
and the serving of the warrant.

Authorities seized Mercedes-Benz, Lexus and GMC vehicles and $75,000
in cash at Naulls' home, 15 pounds of marijuana and a substantial
amount of "marijuana edibles" at the business, and additional
marijuana at the storage unit, Pullen said. Numerous documents also
were seized.

A federal indictment charges Naulls with conspiracy to possess with
intent to distribute marijuana, and of causing others to illegally
sell marijuana, which refers to employees of the dispensary. Naulls
faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted, Pullen said. He was
being held in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday afternoon awaiting arraignment.

Attempts to reach Naulls or family members Tuesday were unsuccessful.

James Anthony, a civil attorney who previously represented Naulls,
said Tuesday was a "sad day."

"Ronald Naulls is caught in a war between the state and federal
governments over the legality of medical cannabis," Anthony said.
"Today, he was arrested for standing up for his medical rights under
state law."

Marie Vasquera, a 21-year-old Riverside resident who works at Healing
Nations, contends the business operated as a nonprofit cooperative
and followed all state and local laws.

She said the business got its plants from medical marijuana patients
legally allowed to grow small numbers of plants, and the marijuana
was sold only to people with valid identification cards. Nonprofit
farming cooperatives were explicitly allowed by state legislation in
2003 and require identification cards for patients using marijuana
for medical purposes.

Pullen said that Naulls was not charged under state or local laws,
and that she did not know whether the business operated as a nonprofit.

Throughout Tuesday morning, Vasquera and others staged a boisterous
and emotional protest outside the dispensary. With signs and chants
and spontaneous cries, they invoked state law and patients rights,
and berated federal agents and police.

"What are the police going to do for people like me? Do they care
that people are going to suffer?" said Corona resident David
Martinez, 45, who suffers from painful tumors and back problems and
has patronized Healing Nations Collective since it opened in May 2006.

Many others said that medical marijuana was the best treatment for
their host of painful and life-disrupting conditions.

"It gave me my life back," said 47-year-old Riverside resident Kathy
Jones, who said a regimen of heavy painkillers taken for fibromyalgia
and other conditions had previously left her incapacitated.

"I'm not a druggie, I'm a patient," she said through tears.

Healing Nations was locked and boarded Tuesday afternoon. Its fate is unclear.

The raid follows a year of Corona City Council actions and court
hearings aimed at shuttering the city's only known medical marijuana
dispensary.

Last summer, the City Council approved a yearlong moratorium
prohibiting the establishment of new dispensaries in Corona. In
April, the council voted unanimously to make the ban permanent.

In December, Riverside Superior Court Commissioner Joan R. Burgess
granted Corona a preliminary injunction against Healing Nations
Collective to shut down the dispensary, then stayed the injunction so
the business could operate until Naulls' appeal of the ruling was complete.

About a month ago, the city refused to renew Naulls' business
license. He is appealing that ruling, Naulls' attorney said. An
administrative hearing was scheduled at City Hall on July 24, but it
may not happen after the raid, he said.

Corona Mayor Eugene Montanez said that the possibility of the federal
authorities coming into Corona to close the dispensary was a concern
the city shared with Naulls when he opened Healing Nations.

The mayor said he believes there is a hierarchy in the law and the
city can do little to alter that.

"Federal law always takes state law, just like state law overruns any
city laws we might pass," he said. "It's a priority for the federal
government and the district attorney. It's the priority of the law."