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Drug Trafficking Organizations employing Mexican nations to grow crops on California wild lands. The growers are heavily armed, utilizing two way radios to communicate and are establishing elaborate escape plans. The THC level obtained from these outdoor grows has risen from 2-3% to a current level of 8-12% a capability not seen from Mexican marijuana producers before. WSIN estimates that 90% of California’s indoor marijuana gardens are attributed to Caucasian DTO’s in and around Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity Counties. It is believed that this group is expanding to conduct operations in Sonora and Lake Counties as well. WSIN states that “It is suspected by Law Enforcement authorities that marijuana production will increase among Mexican DTOs and criminal groups due to large profits.” WSIN reports that “Law enforcement officials are saying that the increase of indoor marijuana grows can be directly associated with an increase in homicides and robberies in California. People are being killed and homes are being robbed because marijuana plants produce huge profits.” Source: WSIN October Intel report This last quarter was also a busy one for searches and closures of store front dispensaries. With the large number of dispensaries in California and the apparent “booming” business they are doing one has to suspect that the record numbers of indoor and outdoor grows are increasing to keep pace with demand from the dispensaries. When information is released on seizures from the raids on marijuana dispensaries, we see significant amounts of marijuana and cash seized as well as a significant amount of assets either in real-estate or together property pointing to fact that dispensaries are very lucrative cash businesses. 10 Feds raid downtown L.A. medical marijuana dispensary By Stuart Silverstein, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer /October 12, 2007 Federal agents seized marijuana and cash Thursday night from a medical marijuana dispensary in the loft district near Little Tokyo, officials said. Source: http://www.latimes.com/features/health/medicine/la-me-pot12oct12,1,7267901.story?coll=lahealth-medi cine&ctrack=3&cset=true Feds raid Hayward medical marijuana pot club The Associated Press /10/30/2007 HAYWARD, Calif.—Federal authorities raided a medical marijuana dispensary they say was on pace to net more than $50 million in sales this year. Drug Enforcement Administration agents arrested the outfit's two owners and seized hundreds of pounds of pot……..Agents also seized $200,000 in cash, two late model Mercedes Benz automobiles and a home in Lafayette. Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_7323256?nclick_check=1 Police: Men bought medical marijuana with plans to sell it on the streets Posted on Tue, Nov. 13, 2007 Morro Bay Bay police today announced they arrested two Stockton men Friday on suspicion of buying medical marijuana from dispensaries around the state in order to sell it for profit on the street……officers discovered the 2.3 pounds of pot, which appeared packaged for sale, in some duffel bags…..Investigators believe the two were driving to different medical marijuana dispensaries and buying the maximum amount of the drug allowed at each establishment. Police believe the men then intended to sell the drug on the street for profit. Police also reported seizing a digital scale and more than $1,000 in the investigation. Both men were taken to County Jail on charges of possession for sale of 2.3 pounds of marijuana and transportation of a large amount of marijuana….. Source: http://www.sanluisobispo.com/breakingnews/story/191927.html Raid on Area Medical Marijuana Club Leaves City in Middle. By Kurt Helin, Editor November 29, 2007 ….Last week, federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) officials raided the Long Beach Cannabis Club, which is located downtown (near a new condominium project and the City Place center). Agents seized 33 kilos of marijuana, about $10,000 cash and arrested the proprietor, Samuel Matthew Fata. Since the raid, the club has remained closed. Source: http://www.gazettes.com/marijuana11292007.html 3 Accused of Illegally Selling Medical Marijuana INDIO, Calif. (CBS) ― ….Riverside County Sheriff's Department investigator Robert Garcia testified at the start of the hearing Tuesday that Hochanadel was operating a $1.6 million business for profit. ……Marijuana and financial records were seized at CannaHelp, 73359 El Paseo, last December during the raid conducted by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, which alleged the dispensary was a for-profit business…. Source: http://cbs2.com/local/Palm.Desert.medical.2.602989.html Feds go after wildly successful medical pot sellers Phillip Matier,Andrew Ross /Monday, November 5, 2007 …..According to the indictment, when the brothers opened their Compassionate Collective of Alameda County in 2004, they took in $74,000. In 2005, sales rose to $1.3 million. In 2006, sales hit $21 million. And in the first six months of this year, the brothers took in a whopping $26.3 million. "They were clearly out of control”…..Two years ago, on Super Bowl Sunday, a team of armed hoods busted into the dispensary, tied everyone up and robbed the place of about $50,000. 