Warrant search at marijuana dispensary

Riverside, Ca- Riverside Police investigators acting on a search warrant entered an illegal medical marijuana dispensary operating as a retail outlet at 11:40 a.m., Tuesday, May 22, 2007. The RPD Special Investigations Bureau acted on citizen tips and preliminary information that as many as 20-30 persons an hour were buying marijuana from storefront in the 7200-block Arlington Ave.

The business, registered to ET Investment Corp. of Riverside, has been operating as “unclassified retail,” since March, according to its business license. It operated as California Caregivers Association-Riverside, or C.C.A.R. and appeared to have several employees. A showroom behind the reception area included display cases of measured amounts of up to 30 varieties of marijuana products, listed on a multi-colored menu board; a refrigerated case with marijuana-laced desserts, and a display of drug possession and smoking paraphernalia. Investigators also located several coolers filled with vials of measured marijuana prepared for sale and a safe filled with bulk amounts of marijuana that had not yet been packaged. Narcotics team investigators confiscated an estimated 15 pounds of marijuana from the store.

Several employees and customers were detained and questioned pending further investigation. Product was labeled as “medicinal cannabis,” and ingredients in snacks included a discrete mention of “proprietary spices.”

Proposition 215, a 1996 California ballot measure approved by voters to allow medical use of marijuana, provides for possession or cultivation by a patient or caregiver, “but nothing in the law allows for commercial sale for profit,” said Deputy District Attorney Mike Quesnel, leader of Riverside County’s drug trial team.

There is no known connection at this time between this commercial operation and any of the recent home-based marijuana growing operations recently discovered and taken down by Riverside Police and County law enforcement agencies.

Marijuana Dispensary Warrant Search
Packaged marijuana for sale in display case		Refrigerated dessert items with marijuana ingredients
Menu board detailing the varieties and prices of marijuana		Young seedlings and packaged marijuana-laced snack food
Bag of bulk marijuana prior to individual packaging.		Packing materials found in back room of storefront