15 HELD IN RAIDS ON POT STORES

Medical Marijuana Profiteers Targeted

With dozens of medical marijuana dispensaries doing a brisk business
across San Diego County, and many patients showing no signs of
serious illness, state and federal prosecutors decided they had seen enough.

Yesterday they conducted a multi-agency sweep that snared what
officials said were the worst offenders: dealers capitalizing on
California's loosely drawn medical marijuana law to make a profit.

The pot dispensaries have become "magnets for crime in San Diego,"
Police Chief William Lansdowne said. The operators "have taken the
compassionate use of marijuana and convoluted it into a
million-dollar business."

Drug agents showed up at dispensaries in La Jolla, Ocean Beach, North
Park and elsewhere across the city, detaining patients, running
warrant checks on employees and arresting previously identified
dispensary owners.

Of the 15 people arrested, six face federal charges related to a
grand jury indictment handed down late Wednesday, and 10 were charged
by county prosecutors. One suspect, [name redacted], of San Diego,
faces both federal and state charges.

"Their motive was not to better society," U.S. Attorney Carol Lam
said at a news conference announcing the arrests. "But rather to make
a profit by breaking the law."

Prosecutors took the unusual step of filing official complaints with
the California Medical Board against four physicians who they said
sell an inordinate number of recommendations for medical marijuana.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that doctors cannot be targeted for
recommending that their patients use marijuana.

The raids followed a December sweep by the same joint-agency
narcotics task force. In that sweep, agents confiscated equipment and
thousands of patient records but made no arrests.

Investigators said much of the information seized then helped form
the case that unfolded with Wednesday's grand jury indictments and
yesterday's raids.

District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis said her office decided not to
target legitimate medical marijuana patients, who are protected under
state law but remain vulnerable to prosecution under federal drug statutes.

Rather, she said, her office was singling out dispensaries that
indiscriminately sell marijuana to anyone who can produce a
physician's recommendation.

"We support (medical marijuana) wholeheartedly, but Proposition 215
is being severely abused," Dumanis said. "It's just really gotten out
of hand. . . . Those of us in law enforcement have tolerated it for too long."

Many dispensaries charge up to $80 for an eighth-ounce of the highest
grade marijuana and sell marijuana-laced candy bars and lollipops and
other products that prosecutors say are attractive to children.

The prosecutors said dispensary operators make thousands of dollars a
day, selling largely to young people with no apparent medical conditions.

Undercover agents said they witnessed people buying marijuana time
and again and then sharing it with friends just outside.

Patient records confiscated during the December raids showed that 72
percent of patients were between 17 and 40 years old, federal prosecutors said.

Nearly 63 percent of caregivers, who under state law can obtain
marijuana for people too sick to get it for themselves, were between 18 and 30.

The seized records also showed that barely 2 percent of patients
reported having AIDS, glaucoma or cancer. Instead, almost 98 percent
used marijuana to relieve muscle spasms, insomnia, back and neck
pain, headaches and other less-serious ailments.

The year long investigation showed that some dispensaries had sales
gimmicks such as "Free Doobie Monday" and discounts for frequent
customers. Many of the dispensaries identified by investigators were
not part of yesterday's raid, but Dumanis put them squarely on notice.

"We've raided some of you today," she said. "We'll raid the rest of
you if you do not cease and desist. We'll raid you again and again."

News of the raids spread quickly across the city and state. Most of
the storefront dispensaries closed quickly. "Mobile dispensaries" or
delivery services stopped answering their telephones and their
operators were unavailable for interviews.

Internet message boards sizzled with news and rumors about the sweeps.

One posting said, "I never knew that compassion was illegal." Another
appeared to support the action: "Hopefully this is just another set
of raids to get rid of the fake dispensaries."

San Diego County has been at the forefront of the medical marijuana
movement for several years.

In 2003, San Diego became the largest city in the nation to adopt
guidelines for sick and dying patients who grow and use the drug,
acts that were made legal when California voters passed Proposition
215 in 1996.

But the county Board of Supervisors sued the state earlier this year
to try to overturn the law, even though a majority of the county's
voters supported the initiative. Public officials in San Bernardino
and Merced counties have joined the suit, which is pending in state court.

The selling of marijuana in storefronts not only concerns law
enforcement and political leaders, but has also divided medical
marijuana activists, many of whom argue that the storefronts do more
harm than good.

Jerry Meier, chairman of the volunteer task force that drafted San
Diego's medical marijuana guidelines, said dispensaries have been a
problem since they began setting up shop in large numbers about two years ago.

"I see a lot of the dispensaries as nothing more than profiteers who
are taking advantage of the work the task force did," Meier said.
"The task force has always said the dispensaries at the very least
should have some sort of regulation."

But Bruce Mirken of the Marijuana Policy Project, a San Francisco
advocacy group, said authorities should not punish all dispensaries.

"Many patients are not in a position to grow and have no person that
can act as a caregiver," he said. "There's no reason someone
shouldn't be able to go to a reliable source and buy their medicine
like they would with any prescription or over-the-counter drug."

Only one of the suspects arrested by federal agents [name redacted]
actually ran dispensaries.

The other five men were accused of one count each of conspiracy to
distribute marijuana and conspiracy to manufacture marijuana. They
were [five names, ages and city redacted].

If convicted, they could face up to 40 years in prison.

County prosecutors charged [name redacted] and nine others: [names
and ages redacted], all of San Diego.

Those defendants face charges of selling marijuana and possession for
sale, with penalties ranging up to four years in state prison.