11 Four months later, a masked gunman fired four shots into a dispensary worker's car as he pulled into the parking lot. The worker hit the gas and plowed through a fence to make his getaway. In July of this year, one of the club's customers was ambushed and killed at a nearby gas station and his pot taken. And this past February, the brothers themselves were involved in a shootout at a Fremont hotel. "These girls lured them to a party through MySpace," Rosenthal said. "Six guys showed up heavily armed and the bullets started flying." Both brothers were wounded, and both have had to undergo repeated operations…..According to a federal indictment, these are the year-by-year sales at Winslow and Abraham Norton's Compassionate Collective, a medical marijuana dispensary outside Hayward: 2004 $74,000, 2005$1.3 million, 2006 $21 million, 2007 $26.3 million** Sales for first six months of the year. Source: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl e.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/05/BA90T4PQP.DTL During this quarter, several cities have either banned dispensaries in their jurisdiction or have begun the process to do so. Another City Says No to Marijuana Dispensaries Story Created: Oct 17, 2007 at 6:20 PM PDT Moorpark is about to join the growing list of local cities saying 'no' to medical marijuana dispensaries. Just Monday night the city of Goleta voted to stop medical marijuana dispensaries…. Tonight Moorpark City Council is expected to ban dispensaries within its city limit, becoming the third city in Ventura County to do so…..Several other Ventura County cities have already banned medical marijuana dispensaries; Oxnard and Simi Valley. Source: http://www.keyt.com/news/local/10620492.html Rush on to regulate medical pot By HARRISON SHEPPARD MediaNews /Monterey County Herald (California) /August 20, 2007 SACRAMENTO More than a decade after California voters passed legalized medical marijuana, an explosion of dispensaries and patients has cities and counties scrambling to regulate the operations. In Los Angeles where the number of dispensaries soared from just a handful to more than 200 in the last two years stunned city officials recently passed a moratorium on new clinics until they can develop guidelines. Hundreds of other cities up and down California have no regulations at all on medical marijuana dispensaries, including at least 28 where clinics or delivery services are operating, according to a Daily News analysis. Law enforcement officials state that a lack of local oversight could allow dispensaries to open near schools or parks, with no way for authorities to remedy the situation. "I think they could easily be surprised," Modesto Police Chief Roy Wasden, who chairs a statewide task force on medical marijuana. "They're not prepared for the issues that will surround dispensaries opening up." According to Americans for Safe Access, a medical marijuana advocacy group, 26 cities and eight counties in California have ordinances allowing and regulating dispensaries. An additional 55 cities and two counties have enacted bans (which some advocates maintain are illegal), and 75 cities and six counties have imposed temporary moratoria. The remainder of the state's 478 incorporated cities and 58 counties have yet to specifically address the issue. Throughout California, there are at least 400 known medical marijuana dispensaries and likely hundreds more that are unpublicized……Pro-legalization groups estimate there are 150,000 to 200,000 medical-marijuana users in California up from about 30,000 just five years ago. Law enforcement agencies remain concerned about the potential for unregulated dispensaries, with their stashes of drugs and cash, to attract crime to neighborhoods. And some of the facilities, they say, are simply profit-making enterprises that sell at stiff prices to healthy youths and the seriously ill alike. The Los Angeles Police Department has reported an increase in crime near some of facilities, and has received complaints about activities such one dispensary handing out flyers for free marijuana samples to students at Grant High School in Valley Glen…….. Source: http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/news/54621.html?p=1 12 Hemet wants to keep out medical-marijuana dispensaries 10:00 PM PDT on Tuesday, October 23, 2007 By HERBERT ATIENZA /The Press-Enterprise HEMET -Alarmed by recent queries about the possibility of opening medical-marijuana dispensaries, City Hall is rushing an ordinance that would ban such types of establishments inside the city limits.