Dispensaries

Los Angeles police released security video footage Thursday of three men who shot and wounded two employees during a robbery earlier this month at a Northridge marijuana dispensary.

Det. Joel Price from the West Valley station said police want help in identifying the men, who entered the medical marijuana cooperative in the 8200 block of White Oak Avenue about 9:25 p.m. Dec. 15. Two of the men fired multiple times and wounded two men before fleeing.

One of the victims took out a handgun and returned fire but was shot by the robbers,  police said.

One of the victims was critically injured, having been shot several times in the head, arm and legs, police said. The other man was wounded in the back and legs.

The robbers took out what they believed was a video recorder, a small amount of marijuana and an undetermined amount of cash before leaving in a late-model Nissan Titan pickup truck.

The robbers are described as three male Latinos. Police describe one of them as between 5 feet 1 and 5 feet 10, weighing 170 pounds, with a thick mustache. He was wearing a blue and white knit ski cap with ear covers, police said.

Another was  5 feet 7  to 5 feet 10 and weighed about 170 pounds, with short brown hair, a mustache and heavy eyebrows.  He was wearing a dark, hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans and also had a handgun, police said.

The third robber was described wearing dark pants, a zip-up jacket and a black New York Mets baseball cap.

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LODI – Lodi City Council members have asked the city attorney to write an ordinance banning medical marijuana dispensaries or cooperatives within city limits.

The council met Tuesday morning to hear a report by Deputy City Attorney Janice Magdich on current laws and pending cases related to medical marijuana and directed her to bring back on Feb. 16 an ordinance banning dispensaries.

If approved, Lodi would join Tracy and Modesto as cities that have banned all sales of medical marijuana.

Read Wednesday’s Record for more on this story by staff writer Keith Reid.

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A half-dozen people connected with a medical marijuana dispensary in Mentone were arrested Thursday on suspicion of violating the Compassionate Use Act and Prop. 215, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said in a news release.

Arrested on various drug charges and booked into the Central Detention Center in San Bernardino were:

• Shannon Lewis Troncoso, 38, of San Dimas, identified by the Sheriff's Department as the dispensary's owner.
• Luis Albert Hernandez, 40, of Mentone;
• Jason Craig Ramsey, 40, of Yucaipa;
• Mayra Agueda Godoy, 25, of Corona;
• Tod Lee McDonald, 43, of Mentone; and
• Gail Marie Shea, 38, of San Dimas.

Bail for Troncoso, Hernandez, Ramsey and Godoy was set at $500,000 each. McDonald's bail was set at $25,000. Shea has been released on bail.

Sheriff's narcotics investigators raided the Mentone Patients Association on Thursday after a two-month investigation revealed that the dispensary was charging specific prices for its products rather than asking for donations and was not verifying that those buying the product had a valid medical marijuana identification card or a recommendation from a physician, the department said.

The dispensary also violated a moratorium on marijuana dispensaries put in place by the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, the department said.

Investigators executed search warrants at the dispensary, at sites in Yucaipa and San Dimas, and at a warehouse in the Los Angeles County city of Santa Fe Springs where they found marijuana plants being grown, the department said.

The searches also turned up about 10 pounds of marijuana, about $15,000 in cash and handguns, rifles and shotguns, the department said. The suspects are also facing charges they have not reported income or paid taxes to the state.

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The city of L.A.'s top attorney on Friday warned new pot shops not to open their doors despite a judge's recent order telling City Hall not to enforce much of its new medical marijuana dispensary law.

In other words, hold your horses, weed peddlers. The City Attorney isn't going to standby if you try to take advantage of the situation.

Here's what L.A.'s attorney-in-chief had to say in a statement released Friday:

"The City's Medical Marijuana Ordinance remains in effect. Judge Mohr's ruling does not allow any new collectives to open their doors ... My Office is committed to public health and safety and will continue to protect patients from smuggled and contaminated medical marijuana, as well as enforce existing laws in order to prevent the proliferation of pot shops and the unlawful sale and distribution of marijuana to recreational users and others for profit."

Got that?

Step away from the bong.

Trutanich says Superior Court Judge Anthony J. Mohr's ruling last week doesn't allow a free-for-all in the pot-shop scene. It only prevents the city from shutting down shops based on the time they opened (post-2007 moratorium).

L.A.'s ordinance states that cannabis retailers that opened after that moratorium won't be qualified to stay open. The judge put a halt to that part of the law. Mohr said the city's ordinance was too confusing.

But that doesn't mean new stores can open, Trutanich says.

According to the statement from his office:

Although the Court found the bulk of the ordinance to be constitutional and valid, Judge Mohr enjoined the City from implementing the following provisions: the "grandfather" provisions that allowed medical marijuana collectives operating before a certain date to have a preference in registering under the new ordinance; the imposition of criminal penalties for violations of the ordinance; certain patient information and record-keeping requirements; and the expiration date or "sunset clause" of the ordinance.

The C.A. also notes that Mohr's ruling doesn't take effect until Jan. 7. So he can still bust shops that don't meet the letter of L.A.'s law. Seems like.

Sounds to us like the city's afraid that the number of pot shops in town will rise again -- back to last spring's peak level of nearly 550.

In fact, Trutanich says the judge's ruling actually encourage the city to tighten up its rules. He quotes Mohr:

"The City has a duty to address the problem of drug dealers and recreational users who are attempting to hijack California's medical marijuana legislation for their own benefit."

The City Attorney said he's working with the City Council on this.

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SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- The confusion over state, federal, and local laws concerning medical marijuana dispensaries is heating up in San Jose. That's where dozens of people openly lit up on Friday night, in a place city leaders insist is off limits.

They lit up and smoked out in San Jose for a fundraiser and unity party at a medical marijuana collective which is all in response to a series of raids on pot clubs in Santa Clara County.

"We're trying to protect every medical marijuana collective in Santa Clara County because they raided seven collectives yesterday," says Shelby Ferry, a Santa Clara resident.

Right now, no South Bay city allows medical marijuana dispensaries to legally operate.

Dave Hodges, from the San Jose Cannabis Buyers Collective, was asked if he thought what he was doing was legal and he responds, "It's 100 percent legal."

"A lot of people think things are legal that are not legal," says San Jose City Councilmember Pete Constant.

Currently, there are 99 pot clubs in San Jose and according to city leaders they are all illegal because the city doesn't have a zoning ordinance to allow for them.

"We need to provide more access to more patients and that basically means San Jose is completely open until they pass some sort of regulation," says Hodges.

On Monday San Jose's City Council will hold a special meeting to establish zoning regulations so pot clubs can legally open in the city, but until that happens, council member Constant says the smokeout is inappropriate.

ABC7 showed him photos of what was going on inside the MedEx Collective on Friday night.

"There's a lot of haze in this picture," says Constant. "What are the odds that everyone needs their medicine at the same time and is it really medicinal act or are these people simply using this as an excuse to smoke marijuana?"

Everyone inside the collective insists their needs are legitimate and they have the paperwork to prove it with their medical marijuana cards.

"I have bad back pains," says Ferry.

"I also have fibromyalgia, carpal tunnel syndrome, and my bones are getting deformed," says Patricia Sanchez, a San Jose resident.

(Source: abclocal.com)