Crime & Safety

UPDATE: DEA Serves Search Warrant on Silver Lake Pot Clinic

The raid at Fountain of Well Being was one of three where the agency served search warrants Tuesday as part of a larger operation involving 71 locations.

According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's office, the clinic is one of three where the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency served search warrants Tuesday with the help of the LAPD.

The release also notes that Fountain of Well Being has been the "subject of repeated calls for police service since 2011."

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Fountain of Well Being, located at 3835 Fountain Avenue, is lauded by users for the diversity of its offerings in Internet reviews.

It is located just a few doors up from Thomas Starr King Middle School.

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Fountain of Well Being remained closed as of about 5 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, as confused customers were turned away by a "Sorry We're Closed" sign posted on the gate.

Jacob Shabaz, the attorney for Fountain of Well Being, told KNBC 4 that the location was a "co-op" that was operating legally and would reopen.

Also served similar warrants were the Happy Ending Collective at 818 North Spring St. in Downtown Los Angeles and the Green Light Pharmacy at 522 South Lorena St. in eastern Los Angeles near the 60 Freeway.

The search warrants were part of a much larger federal action involving a total of 71 so-called "marijuana stores," most near Downtown Los Angeles and Eagle Rock.  

Pot clinics have been operating in a legal nether zone for some time, with many wondering what would happen after a voter initiative to overturn the city ban gained the requisite signatures.

This quote from a press release by United States Attorney André Birotte Jr. is instructive: 

As today’s operations make clear, the sale and distribution of marijuana violates federal law, and we intend to enforce the law. Even those stores not targeted today should understand that they cannot continue to profit in violation of the law." 

Meantime, marijuana industry advocates decried the raid as a blatant rebuke of the public will.

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