……Hemet is one of at least seven Inland cities to discuss some kind of ordinance banning medicalmarijuana dispensaries in the past year. Norco, Fontana and Redlands are also on that list……Moreno Valley: City Council approved a moratorium in February 2007 prohibiting new marijuana dispensaries pending the city's study on potential impacts. Murrieta and Temecula: Dispensaries are prohibited within all zoning districts. Los Angeles: City Council approved a one-year moratorium in July prohibiting new dispensaries. San Marcos: Dispensaries are prohibited within all zoning districts. Source: http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_medical24.37ad2a0.html Marijuana dispensary to close By Mike Sprague, Staff Writer WHITTIER -There will be no more medical marijuana dispensed from the city's only clinic after Dec. 31, the planning commission ruled Monday night. Additionally, the Whittier Collective, 12450-A Washington Blvd., has reached agreement with its landlord, the Phelan Family Trust -owners of the Washington-Whittier Medical Center -to vacate the site by that date. The dispensary had applied to extend its conditional use permit until Oct. 31, 2008, but that became moot after the landlord sought to evict the clinic….. Source: http://www.whittierdailynews.com/news/ci_7380653 HB bans medical marijuana dispensaries BY CINDY CARCAMO /THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER /November 19, 2007 HUNTINGTON BEACH Medical marijuana dispensaries are no longer legally allowed in Surf City after council members voted Monday to adopt an ordinance that essentially bans them from opening. Surf City joined the increasing number of cities in Southern California that prohibit medical marijuana dispensaries….. Source: http://www.ocregister.com/news/marijuana-medical-dispensaries-1926029-voted-council Marijuana dispensary turned down By Sandy Mazza County regional planning commissioners Wednesday turned down a permit application that would have allowed a medical marijuana dispensary near Los Angeles International Airport. The decision came after Del Aire residents complained that the store would contribute to the area's seedy atmosphere and be too close to a child-care facility..... Del Aire Neighborhood Association President John Koppelman said….. "It costs $150 to get a doctor's recommendation for marijuana," Koppelman said. "That's all it takes. You don't have to be sick. If you live in the motel and sell dope, you could go next door and get the dope. If you have a dope house, you're going to get dope activity." Lawrence Epstein, chief executive officer of the collective that wants to operate the dispensary, applied for a conditional-use permit to open it. Epstein helped establish the Marina Caregivers dispensary in Marina del Rey in 2005, and said it has grown to more than 100 customers a day. Source: http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/articles/12196106.html 13 Merced County supervisors ban medicinal marijuana dispensaries By CORINNE REILLY /MERCED SUN-STAR /December 21, 2007 MERCED --Merced County officials passed an ordinance this week permanently banning medical marijuana dispensaries across the unincorporated county. The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to support the ordinance, which mirrors ordinances adopted by the cities of Modesto, Ceres, Merced, Patterson, Atwater and Los Banos. Many other cities have moratoriums on dispensaries……Besides attracting crime, they can lower property values, disrupt nearby businesses and increase illegal drug use and demands on police, county planning officials said……. Source: http://www.modbee.com/local/story/158805.html Marijuana Dispensaries Banned in Brentwood Posted by Sarin Kodchian on Dec 23, 2007 BRENTWOOD—Tuesday night, the Brentwood City Council unanimously approved a permanent ban on medical marijuana dispensaries in the city. Police Capt. Brian Strock and Brentwood Planning Manager Heidi Klein made a presentation on the ordinance before the voting……What the year long investigation proved was an increase in crime and illegal marijuana use and possession. The detailed search included over 14 months of consultations, surveys, and detailed research on the negative effects in connection to dispensaries. Armed robberies, violence, illegal sales and consumption are among the most prevalent negative effects reported…….. Source: http://www.canyonnews.com/artman2/pu blish/Local_News_10/Marijuana_Dispensaries_Banned_in_Brentwood.php The media has begun to investigate the marijuana dispensary system. Articles delving into the process of obtaining a marijuana recommendation as well as the concept of medical marijuana has been the focus of a few investigative reports. The Debate On California's Pot Shops Reporter: AP /Dec 31, 2007 /(CBS) This segment was originally broadcast on Sept. 23, 2007. It was updated on Dec. 30, 2007. Eleven years ago, California became the first of a dozen states in the nation to legalize medical marijuana……Well, how is the California state law working? As correspondent Morley Safer reports, the answer involves another statute: the law of unintended consequences……it's clear there are legions of people buying medical marijuana for the sole purpose of getting high. For both them and the truly ill in California, it's become an easy matter: just drop by your little pot shop around the corner. ….There are hundreds of such stores in the state, and as many as 400 in southern California alone. The people who run them are members of the state's latest entrepreneurial class, calling themselves "caregivers." The feds call them something else. Case in point is a young man of many faces named Luke Scarmazzo……in his case, business was good: in the town of Modesto, population 200,000, he sold $4.5 million worth of medical marijuana in two years. And he was paid a good salary, too. "I took home $13,000 a month," he says. "I was working a lot of hours."…..And even one of the key proponents of medical marijuana says things have gotten out of hand. "It's just ridiculous the amount of money that's going through these cannabis clubs. It's absolutely ridiculous," says Scott Imler, a minister in the United Methodist Church who has long been active in promoting medical marijuana……Imler has second thoughts. "The purpose of proposition 215 was not to create a new industry. It was to protect legitimate patients from criminal prosecution," Imler says. The aim back then, reflected in television spots, was for a highly regulated system in which licensed pharmacies would dispense medical marijuana to the seriously ill……A decade later, if you’ve got a note from a doctor, you can buy medical pot for just about any imaginable condition. "Let me just ask you plain and simple. Is there this proliferation because people are simply using, quote, unquote, medical marijuana, to get high?" 14 Safer asks. "I think there's a lot of that. And I think you know, a lot of what we have now is basically pot dealers in storefronts," Imler says……Television station KCBS went to a Los Angeles clinic, where the waiting room was full of young people, joking about what they'd tell the doctor their ailment was. The doctor, James Eisenberg, saw four healthy people sent by KCBS. He rejected a 17-year-old for being underage. But after getting a brief consultation and paying $175, the other three got their papers. One complained of dry skin, another of hair loss, and the third said high heels hurt her feet……."There’s bound to be abuse in the system. You know, our pharmacies are abused by people who want to abuse prescription drugs. And so it's reasonable to assume that our medical cannabis facilities are abused as well. What we really need right now are regulations that address those issues," Duncan says. Cities around the state have been tightening the rules……Kevin Reed was forced to shut down his San Francisco Francisco dispensary because of complaints from neighbors. So he simply went into the delivery business…….His couriers fan out across the city, delivering their wares. In theory, all the medical marijuana sold in California is grown by the patients themselves. "We're a collective. And what that means is our members grow it, they bring excess medicine here and we provide it back to the other members. That way we have no entanglement with the illicit market," Don Duncan explains. But skeptics say it doesn't always work that way, and that old fashioned pot dealers can easily get a compliant doctor to make them patients and caregivers too. "Most of these cannabis centers are buying their marijuana off the black market. They’re dumping millions of dollars into the criminal black market," Imler says……."What you're suggesting is that the traditional black market or part of the traditional black market is now legal?" Safer asks. "Yeah. That's essentially what's happened," Imler agrees. Source: http://www.wibw.com/home/head lines/12938067.html 'Pot docs' issuing 'Get Out of Jail Free' cards By Linda Williams /TWN Staff Writer /12/26/2007 ….An estimated 95 percent of patients visiting "pot docs" are already significant pot users seeking approval for their drug use, and a small group of physicians are willing to fulfill their request….Because there is no monitoring of these recommendations and with no requirement to get a state or county marijuana card, there is no way to know how many recommendations have actually been