King County Sheriff’s Detectives found 536 marijuana plants and approximately 65 pounds of processed marijuana while serving a search warrant on a house in the 12700 block of 195 Place SE, in unincorporated King County near Issaquah.
KCSO Sergeant Cindi West said the office received a tip about a marijuana operation and obtained a search warrant for the home.
Detectives executed the search warrant around 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 6. Once inside the house detectives learned that the house had a “collective grow” of medical marijuana, of which nine occupants of the house were participants.
Due to compliance issues detectives seized 401 of the 536 plants and 50 pounds of the processed marijuana found in the house. In addition to having more marijuana than permitted for medical use, West said the occupants also had expired paperwork for the medical marijuana.
In total, the most the group would have been allowed with their paperwork in order was 135 plants, West said.
According to the RCW defining collective marijuana gardens in Washington: no more than ten qualifying patients may participate in a single collective garden at any time; a collective garden may contain no more than fifteen plants per patient up to a total of forty-five plants; and collective garden may contain no more than twenty-four ounces of useable cannabis per patient up to a total of seventy-two ounces of useable cannabis. Patch has a call into KCSO to find out why more than 45 plants were left at the house.
Cash and a handgun were also seized and police said that one of the home’s occupants was a registered felon which prohibits him from having a firearm.
Detectives said no one was arrested at the time and the case has been forwarded to the prosecutor’s office for review.
Editor's note: Portions of this information is from a King County Sheriff's Office press release
