Police officers on Thursday morning raided an alleged hash oil lab in Kearny Mesa and arrested two employees.
Narcotics detectives with the San Diego Police Department received a tip about the possible lab in the 8200 block of Engineer Road.
They served a search warrant at about 8:30 a.m. and requested assistance from the San Diego Fire-Rescue’s Hazmat Team as a precaution.
Two employees, 42-year-old Patrick McDonald and 48-year-old Daniel Gregg, were arrested on suspicion of manufacturing an illegal substance and manufacturing an illegal substance with intent to sell.
Authorities were searching the building and detectives then started gathering evidence.
An attorney for the company that occupies the building told NBC 7 that it's a medical marijuana business called Medwest Distribution LLC.
The attorney, Jessica McElfresh, confirmed there was a lab inside, but said it was used for making medical marijuana products to ship to licensed dispensaries. Those products include oils from marijuana.
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McElfresh is criticizing the raid, saying her client's business is legal.
Another attorney for the company, Lance Rogers, said the raid of the business will ultimately impact patients who rely on the medical marijuana.
"Tomorrow the cancer patients, the AIDS patients who rely on safe quality medical cannibis can go to a licensed facility. However, there will be no product on the shelves because it's all been taken by the police behind us," Rogers said.
San Diego police have not revealed the basis for the raid, but say they believe the business is an illegal hash oil lab.
The city attorney's office said after receiving complaints, staff previously visited the site to find out if an illegal dispensary was being operated there. No dispensary was observed at that time.
