TEMECULA -- Marijuana has been seized from the home of a Temecula couple who are legally allowed to use the drug for medicinal purposes.

At issue, Temecula police said Monday, is the amount of marijuana that officers found at the Palmetto Way home of Martin and LaVonne Victor, as well as whether they are running a legal marijuana "co-op."

The couple have state-issued identification cards allowing them to possess and use medicinal marijuana, police said. Martin Victor has been diagnosed with optical edema and his wife with multiple sclerosis and panic attacks.

The Victors could not be reached for comment Monday.

Martin Victor, 56, was arrested and booked on suspicion of cultivation of marijuana and possession of marijuana for sale, and possession of concentrated cannabis, or hashish, according to Southwest Detention Center records. Victor was able to post bond on $50,000 bail and was released Saturday, records state.

Seized from the Victors home Friday night were 70 plants, which Temecula police Lt. Scot Collins said ranged from a couple of feet to 6 feet in height, as well as 5 pounds of dried, cultivated marijuana.

"The amount found was extreme for what they should have there," Collins said.

Under guidelines released last month by the California attorney general's office regarding marijuana grown for medical use, qualified patients who possess a state-issued card identifying them as such "may possess 8 oz. of dried marijuana, and may maintain no more than six mature or 12 immature plants per qualified patient."

Collins said the Victors claim to run a legal "cooperative" from their home and showed officers photocopies of state-issued medical marijuana ID cards for 10 other people.

"There is a question if just 12 people would be consuming that amount of marijuana," the lieutenant said.

Under the attorney general's guidelines, that would allow the Victors to have 72 plants and 96 ounces of dried marijuana for themselves and 10 others in their "co-op."

However, Collins said officers found no proof that the Victors were operating as a cooperative under state law.

"There were no records of incorporation, no board of directors, nothing like that," the lieutenant said. "All indicators are that the marijuana found there was not just for the Victors and those 10 others."

At the home, police also allegedly found a small amount of hashish and hashish-smoking pipes, which are both illegal, the lieutenant said.

Collins said officers went to the Victor home after receiving complaints from neighbors about the smell of marijuana and also because a helicopter from another, unidentified law enforcement agency notified Temecula police of seeing a large amount of marijuana in the backyard.

Before going to the home, officers consulted with the district attorney's office and obtained a search warrant, which they served Friday, he said.

After seeing the quantity of marijuana, officers again consulted with a deputy district attorney who recommended the arrest and seizure of the marijuana, Collins said.

This is not the first time an arrest and marijuana seizure has happened at the Victor home.

In October 2001, the Victors were both arrested after police went to their home and seized marijuana.

At a court hearing in 2002, their defense attorney said police seized about 6 or 7 pounds of marijuana stored in mason jars, with the rest of the seizure being primarily leaves, stems and plants with soil still attached.

However, a prosecutor countered that there were nearly 16 pounds found in mason jars, another 6 pounds in trash bags and eight plants being cultivated. The couple could have faced up to three years in prison if they had been convicted as charged.

Ultimately, a plea agreement was reached in December 2003 in which all charges were dropped against LaVonne Victor, and Martin Victor pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of furnishing an ounce of marijuana with all other counts against him being dropped.

Contact staff writer John Hall at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2628, or jhall@californian.com.