Temecula Pot Co-ops Brave in Wake of Raids

Temecula medical marijuana co-ops vowed to stay open despite a raid that landed three people in jail.

They were arrested when Lake Elsinore deputies searched 420 Hitters, a co-op at 31760 Casino Dr. on March 15. Deputies searched four other locations: two in Lake Elsinore, one in Murrieta and one in Hemet, officials said.

The city banned dispensaries, and it violated California’s medical marijuana laws, a Riverside County sheriff’s official said.

Members of the Cooperative Patients Services co-op at 28900 Front Street were undaunted by the raid.

“We’re not worried about it. Our mood is high,” said Robert Thomas, a patient and consultant at the co-op.

What the Temecula co-op does and what 420 Hitters do is different, he said. “They were doing things they shouldn’t have done, they were cultivating on the same site and making edibles,” he said.

Like Lake Elsinore, Temecula banned dispensaries. The Front Street location’s not a dispensary, Thomas said. They don’t grow marijuana in the shop – they use a warehouse outside the city limits – and, now that the city issued a restraining order against them, they don’t distribute from the location, he said.

Their marijuana comes from patients. They grow it at home and bring it to the co-op’s site, and then the co-op pays them and distributes it to the members who need it, who in turn pay for it, Thomas explained.

“It’s like every other agricultural co-op. We’re making the medicine available in safe, affordable ways,” he said.

They only deliver it outside the city limits since the city placed the restraining order, he said. The co-op is fighting it, and the next hearing is set for March 30.

The arrests made some medical marijuana advocates a little apprehensive about who they serve.

“Are you nervous about it? Well, in one way. I don’t want people I don’t know in,” said Jeff Lowe, a volunteer who helps run Temecula Caregivers Collective.

The shop runs an unmarked storefront with tinted windows at 27911 Jefferson Ave. near a smoke shop, a tattoo parlor and a pool hall.

He hopes if the collective lies low, law enforcement will cooperate with them.  “Don’t be the biggest fish in the tank,” he said of his policy.

Some patients would like to see more of these groups – or even dispensaries – in Temecula. “It would be more convenient. Otherwise, you have to go to LA, San Diego or OC. It would just keep money in Riverside County,” said Vanessa Kinney, a medical marijuana patient and a Temecula resident. “We’re in a big deficit, and this could take us out of it.”