COUNTY, DEA RAID MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES

Drug enforcement, San Diego County sheriff's deputies and San
Diego police officers raided a number of medical marijuana
dispensaries across the county, including a location that had just
opened recently in Solana Beach, district attorney's officials said
Thursday.

Deputy District Attorney Damon Mosler said Thursday afternoon that law
enforcement officials arrested 10 people, but none in North County, on
charges including possessing marijuana with intent to sell, and
selling marijuana. Mosler said no raids were conducted on "Legal
Ease," a North County dispensary the city of San Marcos plans to shut
down.

California voters approved the "Compassionate Use Act" a decade ago,
which allows seriously ill people to grow and use marijuana to ease
their pain.

However, the federal government still considers all marijuana use to
be illegal and without medicinal value ---- though it recognizes the
medicinal benefit of synthetically-created tetrahydrocannabinol, the
active ingredient in grown marijuana.

Mosler said the county was helping federal agents conduct the raids
because the dispensaries were selling marijuana to almost anyone who
wanted it, rather than legitimate patients.