RAIDS HALT 14 SELLERS OF MEDICAL POT

San Diego DA Cites Violations of Law Regarding Legal Sales

SAN DIEGO - Local and federal investigators shut down 14 medical
marijuana dispensaries and arrested 30 people after an undercover
operation allegedly found widespread violation of the state's
medicinal pot law by storefront sellers.

The actions, announced Thursday, amount to one of the most aggressive
law enforcement steps yet to thwart what has become rampant growth in
California cities of storefront operations purporting to legally sell
medical marijuana to qualifying patients.

California, which first passed its medical marijuana law in 1996, is
one of 13 states that permits use to treat pain and illness if
recommended by a physician. The state laws remain in conflict with
federal law making possession, sale and cultivation of marijuana illegal.

San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis said charges had yet to be
filed against most of those arrested. Two of those arrested face
federal drug charges, U.S. Attorney Karen Hewitt said. Others were
arrested for violation of state law.

The district attorney asserted that medical pot sellers who
advertised openly in local publications and on the Internet were
flouting state requirements that they be set up as cooperatives or
collectives and in fact were for-profit sellers of marijuana for
recreational use. One of the businesses had recorded $700,000 in
marijuana income in six months, Dumanis said, and six guns and
$70,000 cash were seized in the raids.

"It appears these so-called marijuana dispensaries are nothing more
than for-profit storefront drug dealing operations run by drug
dealers hiding behind the state's medical marijuana law," Dumanis said.

She and San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne said their
undercover investigation found that none of the medical marijuana
stores they examined was run legally.

The police chief said investigators estimate 40 to 50 such sellers
were doing business in the city and more in the surrounding county.
Their visibility in San Diego is far smaller than in some other areas
of the state, such as Los Angeles, where ads in local publications
and on the Internet suggest there are hundreds. Dumanis said she
wanted San Diego to avoid the problems Los Angeles has with
widespread public marijuana sales.

Americans for Safe Access, which advocates medical marijuana use,
blasted Dumanis as "a notorious opponent of medical marijuana" bent
on thwarting California law.

Dumanis said none of the sellers was found to have sold to
individuals lacking a proper physician's recommendation. She said the
sellers had violated requirements for structuring and operating as
collectives or cooperatives as laid out in law.