Ventura County law enforcement officials said Wednesday they intend to crack down on medical marijuana dispensaries and delivery services, days after authorities arrested a couple on suspicion of running an illegal marijuana business in Thousand Oaks.
“I have an easy message for them. Shut down or move out of the county,” said Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Gary Pentis of the Special Service Division that oversees major crimes and narcotics. “We are looking at them. This is something that is definitely on our radar.”
Every city in Ventura County has a permanent ban or moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries or storefront operations, which officials say includes delivery services.
But advertisements for marijuana delivery services continue to appear in local print publications and online, even as Los Angeles has moved to shut down more than 400 medical marijuana dispensaries.
While local storefront operations have been closed, delivery services have operated with little scrutiny. And some say these businesses could increase if voters approve an initiative on the November ballot that would legalize pot possession.
Drug investigators will not allow delivery services to take hold, Pentis said.
“They are nothing more than drug-dealing operations” that violate the state law allowing the “compassionate” use of marijuana to treat medical ills, he said.
Ventura Police Chief Ken Corney described such delivery services as illegal mobile dispensaries, saying “people cannot possess marijuana for sale.”
Cheryl Temple, a senior deputy district attorney, agreed.
“The District Attorney’s Office has no interest in seeing a cancer patient or seriously ill person being denied the medicine they are lawfully allowed, but we will shut down any narcotics sellers or delivery group that is distributing illegal narcotics.”
California’s 1996 initiative and a companion law approved by the Legislature in 2003 granted cities and counties most of the authority over implementing the Compassionate Use Act, which allows patients with a doctor’s recommendation to have marijuana for personal medical use.
The city of Camarillo is believed to be the first to expressly outlaw delivery services, according to Americans for Safe Access.
“Deliveries are not allowed under state law and not allowed under our ordinance,” Camarillo City Attorney Brian Pierik said of the city law adopted in May. “But we wanted to make sure there was no doubt about it.”
Attorneys representing medical marijuana patients have argued that laws to shut down dispensaries and delivery services would unconstitutionally bar patients’ access to their medicine.
But Temple countered that provisions in the California Health & Safety Code that allow some people to lawfully provide marijuana to others is largely restricted to a person’s primary caregiver and does not extend to delivery services.
“Your primary caregiver does not mean your primary dope dealer,” she said.
Fabian Citraro, 32, and his wife, Amanda Citraro, 30, owners of Mary Jane’s Bud in Thousand Oaks, were arrested last week on suspicion of illegally cultivating marijuana and possession for sale, Pentis said. Both have been charged with felony counts and pleaded not guilty at their arraignment, court officials said. Authorities announced the arrest Tuesday.
Investigators also are seeking child endangerment charges because food cooked with marijuana was found on the bottom shelf of a refrigerator at the Citraros’ home that was easily accessible to their children, Pentis said.
Pentis noted a 2-year-old in Oxnard recently overdosed on a marijuana product that looked like a pudding cup, and parents have a responsibility to keep their medical marijuana out of a child’s reach, just like their prescribed drugs. The child survived but the parents may be prosecuted, he said.
Reached by phone, Fabian Citraro declined to comment.
Mary Jane’s Bud is a medical marijuana collective and delivery group serving all of Ventura County, according to its website.
The Citraros are the second delivery service operators arrested in Ventura County in recent years.
805 Delivery owner Kim Lurie, 43, and Hilton Gurfinkiel, 33, were arrested on suspicion of selling marijuana in September for running a delivery service and making a stop in Camarillo. Gurfinkiel’s charges were dropped. Lurie has been charged with selling marijuana and her case is pending, officials said.
Operators of other delivery services that advertise in Ventura County said Wednesday that the Mary Jane’s Bud bust has given them pause about continuing.
“We definitely are going to have to think about it. No one wants to go to jail,” said Tom, owner of the local medical marijuana delivery service Emerald Flower of Life. He didn’t want to give his last name because he fears being targeted.
Tom insisted he doesn’t “sell to kids,” and most of his patients are older, housebound and suffering from cancer or other debilitating ailments. They have legitimate permission to consume medical marijuana under California law.
“I’d hate to say no to somebody,” he said. “But we may have to at this point.”
Source: Ventura County Star
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