SANTA CRUZ - Thousands of medicinal marijuana patients and supporters attended WAMMfest to celebrate and learn about the herbal medicine Saturday. Though medical marijuana patients were able to smoke their medicine at the event that featured music, crafts and speeches, that portion of the festivities was in question until this week. After failing to muster the votes to lift the city smoking ban in parks in a prior meeting, the council Tuesday agreed to do so. Only those with a medical marijuana identification card were allowed to smoke in a specially-designated tent Saturday. [continues 462 words]
SANTA CRUZ - Medical marijuana patients will once again be allowed to smoke dope in San Lorenzo Park this Saturday, after city leaders temporarily lifted a smoking ban to allow for a festival celebrating the medicinal herb. The decision came after testimony from more than 20 patients who reasoned and pleaded with the Santa Cruz City Council to allow them to inhale their medication while partaking in Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana's annual WAMMfest. Some accused council members of growing old and more conservative, while others said Santa Cruz was losing both its compassion and its weirdness. [continues 366 words]
SANTA CRUZ -- WAMMfest, the annual event where medical marijuana patients toke up in San Lorenzo Park while touting the benefits of their medicine, may be in for a major bummer. Organizers might have to throw a marijuana festival without the smoke. On Sept. 27, Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana will hold its annual WAMM Festival -- a medical pot, hemp and music celebration. The group last week requested an exception from the city's ban on smoking in San Lorenzo Park so its 200 patients could attend the event and inhale their medicine. [continues 427 words]
The smoking ban in city parks could be lifted for the second time since it passed three years ago, as city leaders are considering allowing medical marijuana patients to light up during a festival at San Lorenzo Park at the end of the month. "It's not like a recreational marijuana event," said Councilman Mike Rotkin, who supports the temporary lifting of the city's 3-year-old ordinance that bans smoking in parks. "It's not a smoke-in, it's not like the 4/20 thing up on campus," Rotkin said. [continues 432 words]
A federal court ruling handed down Wednesday has lifted the hopes of medical marijuana users by denying a Bush administration request to toss a lawsuit brought by Santa Cruz city and county officials and Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana members. WAMM co-founder Valerie Corral called the ruling "hopeful." WAMM had its medical marijuana seized by federal agents in a 2002 raid. "Our lawsuit is really much more of an appeal than a lawsuit. It's an appeal for mercy from the federal government," Corral said. "We're not asking to break the law. We're asking to have another avenue for relief." [continues 365 words]
Not even cancelled bus and shuttle services or a lack of available parking could spoil students' resolve to smoke pot at Porter Meadow last Sunday. In the warm spring sunshine, scores of people hiked up Empire Grade or found hidden paths to the meadow, trekking like glassy-eyed pilgrims on a journey to their promised land. April 20, known as 4/20, is a day of celebration in cannabis culture. Last Thursday, UC Santa Cruz Vice Chancellor Felicia E. McGinty sent a mass e-mail to students regarding the event unsanctioned by the university. [continues 1594 words]
The Palm Springs city attorney said he will soon propose that the city allow medical marijuana cooperatives. City Attorney Douglas Holland said he has studied the issue for more than 18 months and plans to bring his proposal to the City Council in coming weeks. He said cooperatives would satisfy the need of the people and the laws of the state. "Those collectives would have to be very narrowly tailored and organized," Holland said. If the city council approves the cooperatives, Palm Springs will become one of the only cities in Riverside County to pass an ordinance allowing medical marijuana cooperatives. [continues 312 words]
WATSONVILLE -- After narrowly permitting body artists to set up shop last month, the City Council today will consider another potentially controversial business ? medical marijuana dispensaries. Staff is recommending a ban, citing problems in other communities with crime, public pot smoking and complaints from neighboring businesses. But John Doughty, the city's community development director, said the bigger problem is that officials would be forced to issue business licenses or planning permits in conflict with federal drug laws. "We don't think it's appropriate to put ourselves in a position to have to violate federal law," Doughty said. [continues 454 words]