issued……By 2005, 15 pot docs had issued an estimated 50,000 marijuana recommendations. About 1,500 other physicians, primarily AIDS and cancer specialists, issued the remaining 50,000 recommendations….. The CMA has sanctioned several doctors but was handcuffed by a 2004 California court ruling restricting its investigations to patients who file a complaint and authorize the release of their medical records. Without a complaint from a pot patient, the CMA has limited ability to review cases. This ruling has has led to an explosion of marijuana prescription clinics springing up across California. These new groups of pot docs advertise in the media and on the internet…..One Bay Area reporter said her feet hurt when wearing high heels and got a recommendation. An undercover police officer in San Diego requested a marijuana recommendation for his dog, while the pot doc refused to provide one, he did give the officer a caregiver authorization to obtain marijuana for the dog. One reporter received a marijuana recommendation because he had dry skin, another for hair loss. Those not wishing to visit a pot doc can be designated as a "caregiver" for someone who has. With most recommendations valid for one year and typical fees of $150 each, these pot docs seem to have found a $45 million a year business opportunity. Should the remaining regular or recreational pot users decide to get their own Get Out of Jail Free cards, the recommendations could generate as much as $255 million annually and essentially legalize all marijuana use in California….. Source: http://www.willitsnews.com/ci_7812620 15 I-Team Investigation: Who Is Doc 420? Availability Of Medical Marijuana Questioned /By Dan Noyes SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 1, 2007 (KGO) -……One young doctor from Hollywood is making a very good living at it with patients up and down the coast…..Six months ago, she started calling herself Doc 420 --420 is the street slang for smoking marijuana. "That's just kind of a bit of a fluke, just kind of happened that that phone number was available and the Web site was available. So, I became Doc 420," says Patel. Yes, she has a toll-free number, a Doc 420 Web site and a MySpace page with a picture. Dan Noyes: "What did you hope to accomplish with this image?" Sona Patel: "Well, you know what, it was just something that a marketing team had come up with for me." Doc 420 says the high heels and hot pants have paid off, attracting many new patients….So, we wanted to find out, is Doc 420 following state law when she prescribes marijuana?.....I-Team Producer #1: "Is it hard to like get a card?" Doc 420: "No, it's really easy." I-Team Producer #1: "What do you do?" Doc 420: "Well, I do an evaluation which is free." Dr. Patel explained if they passed the evaluation, her recommendation would cost $100. That would allow them to buy pot from a dispensary. She could see our two producers right away. I-Team Producer #1: "What if you don't have a condition?" Doc 420: "Well, most likely, people are using it for something whether you... really realize it or not, if it's helping you sleep or calming your stress or there are so many different reasons that still qualify you. You may not even realize it." I-Team Producer #2: "It could be something like just I can't sleep or whatever?" Doc 420: "Yeah, exactly, and I have a lot of people like that, too." Our producers went to the ATM, returned with cash, and after a few minutes emerged with a three-month recommendation for medical marijuana.….. Kimberly Kirchmeyer says at least six doctors have lost their licenses recently for similar failures and medical board investigators are now looking into Doc 420……..Supervisor Mirkarimi: "Clearly, I think the motivation is about profiteering and that's where it degrades the law and I abhor this kind of conduct."….Dr. Patel says she sees 20 to 30 patients a day, and that she works seven days a week at her various offices. It's clearly a lucrative career. For more on this story, read my blog on Doc 420 with all the links for this story, in which I explore what the pot clubs are doing to the Lower Haight and tell you how the expression 420 came about. Source: http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=i_te am&id=5738428 King Bong, Paul Stanford is Oregon’s “Drug Czar.” Now he’s under attack. BY JAMES PITKIN |/[December 12th, 2007] Paul Stanford should be at the top of his game. After more than two decades growing, toking and agitating to legalize cannabis, the 47-year-old Portlander is now running the largest chain of medicalmarijuana clinics in the nation. Stanford spends half his time jetting between home and Honolulu, Los Angeles, Denver and Seattle, visiting his clinics that have helped thousands gain medical-marijuana permits. His nonprofit, The Hemp & Cannabis (ahem, THC) Foundation, is on track to rake in $2 million this year......Of the 14,831 patients currently registered in the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program, Stanford estimates more than half, 8,000, gained their license to burn with the help of his clinic. “The goal of my life has been to end the adult prohibition from marijuana,” Stanford says.