AGENTS RAID 13 MEDICAL POT DISPENSARIES IN S.D. COUNTY

Warrants Served After Drug Bought Without Paperwork

Federal agents fanned out across San Diego County yesterday, executing
simultaneous search warrants on 13 medical marijuana
dispensaries.

No one was arrested on suspicion of drug-dealing, officials said, but
three people were arrested on unrelated charges.

The agents arrived at most of the dispensaries unannounced with guns
drawn, witnesses said. They handcuffed employees and ran background
checks on both workers and patients. Drug-sniffing dogs searched for
pot and pot-laced products, such as brownies, ice cream and butter.

The raids were conducted on dispensaries in San Diego and San Marcos
but quickly made news across California. Activists were worried that
other dispensaries around the state would be targeted next.

Law enforcement officials said the warrants were signed by a federal
judge after undercover agents purchased marijuana without the
paperwork required under state law, said Jack Hook, the DEA's acting
special agent in charge.

"The bottom line is the prices that these people are charging is three
to four times higher than you buy from a seedy drug dealer in a back
alley," Hook said. "These people are not helping the medically infirm.
They're out to make money."

Hook said the task force had identified 29 dispensaries operating
across San Diego County in recent months. Of those, 16 went out of
business during the investigation.

According to Hook, the dispensaries pose a serious risk to public
safety. Several storefronts have been targeted by thieves because
there are large amounts of drugs and money inside, he said.

Even though investigators plan to scrutinize the patient records
seized yesterday, the DEA said medical marijuana users are not targets
of the ongoing investigation.

The afternoon raids incensed dispensary operators and medical
marijuana activists, who say the federal government has no business
interfering in a state issue.

"These actions fly in the face of voters," said Laurie Kallonakis,
president of San Diego NORML, a group dedicated to reforming laws
prohibiting marijuana use and cultivation.

"Politicians and law enforcement officers are not doctors," she said.
"Patients' records have been taken in violation of privacy rights."

Although California voters passed an initiative in 1996 allowing the
medicinal use of marijuana, it remains illegal under federal law. In
June the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the federal government's authority
to arrest anyone using or possessing marijuana in the 11 states that
have passed medical marijuana laws.

The city of San Diego adopted guidelines regulating the medical use of
marijuana in 2003, seven years after California voters approved the
statewide initiative permitting sick and dying patients to use the
drug with a doctor's recommendation.

Dispensaries began opening across San Diego last year, after another
state law spelling out terms of medical marijuana use went into effect.

For more than a year, local police investigated the storefront
operators, visited the dispensaries and kept records, but generally
left them alone. After the high court's decision in June, some
dispensaries shut down temporarily, but most of them quietly reopened
in recent months.

Jon Sullivan, who runs two San Diego dispensaries targeted in
yesterday's crackdown, said the raid only strengthened his resolve to
keep dispensing marijuana.

"There are very sick people out there that need this medicine
desperately," he said. "What the feds are doing is against the law I
voted for."

News of the raids traveled quickly, both by telephone and on the
Internet. Medical marijuana advocates from San Diego to Northern
California blasted the operation as an assault on sick people using
the only medicine that works to relieve symptoms associated with
cancer, AIDS and other diseases.

"We're pretty disturbed by what we're hearing," said Hilary McQuie of
Americans for Safe Access, an Oakland organization that promotes safe
and legal access to marijuana for qualified patients.

"It seems like a large operation designed to intimidate the medical
cannabis community in San Diego," McQuie said. "Given the timing with
the board of supervisors' threat to sue the state over Proposition
215, we're concerned there's collusion between state and federal officials."

Last month, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to
challenge in court the state law requiring counties to issue
identification to qualified medical marijuana patients. Three
supervisors ­ Bill Horn, Dianne Jacob and Pam Slater-Price ­ said San
Diego County should not be forced to support activities that are
illegal under federal drug laws.

Despite the widely publicized vote, no lawsuit has yet been filed. The
county counsel's office has said San Diego County is almost certain to
lose such a case.

At the Native Sun dispensary on Rosecrans Avenue yesterday, agents
asked anyone entering the storefront to step inside for an
interrogation. A reporter was told to leave, and not allowed to
interview any staff, patients or police.

Another team of agents converged on the Legal Ease Inc. dispensary
offices in North Park a little after noon. No drugs are stored on
site, but agents took equipment and files.

"They came in with guns . . . lined us up outside and handcuffed us,"
said one employee, who did not want to give his name because he fears
getting arrested. "We're closed now, I guess."

Legal Ease serves some 2,500 patients countywide, employees
said.

The warrants were served by a task force made up of a number of San
Diego County law enforcement agencies, including the San Diego Police
Department.

Three years ago, when San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne ran the
San Jose Police Department, he pulled his officers from a similar task
force after federal agents raided a collective marijuana garden
outside Santa Cruz.

Yesterday, Asst. Chief Cheryl Meyers said Lansdowne agreed to
participate in this investigation because it targeted dispensaries
within county lines.

One dispensary on El Cajon Boulevard apparently was overlooked by the
federal agents. Inside, the operator was visibly shaken by news of the
raids. So was medical marijuana patient Charles Dunn, who was there to
fill an order.

"I haven't had to take prescription drugs in four years," said Dunn,
who said his degenerative back and neck condition for years required
him to take powerful and expensive narcotics such as morphine and
Vicodin to reduce his pain.

Dunn, an insurance broker from Chula Vista, worried that he may have
to go back to buying marijuana on the street. In those cases, "you
never know what you're going to get," he said.