845 marijuana plants seized

Thursday, February 03, 2005 - 8:22:23 AM PST


845 marijuana plants seized

The Daily Journal

A total of 845 indoor grown marijuana plants and records of the sale of
marijuana were seized from Steven Lance Berry's LANKASH Caregivers Clinic
Tuesday morning, according to Sgt. Rusty Noe, County of Mendocino Marijuana
Eradication Team commander.

The indoor cultivation operation consisted of four indoor grow rooms and an
office. During the raid, people were approaching the location and
attempting to buy marijuana and marijuana plants while officers were
conducting the search, Noe stated in a press release.

Seized at a Masonite Road residence were records and marijuana, along with
a loaded shotgun, Noe said.

The case was started when COMMET and the Mendocino County Major Crimes Task
Force received information that marijuana was being sold and transported
out of the county by the owner of the LANKASH club. During the
investigation, agents allegedly purchased $4,500 worth of cloned marijuana
plants from Berry. Later, agents allegedly arranged to purchase several
pounds of bud marijuana from Berry with an agreement to purchase up to 100
pounds of marijuana at a later date, Noe said.

During the purchase of two pounds of marijuana, Mendocino County sheriff's
deputies arrested Berry on suspicion of domestic violence and the deal was
never completed, Noe said.

Berry was arrested Tuesday evening on suspicion of cultivation of marijuana
and possession of marijuana for sale, and booked into jail on $25,000 bail.

"This is an example of the misuse of the medical marijuana laws by subjects
who are profiting from marijuana sales. The current laws are conflicting on
what a marijuana caregiver can do and how much compensation can be
received. In this case, agents purchased marijuana with medical marijuana
never being mentioned and it is clearly a trafficking situation," Noe said.
"We will investigate and attempt to prosecute anyone who is using the
medical marijuana laws to profit from the cultivation and sales of
marijuana," he added.

Berry, who posted bail, on Wednesday told The Daily Journal agents told him
they came in because "they pulled over two people from Montana who claimed
they bought clones from my place -- Steven Berry's Caregivers Service,'
previously known as LANKASH," Berry said.

"I have not profited a single dime and I can prove that. When I came into
the Ukiah area, I had a medical settlement and had money and I am now
beyond broke," Berry said, adding that agents may have found records of the
money for issuance,' but not for sales. "It is legal to issue it out at a
caregiving cost. You get paid for the work you do," he said.

The only reason he had a loaded shotgun, he said, was because his home had
been robbed recently and a friend staying there felt unsafe, so he brought
a gun into the house, and left it with Berry.

Berry contested the number of plants Noe said were found, and said he has
never sold marijuana to an agent.

"If it was purchased it wasn't purchased directly from me, but could have
been purchased from somebody who was working at the facility," he said. "In
the two-and-a-half years I have run the facility, I have had to let go of
almost every person who worked there or volunteered there because of
suspicions of them doing illegal activities," he said.

Berry said he never entered into an agreement that someone would purchase
100 pounds of marijuana.

"They were trying to see if I would set up 100 pounds, which made it only
obvious the man was a cop because patients don't come in asking for 100
pounds," he said.

"We have always hoped that we would turn a profit with the place, but
because of six different robberies that have occurred from evidently
professional thieves, there has been absolutely no profit made from this.
The whole deal was not for profit anyway, it was to help people," Berry said.