Pubdate: Sat, 05 May 2007
Source: Bakersfield Californian, The (CA)
Copyright: 2007 The Bakersfield Californian
Contact:  http://www.bakersfield.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/36
Author: Herb Benham, California staff writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?232 (Chronic Pain)

ACTIVISTS OPPOSE RAID OF DISPENSARY

Calling themselves a "grass" roots organization, more than 150 people 
met at Beach Park Saturday and marched to City Hall in support of 
marijuana reform and in opposition to what they see as federal 
harassment of patients' rights including the raid on Nature's 
Medicinal Cooperative in Oildale last week.

Fifty pounds of marijuana was seized during the raid, as well as 
about $50,000 in cash, Drug Enforcement Agency agents said. Both the 
store and Chavez's house in Stockdale Estates were raided. The store 
reopened the next day. David Chavez Jr., the son of the dispensary 
owner, was arrested on suspicion of possession of a small amount of cocaine.

Saturday's march, scheduled for noon, was slow to build and noon 
became around 12:30 p.m.

"They're a bunch of stoners," joked Douglas McAfee, local president 
for NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana 
Laws. "They take a while to get here."

"They" were a colorful group -- tie-dye, tattoos and mohawks -- and 
the color extended to the smell of marijuana wafting through the air 
as several marchers put their mouths where their money was.

"I smoked some right before the rally," said Melissa Pease "I'm 
feeling totally relaxed."

A sense of relaxed activism permeated the crowd at Beach Park prior 
to the march. The marchers, some of whom were in wheelchairs and on 
crutches, were more concerned about whether they could make the mile 
and a half walk to City Hall, and if they did, if they could walk 
back. Protesters attested to the benefit of medical marijuana and its 
ability to reduce pain.

"When I got stabbed in the neck, Vicodin did not not work but 
marijuana took away the pain," said 28-year-old Levi McLean. "Then, 
after my girlfriend made me mad and I slugged the (solid oak wood) 
cabinet, smoking marijuana made that pain in my hand go away, too." 
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