Pubdate: Wed, 15 Jul 2015 Source: Orange County Register, The (CA) Copyright: 2015 The Orange County Register Contact: http://www.ocregister.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/321 POT RAIDS THE RAGE We have noted that government at times seems to make a mantra of the saying, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again," and Santa Ana's raids against medical marijuana dispensaries are coming to exemplify such adherence to the notion. Last week came news that law enforcement had again visited Sky High Collective, the same marijuana dispensary where edited video from a May 26 raid showed officers dismantling surveillance equipment, playing darts, making derogatory remarks about an amputee bystander and, purportedly, helping themselves to some edible marijuana products. The investigation into that episode continues, with three officers involved in the raid placed on administrative leave "while the department investigates whether their actions violated policy," the Register reported. Santa Ana officials clearly haven't learned the correct lesson. Now that a judge has reversed a temporary halt to the implementation of Measure BB, the city has no excuse as to why the pace of legalizing dispensaries hasn't kept up with the speed of closing down illegal operators. Further, the need to raid the same dispensary for a second time, less than two months apart, shows that current enforcement efforts appear to be having little effect on the proliferation of illegally operating medical marijuana collectives in the city. But that is most likely to remain the case as only a single establishment has yet been allowed to legally open. As we learned from Prohibition, making something illegal doesn't end demand for it. Be it alcohol or marijuana, until legally permissible options are made available to users, as voters intended in approving Measure BB, users will find other ways to obtain them, and the city will continue to waste resources on raids. But it couldn't be a more pointless proposition. Continuing to raid medical marijuana dispensaries, especially considering that the city may very well "legalize" some of them in a matter of weeks or months, is nothing more than a raid on city coffers. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom