Authorities Raid Ranch of Marijuana Activists

For the second time in two years, authorities have raided the Lockwood Valley ranch of marijuana activists Lynn and Judy Osburn, uprooting more than 200 pot plants that supply hundreds of medicinal users in Ventura and Los Angeles counties.

As the Osburns watched, two dozen investigators from the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, assisted by Ventura County sheriff’s deputies, last week searched their wooded property 45 miles north of Ojai. No one was arrested.

The Osburns, who maintain they are medicinal marijuana users with written recommendations from doctors, grow marijuana for the 900 members of the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Cooperative, which dispenses the drug as allowed under the state’s 1996 voter-approved Proposition 215.

While the seizure Friday was the second raid at the couple’s 60-acre farm, it’s the first time federal authorities have been involved. A DEA spokesman said the case will be forwarded to the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles for review.