Politics & Government

County Raids Lakeland Village Marijuana Dispensaries

"They were brutal," said Eric McNeil, owner of Greenhouse Cannabis Club on Grand. "They hit just about everybody along Grand."

Riverside County officials are making good on their promise to shut down Lakeland Village medical marijuana operations.

Tuesday, law enforcement, county code enforcement and a county attorney came knocking on the doors of cannabis operations along Grand Avenue to let owners know they must close their doors or face legal action.

“They were brutal,” said Eric McNeil, owner of Greenhouse Cannabis Club on Grand. “They hit just about everybody along Grand.”

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McNeil’s operation was among those targeted Tuesday. He said officials came without warrants and demanded access to his offices and patient records.

“They didn’t end up taking anything from us,” said McNeil, who was offsite at the time of the raid and got word of the visit through a Greenhouse Cannabis Club employee who let the officials enter the facility without incident.

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“I got my lawyer on the phone right away and he said we needed to comply,” McNeil said.

The Greenhouse owner said word of the raids traveled fast along Grand Avenue Tuesday, where several medical marijuana operations have opened in recent years.

The medical marijuana dispensary known as Freebies was among the Grand Avenue operations targeted Tuesday.

“They broke down the door,” McNeil said of the Freebies raid.

McNeil said he never received prior , but is abiding by Tuesday’s order.

“We will be closed by tomorrow night,” he said.

The dispensaries are receiving up to 72 hours to close, according to McNeil.

Last month, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors like Lakeland Village. The supervisors contend the operations have opened in defiance of a 2006 ordinance that forbids the dispensing of cannabis.

December’s county action came as federal prosecutors have for flouting a national marijuana ban.

, owner of Compassionate & Wellness Center Cooperative in Lakeland Village, that he will likely close his doors rather than defy county threats and face $1,000-a-day fines.

Williams, McNeil, and Luke Maxwell, owner of the medical marijuana facility Compassionate Patients Association in Lakeland Village, said not all cannabis operations abide by state law, but the men contend they are exceptions.

"Some organizations have their priorities in the wrong order,” Williams said.

"People are getting recommendations and they're maybe not truly as sick as they're getting across," Maxwell told Patch last week.

But McNeil said that while not all operations follow the spirit of the law, the current crackdown is hurting patients who really benefit from medical marijuana.

“This is very hard on them,” he said.

Under state law, “seriously ill Californians have the right to obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes where that medical use is deemed appropriate and has been recommended by a physician who has determined that the person's health would benefit from the use of marijuana in the treatment of cancer, anorexia, AIDS, chronic pain, spasticity, glaucoma, arthritis, migraine, or any other illness for which marijuana provides relief.”

The law also “encourage(s) the federal and state governments to implement a plan to provide for the safe and affordable distribution of marijuana to all patients in medical need of marijuana.”

Click here to read more about California's medical marijuana laws.


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