Aaron Sandusky has had a rough week. Sandusky, 41, has been trying to keep his medical marijuana dispensaries open in Upland, Moreno Valley and Colton, Wes Woods II reports in The Sun of San Bernardino. On Tuesday, raids were conducted on the three dispensaries as well as his Rancho Cucamonga home and the Rialto home of his partner John Nuckolls. On Wednesday, Sandusky, the president of G3 Holistic Inc., was involved in a 4th District Court of Appeal case in Riverside that could determine if Upland can legally ban his marijuana dispensary and ultimately set [...]
Federal agents on Tuesday raided six locations associated with Aaron Sandusky, who authorities say is suspected of illegally selling marijuana to the general public. The Drug Enforcement Administration, aided by sheriff’s deputies and police, searched six locations connected with Sandusky and John Nuckolls, the president and chief financial officer, respectively, of medical marijuana dispensaries in Colton, Upland and Moreno Valley. Sandusky has run the collectives openly, Ryan Hagen reports in The Sun of San Bernardino County, saying California allows the use of marijuana when recommended by a doctor. While even medical marijuana use is illegal [...]
A Beaumont marijuana dispensary that has been fined $600,000 by the city to date was closed down Tuesday by narcotics investigators who also seized marijuana, hashish and arrested five people, officials say. The raid began about 12:30 p.m. at Oak Tree Alternative Care in the 200 block of Sixth Street, and included four other locations, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reports. The shutdown capped a seven-month investigation by the Allied Riverside Cities Narcotic Enforcement Team, officials said in a written statement Wednesday. “ARCNET determined that the business was operating outside the scope of … the Medical Marijuana [...]
An attorney for a Riverside-based group that fights for the rights of medical-marijuana patients has filed a lawsuit against the county in hopes that it will overturn a recently passed ban on dispensaries distributing the drug. Lettitia Pepper, the director of the Riverside-based Crusaders for Patients’ Rights, filed the lawsuit April 27, Jesse B. Gill reports in the San Bernardino Sun. She hopes her lawsuit may see the effects of the ban reversed on the grounds that it does not adhere to the California Environmental Quality Act. “If (MMJ patient-growers) want to conserve energy, they [...]
Department of Justice agents raided an East Hemet house Monday night and seized almost 2,300 marijuana plants valued at least $1.5 million — and a four-foot alligator being used to help guard the stash. Agents with Arcnet, the Allied Riverside Cities Narcotics Enforcement Team, raided the house and found what they described as a “watchgator” named Wally in a back room, where it was living in a black cement-mixing tub full of water. One man was arrested, John Asbury reports in the Riverside Press-Enterprise, and the gator was taken to a sanctuary in San Bernardino [...]
A self-described “therapeutic cannabis resource center” continues to operate in Temecula, despite a citywide ban on medical marijuana dispensaries. The legal affairs director at Cooperative Patients’ Services insists it isn’t a dispensary, nor does it distribute the drug. Douglas Lanphere said it is an agricultural co-op that allows members to exchange the drug with each other, Jeff Horseman reports in the Riverside Press-Enterprise. “We’re merely a service group,” Lanphere said. “We provide a service between cultivating members and consuming members.” Riverside County sheriff’s Capt. Andre O’Harra, who serves as Temecula’s police chief, said police are [...]
Riverside County supervisors John Benoit and Jeff Stone will ask their colleagues today to rescind the board’s order to draft a law regulating medical-marijuana dispensaries. The two supervisors first asked for the medical-marijuana law in September. Two weeks ago, Benoit changed his position and called for a renewed ban, Duane W. Gang reports in the Riverside Press-Enterprise. An ordinance regulating how and where dispensaries could locate in unincorporated areas would have ended the county’s four-year prohibition on the businesses. Benoit and Stone in their proposal wrote that they are concerned that the “number of these [...]
Dec 052010
Rancho Mirage faces a legal claim from a marijuana dispensary it shut down while officials sift through conflicting legal signals on the issue. On Thursday, attorney Jeff Lake filed a $530,000 claim with the city on behalf of Desert Heart Collective, the first step toward filing a lawsuit, Blake Herzog reports in the Desert Sun. Rancho Mirage has 45 days to either pay or reject the claim, at which point the collective would be ready to sue, Lake said. But he added it still doesn’t have to come to that. “We are working with the [...]
Riverside County Supervisor John Benoit called Tuesday for a ban on medical-marijuana dispensaries in unincorporated areas. Supervisors in September ordered a law drafted that would regulate where the businesses could locate. But Benoit said the county should change course, Duane W. Gang reports in the Riverside Press-Enterprise. “While our process is under way, dramatic action was taken in Los Angeles and Orange counties last week to ban medical pot shops,” Benoit said. “I would suggest this board should consider following that lead rather than taking an intermediate step.” The boards of supervisors in those two [...]
RIVERSIDE – While acknowledging that this was “a troubling case for the court,” a judge nevertheless ruled Wednesday that the city of Riverside is within its rights to use zoning laws to ban medical marijuana dispensaries. “The city has acted within their authority,” Superior Court Judge John Molloy said at the end of the hour-long hearing that pitted attorneys for the city of Riverside against medical marijuana activists. Supporters of medical marijuana — some of whom identified themselves as cancer patients — filled the courtroom seats, Sandra Stokley reports in the Riverside Press-Enterprise. Others were [...]
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