surprised ? the DEA has labeled all of these places illegal.. that is at the FEDERAL level.. so this was NO surprise to anyone, only the timing of the closures for each involved . give it a month or so.. they will all likely re-open.. since the courts and the feds can't make a solid decision on anything regarding these "co-ops", they will return... maybe they can be made to "tone down" the hideous colors and the stupid signage that only make them look MORE like a bunch of nit-wits selling weed instead of like a professional office doing a quiet, yet needed service to those who TRULY need them here. you know--REAL MEDICAL PATIENTS WITH REAL PROBLEMS AND REAL PRESCRIPTIONS FROM REAL--HONEST DOCTORS...the others who have only paid to get "the-card", can pound sand...

Obama is doing a 180 on this... Election time folks! Time to get those donations from the pharmaceutical companies! Also, he has to look tough to any conservative that might vote for him... AFTER the elections... it's business as usual.

Thank you Riverside County and Code enforcement.........I thought I would never say this but these tacky businesses make the legitimate businesses along Grand Ave look bad and keeps potential businesses from locating here. These dispensaries are a joke, those that have legitimate cards for medical marijuana will still be able to get there medical marijuana as they have before this last year when all these dispensarie owners located here thinking that they could hide from the law, their words not mine. Maybe in the day no one paid any attention to Lakeland Village as far as compliances, permits and so on to have a business here but those days are gone............EVERYONE that owns a business is under the Riverside County eyes, it's all about revenue and we pay dearly.

Ratification with enough states could ultimatley lead to it being legal . But the CIA still uses drug opertion money to fund covert operation s. so they will fight it tooth and nail! Oh I forgot they don't need to do that anymore with Bernakie he just prints more money and looses the records of where it went. The other issue is our leaders want us to be sheep with government by government and not government by the people. so no matter what... we lose. as far aas the county the only thing they want is another fee or tax. Just ask Buster or Stone

.finally! the riff raff can go some other place...

I think something needs to be brought to light here. Was the federal government represented in these raids, i.e. DEA, or was this just local and or state law enforcement, including code enforcement personnel? It is a key point as the article just says "law enforcement". For any of these raids to have any teeth whatsoever legally, the DEA would have to be involved. Short of that these raids were and are illegal under California state law. I referenced the Collective called "420 Hitters" who not only prevailed in their recent lawsuit against Code enforcement and Riverside County, but the judge stated the Code enforcement far exceeded their mandate and actually were not only in violation of their rights (meaning the owners of 420 Hitters) but also opened the way for a million dollar suit against Riverside county as the judge further ruled that the owners, and the families were "harassed" (judges words) by Riverside County code enforcement personnel.

So again can anybody from the "Patch" absolutely verify if any DEA officers were part of this raid. Your article leaves this as very obtuse, and I hope it was not by design my good fellows and ladies at the Patch. Again please verify this MOST key piece of information that was left out of your article.

Well since there closing shops down, well now we can all get ready for more people growing pot and more people selling it on the streets! Congrats to the county!! Job well done! YEAH RIGHT!!

This doesn't mean anything.

Dear Secrets of Safety,

Google it, although I totally agree with your assessment of some of the buildings appearances and the way that they ran there businesses and therefore should be shut down, the fact remains on the "420 Hitters" lawsuit was exactly as I outlined for you, in fact a better path for your information is simple (if you cannot find it by Google), just ask this very venue "The Patch", see links on page or within your "Patch" Account, as they wrote the article on the judgement within 2011. Based on legal opinion, INCLUDING the States Attorney's General Office, these type raids are illegal based on the original Prop. 215 legislation. Just as states are "trumped" by federal law, so are counties "trumped" by state law. As far as "420 Hitters" not being opened, it is my understanding that they are in the process of bringing that million dollar suit against the county and code enforcement, which is the main thrust of their time now.

Of course it was specific for the person filing the suit, it was not a class action suit. However, it certainly sets a precedent and opens wide for similar suits to be brought against the county, which in my opinion the counties WILL see in mass if these illegal raids are not stopped. You cannot just run roughshod over citizens whose Constitutional Rights have been so grossly trampled on that a Judge has to use words such as "being harassed" by any government agency, not only Riverside County Code Enforcement. As an aside why do Riverside County Code Enforcement vehicles have "light bars" on them? Scare tactic like they are some kind of LAW enforcement? Their job is to enforce CODES not laws! Code enforcement is totally out of control and needs the public to reel them in through their legislators.

I have confirmed by the author of this article that the Federal Government (DEA) WAS NOT involved in these raids at all, so the way I see it ( as the STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL agrees) they are in direct violation of state law under Prop 215 in conducting these raids. AS far as any state or local law enforcement is concerned, I can assure you that the responsible Collectives along Grand Avenue DO NOT look upon them as the "enemy", rather they are very much law enforcement friendly doing exactly what is required by Prop 215 which includes full co-operation with them. It is in the best interest of the responsible Collectives to be law enforcement friendly, and by what I know are in total compliance with the law, open for visits by said law enforcement at their will. Only the Collectives that operate outside the law, should be shut down, not the few responsible, very presentable buildings and surroundings, including keeping young people away from their establishments, including gross and stupid signage,etc., should be allowed to remain opened.

FYI......We just drove down Grand Ave in Lakeland Village, there are currently three collectives still open and operating, the one across the street from the thrift store on the Lake side of Grand, one in a white house on the Ortega side and one that is on the building that used to be owned by Pressure Washer sales also on the Ortega side. The three that were shut down, two are pictured in this article the other was at the other end of Grand on the same lot as the tire shop, I still think there might be one more in operation in the arched building by the Grand Ave/Riverside sweep. Perhaps code enforcement went after the two pictured here because they did a great job of painting their buildings so they would be noticed.

