Pot Bust in Burbank is a Big Catch

BURBANK, CA (FOX 11) - The owner of the HRC Medical Marijuana Dispensary in Burbank is behind bars and behind held in lieu of $100,000 bail.

He was one of four people arrested Thursday by Federal and Local authorities during the execution of a search warrant on the dispensary. Lt. Stephan Margolis told FOX 11 News "What we did was we took down a medical marijuana dispensary that also is growing their own marijuana and that's against the law."

Margolis says what's illegal here is that dispensaries are supposed to work as a collective and not grow their own plants. Margolis says about 420 were found at HRC in just one of the grows with a street value of a half a million dollars.

The dispensary's attorney Alexa Steinberg told us "The Government is overstepping its boundaries a little bit."

Steinberg says, "Ordinances are not so clear on growing marijuana necessarily, but I know everything he's doing is lawful. He's not breaking any laws."

Margolis says the organization needs to be broken up because drugs are getting to teens and kids and the THC - the active ingredient - is way more powerful than pot of the 60's. He says it is "ranging between 20 to 30%. He says, "At 20% it's about 20 times what it was in the 60's. At 30% you're starting to get into Hallucinogens."

The men arrested face possible charges of possession with the intent to sell.