Medical Marijuana Crackdown

Early last Wednesday, on an otherwise beautiful late winter morning in Santa Barbara, Charles Jeffrey Restivo and his wife didn’t need an alarm clock to wake up — they were stirred from slumber by a Santa Barbara Police Department SWAT team banging on their front door. With guns drawn and armed with a search warrant, the cops pulled the completely shocked Restivo — a Santa Barbara native, UCSB graduate, practicing Certified Public Accountant, and owner of one of only three legally permitted medical marijuana dispensaries within city limits — from his home, eventually placing him under arrest on charges of felony possession and cultivation of cannabis for sale.

By sundown, similar scenes played out at several dispensaries and homes throughout Santa Barbara, Goleta, Summerland, and Ventura. All told, the multi-agency operation raided four cannabis clubs, arrested 12 individuals, and seized more than 12,000 plants, 100-plus pounds of herb, and tens of thousands of dollars in cash and assets. Without a doubt, it was the largest-scale medical marijuana-flavored sweep of its kind to go down in these parts since the inception of the Compassionate Use Act some 13 years ago. “It is not our goal to shut these places down,” said S.B. police spokesperson Paul McCaffrey, “but it is our job to uphold the law.”

“So far, none of the allegations that we have heard publicly suggest that Pacific Coast Collective (PCC) was operating outside the color and letter of both state and city law.”