Part 1
I am very familiar with the Patriot Act in depth, and I believe that informed people such as you should realize that their are vast numbers of us out here that realize the abuse that local law enforcement is using hiding under "homeland security". The Patriot Act was created to make this nation safe against its enemies in the world. This I support for these uneasy times worldwide. The Patriot Act was not designed to give local law enforcement Carte Blanc to use the way they do in MOST all law enforcement issues, even on the local level, in other words it was designed for NATIONAL SECURITY, not the abuses that local law enforcement nationwide uses it in their everyday law enforcement issues. I cannot get George Orwell's book "1984" out of my mind since these abuses by local law enforcement have occurred, which by the way are getting worse not better! We simply live in a Police State right here in the greatest country in the world, the US of A. Do not shades of the Third Reich and Gestapo tactics of WW 2 mirror what is happening to this country? May I ask what happened to our Constitutional Right to privacy? It is TOTALLY GONE, and we idly stand by and let it further deteriorate. Continued below.

Part 2

I would rather live as our sage forefathers designed in a country such as our great nation in privacy, than in a total Police State that we have become, where every call, Internet connection, and movement are monitored 24/7. That folks is exactly where we stand literally letting line level law enforcement "look into our bedrooms" while we make love to our wives. Is this what we really want America? I surely do not!

Anyone believing otherwise is just simply uninformed and unaware of how our government works. We can apply the same to many of the "wars" declared on different things within our country by our politicians.

It's all done by creating a perpetuating fear and disinformation and then declaring some sort of "war" on whatever it is the government wants to create jobs to fight. It's called in government circles as "making work". Make government look like it's accomplishing something. Trillions of dollars have been spent on these "wars". Millions of lives are ruined by these "wars", but nothing is really accomplished.

Private sector business has to create productive jobs to exist.
Government has to create justification for it's existence and or expenditures.

Unfortunately our country will continue going backwards as long as citizens believe the government has to solve problems we can take care of within our families and our communities.

It wasn't until the citizens began placing the burden upon the politicians to solve problems that the government began to change.

Hi SOS,

Great responses, and I for one know that the legitimate Collectives that remain open are very well represented by very knowledgeable lawyers, who can and will take the County of Riverside and Code Enforcement in particular to court and win, where all of their legal costs will be returned to them when they prevail in their suits, just as "420 Hitters" did in 2011. That opens the floodgate statewide for lawsuits that are going to cost the taxpayers monies surely to run in the 10's of millions of $. Is this very prudent on the part of local government agencies, especially in this Economy? I think not.

AS far as getting the pendulum to swing back from the total abuse of the Patriot act is going to take legal action on a national level, simply the ACLU is not enough, what is needed is every voting American (and I mean bi-partisan here) needs to ask their elected officials what their stand is on losing our right to privacy given by our great Constitution, and if they are not behind for changing said abuses back to a workable Patriot Act for National Security ONLY, then we fire them and find someone who will represent what the American people want, not government agencies acting like "big brother", monitoring our every move, and deciding what is BEST for us. We our a smart nation of Americans, we are simply being hoodwinked, by government that this is the best course of action. By the way I think we are right on course to EXACTLY what happened in Nazi Germany, not one difference, and as I have said previously, it is getting much worse, not better! Wake up America, before it really is too late to even have our Constitutional Rights enforced.

Mark & SOS..great information and postings, unfortunately the majority of the American people will not stand up for this cause or any other cause they are too busy trying to keep their heads above water then to actually realize what is going on around them, in my opinion this is exactly why we the people are in the shape we are in as far as Government controlling our every move and stripping us of our rights on a daily basis. The legalization of marijuana is not even a tip of the iceberg of what is happening in our country and as far as I am concerned not a priority to the American tax payers and business owners that have much bigger issues to be concerned with.

Diana,

Thanks, and your information is spot on to what the problem is, I believe if we in American begin to get this type of info out all over America, I am positive a "grassroots" movements will start us in the right direction. Government sources want this kind of debate to be suppressed, because it sheds light into the hidden dark corners they hide in doing their work hoping to remain anonymous.

You know this means War right? The court reprocussios at the state level where they take the law seriously, the people petitioned and voted the M-fer in. Whetheeer or not you agree the CIvil rights of these buisnesses have been violated. This was done through back room politics and secret ballots...

Same thing here iN San Jose. We overturned the measure at 3or 4-1, to the amount of signatures needed.

The people want this, I am sure that your backroom politics will be overrulled by the people. The people will challenge it in a different way..
Besides you cannot ban a primary caregiver from supplying his patient with pot. And you can't regulate all of them. ANd I keep patient agreements on my person and won't give them to you.

Toby....maybe you missed the last election when it was on the ballot to legalize pot, the voters said NO!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think other then your selected few the people have spoken!!

Diana,
As always I respect your opinions, however what Toby describes is concerning the original Prop 215 which concerns Medical marijuana, not the legalization of pot which narrowly missed this last election. Decriminalization of marijuana is before the congress with the Bi-partisan bill of Barney Frank (Dem) and Ron Paul (Repub) and will pass on the national level making this all a moot point. Additionally the most recent Gallop Poll on the legalization of pot nationwide, is supported by 52% of those polled. I believe in Gallop poles, as they have been around a very long time and seem to be run very unbiased, no matter what the issue is being polled. The issue Toby brings up is totally a different issue.

With respect,

Mark

Those that still are needing their medical marijuana, only two dispensaries shut down, the two green buildings, the rest of them are not open during the day but are open at night. Flying under the radar!!

It was code enforcement that forced the closure of these dispensaries not law enforcement I believe.

There are currently five dispensaries in operation on Grand Ave, they were all not shut down and ones that looked like they were are back in operation. The only ones closed are the two that were painted green????????????