Damage incurred at September 10 dispensary bust

On September 10, a Fallbrook neighborhood was woken up by a SWAT-like operation that included closed-down streets and a bashed-down door.

Chris Tindall (right) says he is Fallbrook's THC holy man

“They had two fire trucks, two Marine tanks, and a SWAT team van,” says Chris Tindall about the bust of his Jah Healing Caregivers (JHC), which operated at two Fallbrook addresses.

One bust was around five in the morning in a residential area; the other one about three hours later at his business district storefront on Main Street.

“They broke the doors down,” says Tindall, who took photos of destroyed door jambs and broken masonry. “They tore a Bob Marley flag in half that had nothing to do with them getting in. Look at this: they even tore a thermostat off the wall. They were dressed in black. There was about 15 of them. They confiscated stuff that had nothing to do with THC.”

“They had the streets blocked off for blocks,” says Michelle Buendell, 61, who has fibromyalgia and who says she relied on JHC product to help her avoid morphine “and stay off pills…. I know someone who asked them the morning of the raid what all this was about and they said, ‘You’ll get the hell out of here if you know what’s good for you.’”

“The first one they raided was in a residential neighborhood,” says Tindall. “They used tear gas. There was nobody there, but they didn’t know that. What if there had’ve been a baby in there? They could have killed it. They did not have to do all this. All they had to do was ask me or our landlord for a key and we would have happily given them one.”

San Diego County sheriff's deputy Tim Clark was there for the bust that his department said resulted in the seizure of $10,000 worth of marijuana products, including 47 plants, processed pot, oil, and edibles.

I first asked Officer Clark why the Fallbrook/Bonsall Village News reported his department was offering a reward of up to $1000 for information on Tindall when all I had to do was call him and he happily met with me.

“I don’t know why that was in there,” he said of the newspaper's bounty announcement. “I guess that was something that should have been redacted.”

Why was tear gas used in the neighborhood bust?

“It was pepper spray,” said Clark. “Officers called out 15 times for them to come out. We used a bang grenade to waken anybody who may have been there. Nobody responded to our call-outs.... They had three separate security doors at the [residential area outlet]. We react differently depending on what threats there might be to law enforcement…. I asked Mt. Tindall to get the permit to get properly zoned. He chose not to do that.”

Why use a tank in a Fallbrook neighborhood?

“If you want to call it that. That protected reinforced vehicle is part of our Special Enforcement Detail.”

Why were SWAT-style tactics not used on the two Fallbrook dispensaries that have already closed and why are two remaining marijuana dispensaries still open?

"Each warrant is different,” said Clark. He also said he contacted the other two dispensaries and could not get specific but is confident they will soon be closing.

Clark made it clear that they did not use a SWAT team.

“It is our Special Enforcement Detail.”

Clark said he forwarded the information and evidence on JHC to the district attorney’s office for prosecution.

Former JHC client Buendell has lived in Fallbrook since she was born in 1954. She says the current Fallbrook deputies are completely different from the old days.

“When I was a kid we knew all their names. There was Snooty, Adams, McBroom. I used to dance with them at the Valley Fort. If I was too wild as a kid, they used to bring me home. They were like guardian angels. Now you can’t approach a cop in Fallbrook without being afraid or getting harassed.” She says deputies regularly pull over cars as they leave JHC.

Tindall maintains a 2006 supreme court ruling permits him to legally sell THC because Jah Healing Caregivers is essentially a holy place practicing an ancient divine Egyptian ministry Pr Ntr Kmt.