Politics & Government

Marijuana Co-op Closes Doors

The co-op has until April 27 to prove it didn't sell marijuana to an undercover deputy.

A medical marijuana co-op in Old Town locked its doors and was turning away patients today.

Cooperative Patients’ Services, a small co-op at 28900 Old Town Front St., would no longer let patients in the storefront, said Robert Thomas, a consultant at the co-op.

He talked through a door barely ajar, and decline to say anything else before closing and relocking it.

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The closure came days after the sheriff’s Special Enforcement Team allegedly caught the co-op selling marijuana, despite a temporary restraining order.

Judge John W. Vineyard gave the co-op until April 26 to prove it did not sell the drug to an undercover deputy. If it fails to prove this, it faces $14,000 in fines, according to court records.

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The City of Temecula convinced a judge on March 3 to issue the restraining order stopping the co-op from dispensing marijuana from the Old Town location.

The co-op obeyed, and they only delivered to clients outside the city boundaries, Thomas said during a previous interview.

After the restraining order was issued, the sheriff’s department held a sting from March 31 to April 5 sending an undercover deputy in to see if he could buy some marijuana, stated sheriff’s Deputy Wayne Martinelli in a written declaration.

The deputy went in and bought $50 worth of “Bubba Kush,” a type of marijuana, according to the declaration.

If the co-op fails to prove its innocence, it will be held in contempt and forced to pay the court $10,000 plus $4,000 to the City of Temecula to cover the legal fees, court records show.

The city claimed the co-op violates its ban on dispensaries in the city limits, though Cooperative Patients’ Services is not a dispensary, said Douglass Lanphere, a spokesperson for the co-op during a previous interview.

Peter Thorson, the city’s attorney, failed to return a call today.

The co-op is a not-for-profit organization that acts as an agricultural cooperative, much the same as ones selling produce at the farmers’ market nearby, he said.

Patients grow the marijuana and bring it to the Old Town location. The co-op reimburses the patients, and then sell the marijuana to other members of the co-op.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story identified Terry Wilson as a spokesperson for the co-op. Actually, Douglass Lanphere spoke for the co-op.

CLARIFICATION: An earlier version of this story called the co-op a "nonprofit." Since it is not a registered 501(c)(3) organization, the word was changed to "not-for-profit."


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