Pubdate: Wed, 09 Apr 2003
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2003 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author: David L. Beck, Mercury News
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

CONGRESSMEN CO-SPONSOR BILL TO LEGALIZE NEED FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA

In the wake of federal agents' widely publicized raid on a Santa Cruz-area 
medical marijuana operation, U.S. Rep. Sam Farr is introducing a bill 
Thursday to legalize medical need as a valid defense in federal prosecutions.

The bill's co-sponsors are two congressmen rarely found on the same side of 
an issue -- Massachusetts liberal Democrat Barney Frank and Huntington 
Beach conservative Republican Dana Rohrabacher.

The bill by Farr, a Carmel Democrat, applies only to federal trials in 
states that have passed laws allowing the distribution and use of 
marijuana, under a doctor's prescription, for medical use.

Frank also is backing a similar bill that would simply allow state law to 
trump federal law.

Among those expected to attend a press conference on the bill Thursday are 
Valerie Corral, who with her husband Michael Corral was arrested Sept. 5 by 
federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents. The DEA raided their 
marijuana farm near Davenport and confiscated their crop, which they 
distribute free to the sick.

The Santa Cruz City Council later staged a widely publicized pot 
distribution ceremony on the steps of city hall, and even deputized the 
Corrals.

"No one in the United States is allowed to distribute illegal drugs -- 
period," said Richard Meyer, a DEA spokesman, in December. But under the 
Farr and Frank bills, that would no longer be true in some states.

Rohrabacher declined to talk about the bill. His press secretary, Aaron 
Lewis, said it was a state's-rights issue, although Rohrabacher also has a 
personal slant, said Lewis.

"His mother was very ill at one time," and while she neither sought nor 
used marijuana for her nausea and pain, said Lewis, she "might have been 
able to benefit from it" had it been available.

Massachusetts has no medical marijuana law.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager