Crime & Safety

Update: Co-op Founder's Nursery Raided

The Drug Enforcement Agency searched Cooperative Patients' Services and Consolidated Container Nursery, both founded by Douglas Lanphere.

A medical marijuana nursery run by the founder of a Temecula co-op was raided today.

The Drug Enforcement Administration stormed into Cooperative Patients' Services, a Temecula storefront founded by Douglas Lanphere, and confiscated 19 pounds of marijuana and 117 pounds of marijuana-based edibles, according to Special Agent Sarah Pullen.

The agency also stormed into Consolidated Container Nursery, a pot grow founded by Lanphere just outside Lake Elsinore's city limits at 28261 Red Gum Ln. The DEA confiscated 50 live plants, Pullen said.

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as leader of the co-op after city and law enforcement officials raised questions about .

He was convicted in the 1990s of cultivating marijuana -- before it was legal for medical use -- and on suspicion of driving while under the influence of methamphetamine and possessing cocaine.

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His case is under review, and no charges were yet filed, said John Hall of the District Attorney's Office.

Lanphere was detained but not arrested during the Lake Elsinore raid, he said in a phone interview today.

Lanphere has been living in Oregon since January and only serves as a consultant to the cooperative, but he was in town this week for a scheduled surgery.

He visited Consolidated Container Nursery this morning and was subsequently pulled over about two miles from the facility by investigators, Lanphere said.

The Red Gum Lane location, which is leased by Consolidated Container Nursery, is overseen by three members of Cooperative Patients' Services, according to Lanphere. He contends no marijuana has been dispensed at the nursery, and said the facility is used for cultivation only.

A cease-and-desist order was served to the facility in January, and the group has abided, Lanphere said. The marijuana seized today was “well within the limits” of what’s allowed under California’s medical marijuana law, Lanphere contends.

As a federal agency, the DEA doesn’t recognize California’s law: The drug is illegal under federal law.

The legal conflict has given cities and counties leeway in shutting down medical marijuana operations. , which confirmed that local jurisdictions can ban medical marijuana operations, has given authorities even more momentum, and , have been shuttered in recent months.

In the meantime, on the matter of local bans, but it will likely be years before rulings are issued.

“We’ve got cities that disagree with state law and circumvent by going to federal law,” Lanphere said.

Terry Wilson, director of patient relations for the cooperative, said he is disheartened by today’s raids.

Without a means of access, Wilson contends people who use marijuana for medical reasons will turn to the “gray or black market.”

- Peter Surowski contributed to this report.


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