Pubdate: Wed, 13 Dec 2006
Source: Oakland Tribune, The (CA)
Copyright: 2006 MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers
Contact:  http://www.oaklandtribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/314
Author: Alejandro Alfonso, Staff Writer, Inside Bay Area
Cited: Americans for Safe Access http://www.safeaccessnow.org
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Americans+for+Safe+Access

DEA BUSTS HAYWARD MARIJUANA DISPENSARY

Investigators Find 30 Pounds of Pot on Premises, 10 Times City's Legal Limit

HAYWARD -- The Local Patients Cooperative marijuana dispensary was 
raided by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration on Tuesday as 
part of a yearlong investigation that also involved the Internal 
Revenue Service and Hayward police.

"The distribution of marijuana is a federal offense, and this place 
was making millions of dollars," said DEA Assistant Special Agent in 
Charge Michael Chapman.

Along with the Foothill Boulevard marijuana club, two additional 
residences in Hayward were raided and searched, authorities said. 
Northbound traffic on Foothill, between B and C streets, was halted 
during the police activity.

Shon Matthew Squier, 34, owner of the dispensary, and Valerie Lynn 
Herschel, 23, manager, both of Hayward, were arrested on suspicion of 
conspiracy to distribute marijuana and the distribution of marijuana. 
Law enforcement agents had five federal warrants to search the 
facility, Squier's and Herschel's residences and their cars, 
according to authorities.

Squier and Herschel are scheduled to appear at 10 a.m. today in U.S. 
District Court in Oakland before Magistrate Judge Wayne D. Brazil.

Authorities said several vehicles were seized in the raid, including 
two Mercedes, a Hummer, a Cadillac Escalade, and Harley Davidson and 
Ducati motorcycles; indoor marijuana growing equipment; an estimated 
200 marijuana plants; and marijuana-laced cookies, brownies, popcorn and pies.

Cash seized by investigators from the dispensary and residences 
totaled $200,000, and another $2.1 million in associated bank 
accounts. The IRS routinely works with the DEA on the financial side 
of an investigation of this kind, a DEA spokesman said.

The maximum statutory penalties for conspiracy to distribute and 
distribution of marijuana charges are 20 years imprisonment, a $1 
million fine and a three-year term of supervised release.

Federal agents were alerted to the activity of the dispensary during 
a separate investigation, and began looking into the operation in October 2005.

"At some point during their investigation, they contacted us and 
requested our help," said Hayward Police Capt. Phil Ribera. "We 
provided information from several observations we made concerning 
cultivation at the site and amounts of marijuana."

The dispensary, one of two in Hayward located on the same block of 
Foothill Boulevard, was to be closed by local authorities at the end 
of this month for breaking its three-year agreement for operating 
within the city. City officials said the cooperative had more than 3 
pounds of marijuana on the premises at one time, in violation of city 
regulations.

Hayward police inspected the club in September and said they observed 
30 pounds of marijuana -- 10 times more than the city allows. 
Officers returned in November and said they observed 200 pounds.

Sticking to the 3-pound rule is impossible because of the volume of 
patients the club serves, an employee of the dispensary said in a 
previous interview earlier in the week.

According to the criminal complaint, the cooperative attempted to 
disguise the breadth of its criminal activity by claiming that it 
caters exclusively to people suffering from medical illnesses, when 
people without any medical conditions can purchase marijuana at the 
retail establishment.

"There is no difference in the street price," said DEA public affairs 
officer Casey McHenry, pointing out that an ounce of marijuana at the 
club cost the same as on the street, between $300 and $320.

"This was a money-making business," she said.

The passage of Proposition 215 by California voters in 1996 allows 
doctor-approved medical use of marijuana. But McHenry said the 
distribution of marijuana is a violation of federal law and that the 
Supremacy Clause in the U.S. Constitution allows federal law to 
supersede state regulations.

News of the raid was met with protests by Americans for Safe Access, 
a national grassroots coalition based in Oakland that works to 
protect the rights of patients and doctors to use marijuana for 
medical purposes. The organization was established four years ago in 
response to federal raids of marijuana dispensaries in California.

"California has made a decision," said Tom Dolphin, communications 
director for Americans for Safe Access. "We want the federal 
government to stop circumventing California law."

A Hayward resident, who has a doctor's prescription to use marijuana 
for symptoms related to HIV and went to the dispensary once a week to 
fill his prescription, expressed frustration with the raid of the facility.

"They were very good to residents of Hayward," he said.

The dispensary gave a 10 percent discount to city residents. The man 
said he will probably start going to the other dispensary nearby. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake