Serious And Not-So-Serious Issues Highlight Local Pot Club's Festival SANTA CRUZ - He's smoked pot since he was 14. Eighty-four-year-old George Van Vlaenderen's early experiences with marijuana were in the mid-1930s, before its use was prohibited by federal law. Now, smoking the drug relieves eye pressure caused by his cataracts, the World War II veteran Navy pilot said. He stood in the sunshine near a members-only smoking tent at the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana gathering Saturday and shared his thoughts. [continues 401 words]
County Medical Marijuana Limits Not Without Its Critics SANTA CRUZ -- Roughly one year after the county established possession limits for medical marijuana users, the policy is getting mixed reviews. Medical pot advocates say the policy is working and they feel more at ease when their medicine is on them. Deputies say the policy has put a "black mark" on the medical marijuana movement. Fewer calls of concern are coming from patients, said Valerie Corral, co-founder of the Santa Cruz-based Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana. [continues 601 words]
SANTA CRUZ -- A well-known local medical marijuana advocate is considering a lawsuit after getting caught with the drug at a Southern California airport in late July. Valerie Corral said she was at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank when security officials found about "5 or so grams" of pot in her bag. She had a Santa Cruz County medical identification card and a doctor's recommendation, she said. That didn't keep her from being detained for about 45 minutes, having her pot taken and getting a citation. [continues 279 words]
Third Annual Event Allows Co-op to Focus on Positive SANTA CRUZ -- Picking up the phone at her Westside office, Valerie Corral was a little preoccupied. The co-founder of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana was trying to hunt down a 33-year-old member of the group who's ill with breast cancer. And homeless. "They get ill and they're not able to make rent," said Corral with an air of familiarity with these kinds of situations. [continues 345 words]
Despite Top Court Ruling, Lockyer Concludes Such Certification Doesn't Violate Federal Law State health officials Monday reinstated a program to issue identity cards to patients who have been prescribed medical marijuana, after receiving advice from the state attorney general that they could do so without violating federal law. The quick decision to restart the program comes after Attorney General Bill Lockyer's office also warned that failure to implement the program mandated by a state law would violate the state Constitution. [continues 566 words]
Several Officials Show Support Even in Santa Cruz, it's not every day that you see a couple of dozen marijuana plants flapping in the breeze as they're carried down the town's main street. But that was the scene Saturday as Santa Cruz activists held a protest march and rally that drew about 700 people who believe the U.S. government has no right to tell sick and dying people they can't use medicinal marijuana. Members and supporters of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, better known as WAMM, held their largest demonstration since the city council watched alliance members pass out medicinal pot on the steps of City Hall in September 2002. Protesters, many in wheelchairs, hoisted live marijuana plants and held up the pictures of 154 WAMM members who have died since the group was formed in 1993. [continues 552 words]
S.C. Mayor Declares July 16 Medical Marijuana Day SANTA CRUZ -- It was short on floats and balloons. But Saturday's downtown procession of medical marijuana users and their supporters was long on clarity. Several hundred members and friends of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana rode in wheelchairs or walked slowly up Pacific Avenue, most of them holding signs with headshot photos of deceased loved ones who had counted on relief from medical marijuana during their final months or years. [continues 489 words]
SANTA CRUZ -- Every time Lisa Molyneux makes the 150-mile round-trip to Oakland to buy medical marijuana, the Boulder Creek resident wonders why she can't find a safe place to buy closer to home. Molyneux, diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 1997, has relied on marijuana to ease nausea caused by radiation treatment, and to stimulate a diminished appetite. Even now, with her cancer in remission, Molyneux, 45, said she smokes pot a few nights a week to help her sleep. [continues 567 words]
Medicinal marijuana patients will carry live cannabis plants through the streets of Santa Cruz on Saturday in what is expected to be the city's largest demonstration since protesters passed out medicinal marijuana at City Hall nearly three years ago. The Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana says the march will be a "solemn event" honoring the 154 alliance members who have died since the group's inception in 1993. Organizers say more than 1,000 people will join the protest against the U.S. Supreme Court's recent 6-3 ruling that federal laws trump the efforts of California and other states to permit pot for sick and dying patients. [continues 83 words]
Robert "Duke" Schmidt has been sentenced to 41 months in federal prison for growing and distributing marijuana. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer meted out the terms in his San Francisco courtroom July 7. Schmidt reports to the Bureau of Prisons Sept. 1. He is one of about 30 West Coast medical-marijuana growers, distributors and/or users whose cases had been put on hold pending the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Gonzales v. Raich. Schmidt first appeared before Breyer in March 2003, soon after Ed Rosenthal's widely publicized trial. [continues 1635 words]
SANTA CRUZ -- Members of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana plan a July 16 march through downtown Santa Cruz -- while carrying some pot plants. The group hopes to attract 1,000 like-minded supporters to participate in the noon march down Pacific Avenue as a protest against an adverse U.S. Supreme Court ruling and recent raids of medical marijuana operations in Northern California. WAMM wants to make the statement that people who use marijuana as medicine have legitimate health reasons, they are not just a bunch of potheads and the general public supports the use of marijuana as medicine. [continues 206 words]
