Video clips showing Santa Ana police officers allegedly munching on food laced with pot during a raid on a medical marijuana dispensary quickly dominated the local media landscape on Thursday.
NBCLA coordinated its reporting on the video with Voice of OC. KTLA, KABC and Fox 11 News also picked up the story.
Attorney Matthew Pappas, who edited and produced the clips, alleges that the video shows officers eating the goods, known in pot lingo as edibles, and seized during the raid.
Officers also played darts inside the pot shop while apparently completing an inventory of the shop’s contents. Pappas also alleges that the video shows a policewoman mocking an amputee.
Santa Ana Police Chief Carlos Rojas told Voice of OC he would be launching an internal investigation of the officers’ conduct. However, he also pointed out that the heavily edited video might not show the full context of the officer’s behavior.
“I don’t know if that’s [a marijuana] edible. Where did [the officer] get it?” Rojas said. “Is that a protein bar or an edible?”