TEMECULA COUPLE KNOWN FOR MEDICAL-MARIJUANA ACTIVISM ARRESTED,
CHARGED WITH POSSESSION, CULTIVATION

TEMECULA - Police seized dozens of marijuana plants and about five
pounds of dried marijuana Friday from the Temecula home of a medical
user well known in Riverside County for his activism on the issue.

Martin J. Victor, 56, said Monday that he and his wife, both of whom
suffer from debilitating health problems that prevent them from
working, run a 10-member medicinal marijuana collective from their home.

Victor was arrested Friday on suspicion of possession of concentrated
cannabis, cultivation of more than 50 marijuana plants and possession
of marijuana for sale, jail records show. He was booked into the
Southwest Detention Center and released Saturday morning on $50,000 bail.

Police served a search warrant on Palmetto Way about 5:30 p.m., said
Lt. Scot Collins. They learned about the large number of marijuana
plants being cultivated in a suburban backyard near the Pechanga
Casino, Collins said, through sheriff's helicopter surveillance and
complaints from neighbors.

"The people in the neighborhood weren't too happy about it," Collins said.

Collins said the operation was not in compliance with new guidelines
on medical marijuana issued last month by the state attorney
general's office. The Victors were not collecting sales tax, he said,
and they did not have a nonprofit business license.

Collins also suggested Victor was making a profit from marijuana sales.

"I can't see how they could not have," Collins said, explaining that
police seized about 70 marijuana plants, five pounds of dried
marijuana and a small amount of concentrated marijuana hash, along
with surveillance cameras and other equipment.

"I don't know where they're coming from in terms of that number of
patients and that amount of marijuana."

Victor said he uses marijuana because he suffers from fibromyalgia
and cluster headaches as a result of optic-nerve damage. His
53-year-old wife, LaVonne Victor, also a medicinal marijuana user,
has multiple sclerosis, a spinal injury and experiences panic attacks.

In 2001, they were arrested and charged with cultivating marijuana
and possession for sale, which could have resulted in 32-month prison terms.

The case ended in late 2002 when a judge dropped all charges against
LaVonne Victor and Martin Victor pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor
count of providing less than an ounce of marijuana to a roommate and
was fined $100.

He said at the time that the roommate took the marijuana without his
knowledge or consent.

Victor and another member of the collective, Dave Herrick, said they
are convinced that Friday's raid was timed to coincide with Victor's
testimony Monday on behalf of another medical marijuana advocate
charged with battery in San Bernardino County.

"It's nothing but persecution," Herrick said. "And vindictiveness."

They have been growing medicinal marijuana in their backyard for five
years, Victor said.