TEHAMA'S SOLE REMAINING STOREFRONT-STYLE POT COLLECTIVE RAIDED BY AGENTS

CORNING - Police and drug agents raided Tehama County's sole remaining
storefront-style marijuana collective Tuesday, along with the home of
its owner and a second property in Rancho Tehama belonging to him.

As of about 4 p.m. Tuesday, all the marijuana in Tehama Herbal
Collective in Corning had been seized. Agents also took paperwork,
computers and more than $12,400 from the collective.

Agents seized another 100 plants from a property on Elder Creek Circle
in Rancho Tehama belonging to THC owner and Corning City Council
candidate Ken Prather, another $1,200 and records from his Walnut
Street residence in Corning.

"I'm pretty sure they have access to additional marijuana," Tehama
County Inter-agency Drug Enforcement Team Acting Special Agent
Supervisor Eric Maher said.

Maher said the warrants were served from a TIDE investigation going
back to 2009. Undercover TIDE agents were reportedly able to purchase
marijuana "starter" plants that year from THC employees, even though
the agents had no medical marijuana recommendations.

Agents reportedly purchased marijuana from THC on another six
occasions without recommendations, in at one case even buying for a
fictional friend, Maher said. Selling marijuana plants to someone
without a medical recommendation is still considered a felony in
California. Some local officials, including Maher, maintain that even
under state law medical marijuana cannot be exchanged for money.

"There's nothing in California law that allows for that," Maher
said.

No one has been arrested. Maher said he will be submitting evidence
collected by TIDE offers to the district attorney.

Calls to Prather and THC were not returned Tuesday
afternoon.

Prather shares THC ownership with his family. The family faces a court
date this month for violating the city's zoning codes and operating in
spite of a citywide ban on collectives.

The city issued daily citations for months, but Prather and his wife,
a medical marijuana patient, argued state medical marijuana laws and
existing zoning codes, which allow for pharmacies, made the collective
exempt.

In July, Prather announced his candidacy for Corning City
Council.

Geoff Johnson is a reporter with the Red Bluff Daily News.