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Santa Ana - Michael Kelly was volunteering at the Aloha Collective marijuana dispensary on July 31, like he does six days a week, when a group of Santa Ana police officers came in and started making arrests. "They came in (and) made us all sit down. They told us we were being taken to jail and that we were being cited," said Kelly, 43, of Laguna Hills. Kelly was one of six who were arrested at the collective as part of the city's recent enforcement efforts to weed out illegal pots shops across the city.
That day, 68 people were arrested in more than a dozen dispensaries across the city for either participating as an employee, contractor, agent or volunteer, or in any other manner or capacity, in medical marijuana dispensaries across the city, said Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna. In three days — July, 16, 17 and 31 — Santa Ana police arrested 110 people for medical marijuana dispensary violations — a move that some, including Kandice Hawes, head of the Orange County chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, are calling unjust treatment by the Police Department.
The July 31 arrests were made at 16 dispensaries, including: Aloha Collective, OC Care Givers, Sky High, Ridiculousness, Kali Buds and Orange County Patient Care. Bertagna did not disclose when the next round of enforcement would take place. "It's unnecessary to arrest people and put them through this, just to give them a code enforcement violation," said Hawes. Despite a 2007 measure that outlaws storefront medical-marijuana dispensaries, Santa Ana police and the city attorney's office have struggled with shutting down illegal collectives.
"Dispensaries are illegal in Santa Ana and we are simply enforcing the law," Bertagna said. "We have received numerous complaints from the community regarding these illegal dispensaries." Kelly and other medical marijuana advocates are publicly condemning the recent arrests. At a City Council meeting
Tuesday, Santa Ana resident Marion Phillips, whose husband is a medical marijuana patient, said the city should pull back on its enforcement efforts. "When you raided those dispensaries, you took away his ability to manage pain. My husband's been at a raided dispensary where they came in with masks and guns drawn. I don't know what the others went through, but it traumatized him," Phillips said.
The beefed-up enforcement plan went into effect immediately after the City Council on July 15 agreed to earmark $500,000 in overtime pay toward a task force aimed at shutting down pot shops near schools and those offering "dabs" — doses of cannabis concentrate, mostly referred to as butane hash oil, or BHO. Bertagna said the manufacturing of hash can be explosive, but he added, police did not locate any establishments that were manufacturing dabs.
The overtime pay is expected to come from the 2014-15 budget. The enforcement plan involves $350,000 in overtime funding for the Santa Ana Police Department and the Planning and Building Agency to investigate municipal code violations related to prohibited marijuana dispensaries. The city attorney's office will receive $150,000 to prosecute the cases.
News Moderator - The General @ 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: Ocregister.com
Author: Alejandra Molina
Contact: Contact Us
Website: Medical marijuana advocates speak against recent spate of arrests - The Orange County Register
That day, 68 people were arrested in more than a dozen dispensaries across the city for either participating as an employee, contractor, agent or volunteer, or in any other manner or capacity, in medical marijuana dispensaries across the city, said Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna. In three days — July, 16, 17 and 31 — Santa Ana police arrested 110 people for medical marijuana dispensary violations — a move that some, including Kandice Hawes, head of the Orange County chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, are calling unjust treatment by the Police Department.
The July 31 arrests were made at 16 dispensaries, including: Aloha Collective, OC Care Givers, Sky High, Ridiculousness, Kali Buds and Orange County Patient Care. Bertagna did not disclose when the next round of enforcement would take place. "It's unnecessary to arrest people and put them through this, just to give them a code enforcement violation," said Hawes. Despite a 2007 measure that outlaws storefront medical-marijuana dispensaries, Santa Ana police and the city attorney's office have struggled with shutting down illegal collectives.
"Dispensaries are illegal in Santa Ana and we are simply enforcing the law," Bertagna said. "We have received numerous complaints from the community regarding these illegal dispensaries." Kelly and other medical marijuana advocates are publicly condemning the recent arrests. At a City Council meeting
Tuesday, Santa Ana resident Marion Phillips, whose husband is a medical marijuana patient, said the city should pull back on its enforcement efforts. "When you raided those dispensaries, you took away his ability to manage pain. My husband's been at a raided dispensary where they came in with masks and guns drawn. I don't know what the others went through, but it traumatized him," Phillips said.
The beefed-up enforcement plan went into effect immediately after the City Council on July 15 agreed to earmark $500,000 in overtime pay toward a task force aimed at shutting down pot shops near schools and those offering "dabs" — doses of cannabis concentrate, mostly referred to as butane hash oil, or BHO. Bertagna said the manufacturing of hash can be explosive, but he added, police did not locate any establishments that were manufacturing dabs.
The overtime pay is expected to come from the 2014-15 budget. The enforcement plan involves $350,000 in overtime funding for the Santa Ana Police Department and the Planning and Building Agency to investigate municipal code violations related to prohibited marijuana dispensaries. The city attorney's office will receive $150,000 to prosecute the cases.
News Moderator - The General @ 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: Ocregister.com
Author: Alejandra Molina
Contact: Contact Us
Website: Medical marijuana advocates speak against recent spate of arrests - The Orange County Register