…… the Internal Revenue Service, which WW has learned is investigating Stanford for allegedly running his nonprofit as a personal slush fund. “This is a million-dollar organization that’s being run like a lemonade stand,” says Victoria Cox, spokeswoman for the state Department of Justice.…..With offices in five states, Stanford has more locations than any other medical-marijuana clinic in the country, opening in 2000. He’s helped 24,000 people get permits, 18,000 of them in Oregon….In an interoffice memo obtained by WW , DOJ investigative auditor Douglas Pearson noted the following concerns about Stanford’s foundation: The THCF board consists only of Stanford, his mother, and Tim Herman, Stanford’s friend and handyman. They meet once a year. The nonprofit has no internal financial controls, with Stanford overseeing all income and disbursements. In 2006, Stanford received $100,000 to cover “personal expenses.” (Stanford told WW he pays himself only $30,000 a year). Stanford pays no federal income tax for his employees and appears to have “serious and repeated violations of IRS regulations.” Source: http://wweek.com/edito rial/3405/10114/ 16 D.A. Recommendation: Ban Medical Marijuana Proponents of medical marijuana were dealt a major blow Tuesday when District Attorney Ed Jagels recommended banning it across the county. State law says it's okay to smoke marijuana if your doctor recommends it. But federal law says it's illegal no matter what. It's that conflict that prompted the County Board of Supervisors to ask Jagels to look into the issue. His report came as a disappointment to the hundreds, if not thousands, of medical marijuana users in Kern County. Jagels recommended repealing the ordinance that gives the sheriff's department authority to issue licenses to sell medical marijuana. He also recommended enacting and ordinance that would prohibit any actions that are illegal under federal law, which would include smoking marijuana, even for medical reasons. "The storefront marijuana dispensary that half the state seems to think is legal in the state is, in fact, illegal," said Jagels……."I'd be reduced to the streets," said Chris Helton, who who started using marijuana 4 years ago to relieve severe headaches caused by a head injury he suffered working on and oil rig. "I could try to grow my own, but I haven't been successful. I've been ripped off." Source: http://www.eyeoutforyou.com/news/local/10402842.html Proposal takes aim at liberal pot rules By MIKE GENIELLA /THE PRESS DEMOCRAT /Nov 30, 2007 UKIAH ….."It's become a big hoax. The criminal element that so-called medical marijuana has attracted to our neighborhoods is scary," said Dennis Smart, a 31-year resident of a rural area south of Ukiah. Now in a backlash to the county's national reputation as a haven for bogus medical marijuana growers, a proposed local ballot initiative seeks to sharply limit soaring pot production…..this past marijuana harvest season, gunshots growers fired to scare off potential intruders or marauding wildlife in their gardens marred the neighborhood peace. "We'd have to go inside to protect ourselves," he said....."I believe that a lot of people who supported medical marijuana 11 years ago have changed their minds based on what's going on today," Rickel said. Source: http://www1.pressdemocrat.com As we have watched the store front distribution of marijuana increase, it appears that cottage industries are forming around them. Not only have we seen a rise in “marijuana delivery” services, but now attorneys who advertise specifically to defend those arrested for cultivating, transporting or selling marijuana and a health care provided dedicated to providing medical insurance to marijuana users. BUSTED FOR MARIJUANA? Posted On: December 18, 2007 by Wallin & Klarich The law firm of Wallin & Klarich has been defending those charged with possession of marijuana for over 27 years. Whether it be cultivating, transporting or selling marijuana, our law firm has been successful in defending against these charges. The new medical marijuana laws allow flexibility and some “wiggle room” in the way these cases get prosecuted. The staff attorneys at Wallin & Klarich are familiar with the laws of medical marijuana use and care giving (11362.5 Health and Safety Code to 11362.9 Health and Safety Code). If you or a loved one is arrested for marijuana, you need to call a drug crime defense lawyer at the law firm of Wallin & Klarich and see how we