Indictments have been issued by federal authorities charging 19 people with running a $5 million international drug ring that used three medical marijuana dispensaries as a front.
Since California legalized the drug as medicine, dozens of cannabis clubs have thrived in San Francisco but officials declared that the busts would not undermine the city's role as a haven for medical marijuana users.
Apparently the indictments are the result of a two-year investigation by U.S. drug agents into a network that allegedly cultivated at least 17,000 marijuana plants, trafficked in Ecstasy and engaged in money laundering and international bulk cash smuggling.
Kevin Ryan, the U.S. attorney in San Francisco, says this is not about ill people using marijuana, but about a widespread criminal enterprise.
Medical marijuana advocates and supporters however say it remains unclear whether the bust was the start of a renewed campaign by U.S. drug agents against pot dispensaries.
Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, says he hopes it is an anomaly.
Bruce Mirken, a Marijuana Policy Project spokesman, suggests at the very least it is a sign that the DEA are watching people who use medical marijuana.
Javier Pena, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's special agent in charge of the San Francisco office, refused to link the bust to a renewed campaign against dispensaries but says however, that a message had been sent to 'purveyors of medicinal pot'.
Pena says although some of the public think they can disregard the courts and Congress on this matter, the DEA will not be among them.
San Francisco has been struggling recently to control the growing number of storefront medicinal pot dispensaries, which to date number about 35, and even some local leaders, though supportive of cannabis patients, have called for a reduction to as few as eight clubs.
City leaders are still however talking of San Francisco remaining a bulwark of support for California's medical marijuana law, which directly conflicts with U.S. statutes prohibiting cannabis use for any purpose.