Someday, Washington will catch up with the 72 percent of Americans over 45 who believe adults should be able to use medical marijuana if a physician recommends it, according to a 2004 poll by the AARP. First, voters are going to have to make some noise. Or as Justice John Paul Stevens wrote in last week's Supreme Court ruling that upheld the federal government's authority to prosecute medical-marijuana users -- despite California's and 10 other states' medical marijuana laws -- "the voices of voters allied with these respondents may one day be heard in the halls of Congress." [continues 662 words]
SOME DAY, Washington will catch up with the 72 percent of Americans over 45 who, according to a 2004 poll by the AARP, believe adults should be able to use medical marijuana if a physician recommends it. First, however, voters are going to have to make some noise. Or as Justice John Paul Stevens wrote in this week's Supreme Court ruling that upheld the federal government's authority to prosecute medical-marijuana users, despite California's and 10 other states' medical-marijuana laws, "the voices of voters allied with these respondents may one day be heard in the halls of Congress." [continues 772 words]
For a little more than a year, members of the Santa Cruz-based Wo/men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana have run what is, in effect, the only legal medical pot farm in the country. The garden's safe status is now in peril after Monday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that medical marijuana users can be prosecuted by the federal government. The 6-3 decision reverses a 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision in 2003 that allowed for medical marijuana use so long as no money changed hands and the marijuana crossed no state lines. California and nine other states have versions of a law that allow people to grow, smoke or obtain marijuana for medical needs with a doctor's recommendation. [continues 1090 words]
Leaving scant room for further legal challenges from medicinal marijuana advocates, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday concluded that federal drug laws continue to trump the efforts of California and other states to permit the use of pot for sick and dying patients. The 6-3 decision means federal law enforcement officials retain the power to prosecute medicinal marijuana patients like Angel McClary Raich, the Oakland woman at the center of the Supreme Court fight. Legal experts do not expect a widespread crackdown on patients and providers who operate on a small scale and can prove they are using the drug for medicinal purposes. But patients and cooperatives that provide the drug with a doctor's prescription run a risk of a knock on the door from federal drug agents who have been more aggressive in recent years, including in the Bay Area. [continues 875 words]
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A steady stream of customers filed into the Love Shack, where anybody with a city-issued cannabis card could buy $5 pot brownies or spend up to 20 minutes inhaling premium marijuana that sells for $320 an ounce. It was business as usual at the medical marijuana club - one of dozens in San Francisco - even after the Supreme Court ruled Monday that people who smoke pot for medicinal purposes can be prosecuted for violating federal drug laws. Crime fighters in California and other states with medical marijuana laws insisted they were not about to start looking for reasons to shut down the dispensaries. But Dwion Gates, who was sitting next to a pair of bongs, said he's "a little bit shaken." [continues 502 words]
Court: Federal Rules Override State Laws Jacki Rickert, 54, of Mondovi, thinks the Supreme Court has made a mistake. On Monday, the court ruled that people who smoke marijuana for medicinal purposes can be prosecuted for violating federal drug laws. She called the ruling "ridiculous. I think it's a real big setback definitely for medical patients." Rickert has two rare illnesses that cause pain and restrict her movement. She was approved in late 1990 for a federal program that allowed her to use marijuana for medical purposes, but the program ended before she started. [continues 689 words]
SACRAMENTO -- Californians who use medical marijuana remained defiant Monday in the face of a Supreme Court decision that allows the federal government to prosecute patients who use the drug with a doctor's recommendation. The decision caused ripples across the state, the first in the nation to approve medical marijuana with passage of Proposition 215 in 1996. Few expected to see federal drug authorities renew an aggressive war on medical marijuana in the Golden State. "This would be like the Oakland Police Department focusing on busting jaywalkers," said Steph Sherer of Americans for Safe Access, a medical marijuana advocacy group. [continues 979 words]
Don't Expect To Burn One Down, It's A Meet-And-Greet Event SANTA CRUZ -- If you've got the munchies, DeLaveaga Park is the place to be Saturday. From noon to 5 p.m. at Lone Tree picnic area, marijuana supporters will meet for the local celebration of the Million Marijuana March. There, the UC Santa Cruz chapters of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and Students for Sensible Drug Policy will host a barbecue they hope will be an opportunity for members of the local marijuana community to come together and meet each other. [continues 365 words]
Officials across the state say they fear a lack of regulations could make new medical marijuana sites magnets for drug dealing and crime. Cities across California are acting to prevent new medical marijuana clubs from opening, with officials saying they fear that a lack of regulations in state law could make the clubs magnets for illegal drug dealing and crime. In the last two months, San Francisco, Modesto, Ontario, Huntington Beach and West Hollywood have imposed moratoriums until officials can devise rules to govern marijuana clubs. The moratoriums do not affect existing clubs; San Francisco already has 37. [continues 955 words]
