AT LEAST ONE BUTTE COUNTY POT DISPENSARY REOPENS

At least one Butte County medical marijuana dispensary among seven
raided by law enforcement officials Wednesday has reopened.

A lawyer for Cascade Wellness Center said employees spent the day
Thursday gathering cannabis from collective members and were able to
scrape together enough to open the doors at 3:30 p.m.

Customers were waiting and the dispensary reportedly had to carefully
ration the amount each could buy.

Attorney George Mull said officers entered the dispensary, located
north of Chico on Highway 99, without probable cause and used a
warrant to confiscate product, computers, cash, financial records and
records of collective members' Proposition 215 authorizations.

Mull said cell phones were also taken from employees, and claimed they
were forced to lie on the floor while the search warrant was served.

Mull said he is filing a claim against the county for damages, which
allegedly included the destruction of hundreds of growing marijuana
plants.

"They came in and either ripped the tops off the plants, or clipped
them off," he said. "Nothing in the warrant called for that."

Mull said there was no reason for the raid at the dispensary based on
possible illegal sales. "We run a really tight ship here," he said.

He said employees suspected several attempts by undercover officers to
purchase marijuana with expired Proposition 215 cards or expired
driver's licenses.

To his knowledge, he said none of the attempts was successful at
Cascade Wellness.

Mull said the dispensary received no warning from officials about
reopening. "No arrests were made. This was obviously an attempt to
cripple us."

Meanwhile Thursday, a cannabis dispensary in Corning was open and
reportedly deluged by medical marijuana consumers from Butte County.

An employee at the Tehama Herbal Collective (THC) said the store was
crowded with customers who had lost their traditional sources for cannabis.

"This will probably be our busiest day yet," said the employee, who
asked not to be identified. She said the dispensary was well stocked.

Chico Police Chief Mike Maloney said carloads of items confiscated
Wednesday are evidence in an ongoing investigation to determine if the
dispensaries have broken the law.

Maloney said all are in violation of zoning ordinances, and said an
initial investigation suggests that some have operated "beyond the
scope of legitimacy."

Officials expressed particular concern that undercover officers who
weren't registered members of the dispensaries were able to purchase
pot as walk-in customers.

Maloney said if it can be proven that dispensary operators were making
a profit from the sale of marijuana, their activities would be
considered illegal.