Pubdate: Thu, 26 Jan 2012
Source: Press-Enterprise (Riverside, CA)
Copyright: 2012 The Press-Enterprise Company
Contact: http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/letters_form.html
Website: http://www.pe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/830
Author: Sarah Burge

French Valley

POT COLLECTIVE OWNER DENIES ACCUSATIONS

The owner of a medical marijuana facility near Murrieta that was shut 
down last week in an ongoing federal crackdown denied accusations 
that he sold marijuana for profit.

"It just wasn't what they said it was," said Kevin O. Freeman, 38, of 
Temecula. "We were doing it right. It was a true collective."

Agents searched the Disabled American Veterans Collective, which 
occupied several suites in a business complex at 38372 Innovation 
Court in French Valley and included an indoor growing operation. They 
seized about 1,800 plants, 10 pounds of dried marijuana, 16 pounds of 
hash and 8 pounds of food products containing marijuana, said Sarah 
Pullen, a spokeswoman for the federal Drug Enforcement 
Administration. Freeman disputed those amounts.

Freeman was arrested by sheriff's investigators on suspicion of 
possession of marijuana for sale and growing marijuana, jail records 
show. Initially, his bail was set at $250,000, but sheriff's 
officials released him two days later, he said. Charges have not been 
filed, Riverside County court records show.

"It was degrading and demeaning," he said. "I've never been arrested."

Freeman said he is a former Marine who received a medical discharge 
11 years ago for a service-related disability. Many of the 
collective's 6,000 members are also veterans, he said.

Pullen said she could not comment because the investigation is ongoing.

Federal search warrant documents accuse Freeman of operating a 
for-profit business that sold marijuana to people without medical 
conditions. An undercover sheriff's investigator went to the 
collective in December and purchased marijuana after filling out 
paperwork and presenting a doctor's recommendation, court records show.

Freeman said he did not believe there was a problem with selling 
marijuana to the officer because they verified the recommendation 
with his doctor and he joined the collective.

Investigators didn't need to go undercover to learn about his 
facility, Freeman said. He already had allowed them to walk through 
the space last year, he said. In June, a Riverside County code 
enforcement officer inspected it. And in August, Freeman called the 
Sheriff's Department when someone tried to burglarize the collective, 
he said. Search warrant documents confirm both visits.

"It was completely transparent," he said.

Freeman said he started out growing medical marijuana for personal 
use in his garage. The collective incorporated in 2009, moved into a 
suite at the Innovation Court complex in 2010 and later expanded. 
Freeman said the facility was up to code and that he paid sales taxes 
to the state.

"We weren't a nuisance. We were in an industrial area," he said.

Freeman's facility was one of several that received warning letters 
from federal authorities last fall. He said he was no longer 
operating the storefront at the time of the raid, but he was still 
making deliveries to existing members.

"It's a hard pill to swallow," he said. "Especially when they say you 
were profiting. I just put a lot of time in it to walk away with 
nothing. And I do mean nothing."
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