It's a story that virtually begs for the "only-in-Santa-Cruz" eye-roll treatment - another item in a wave of wackiness over the years that has painted the beach town, fairly or not, as nuttier than a bowl of granola. Only this time, it might actually be true - the "only-in-Santa-Cruz" part, at least. That's because two cherished progressive ideals - smoking bans and medicinal marijuana - have collided in a cloud of, well, smoke. [continues 419 words]
SANTA CRUZ -- City leaders have made an exception to the no-smoking rule at parks to allow an annual tradition to continue. The smoking ban, less than two years old, will be lifted temporarily for medical marijuana users to medicate at San Lorenzo Park during next week's Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana annual festival. "I think there's a solid basis for supporting this group," said Councilman Mike Rotkin, who joined Mayor Emily Reilly in writing the resolution to exempt WAMM from the smoking ban. "They're pretty selfless folks. It's not like they're out there profiting off other people's medical needs." [continues 360 words]
A federal court ruling Thursday dashed hopes of local medical marijuana advocates seeking to keep the government out of their pot gardens. In the case of Santa Cruz County v. Alberto Gonzales, U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel granted the attorney general's motion to prevent a Santa Cruz marijuana cooperative and its supporters from suing the office to stop federal marijuana raids. "Naturally, we're disappointed. I had hoped for something better," said Davenport resident Mike Corral, who owned the land where federal agents seized medical pot plants in September 2002, thrusting him, his wife and their collective into the five-year legal battle that's put the them at the center of California's medical marijuana debate. [continues 310 words]
SAN JOSE -- A Santa Cruz marijuana collective raided by federal agents in 2002 made its case for the right to grow medical pot in court Friday. Though no ruling was issued, supporters of the group, Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, said they're encouraged by the judge's response. U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel heard arguments on the federal government's motion to dismiss the suit, which alleges the raid five years ago at WAMM's Davenport garden was outside the law, given the legality of medical marijuana in California. The county and city of Santa Cruz are signed on as plaintiffs in the suit. [continues 391 words]
SANTA CRUZ -- Santa Cruz's oldest marijuana club has seen a precipitous drop in donations that sustain the organization since the federal government raided its gardens five years ago, and organizers are worried they will have to scale back their operations or even close. Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana has reduced the amount of marijuana given away as it struggles to stay in business and continue serving its 175 members, many seriously ill with terminal cancer or AIDS. "It's dire," WAMM co-founder Mike Corral said. "Not too far in the future we'll run out of what's available in our bank accounts now. It's a matter of months not a year or years" [continues 414 words]
YVONNE Westbrook of Oakland uses medical marijuana to control the spasms of multiple sclerosis. Valium left her with a heavy, drugged feeling. "A few tokes and the spasticity calms right down," she noted in the documentary "Waiting to Inhale," which will be shown at the Oakland International Film Festival on Thursday. Irvin Rosenfeld sees marijuana as "a muscle relaxing anti-inflammatory" that helps him with multiple congenital cartilaginous exostosis. Without it, he explains, he would be dead or on disability, not a stockbroker who pays taxes. [continues 596 words]
An area medical marijuana cooperative should be free from harassment by federal agents as should the city's recently enacted ordinance that would establish a compassionate use office for the drug, an amended federal court complaint filed this week contends. Attorneys for the city and county of Santa Cruz and the Wo/men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana filed the amended complaint in U.S. District Court in San Jose. It is basically an updated version of a lawsuit filed in 2003. [continues 420 words]
The state approved a policy this week that opens the door for medical marijuana distributors to collect and pay state sales tax. The policy, while requiring marijuana retailers to feed state coffers just like department stores or any other California retailer, also considers their unique fear of being targeted by federal authorities because of legal questions surrounding their product. While California approved medical marijuana in 1996, it remains illegal under federal law. Under the new policy passed by the state Board of Equalization, businesses can get what is known as a sellers permit, allowing them to collect sales tax, without indicating whether their merchandise is lawful to sell. [continues 460 words]
City attorney's office dismisses citation against woman for not having identification for carrying medical marijuana. A charge of violating a state law on possession of medical marijuana was dropped Thursday against an advocate who helped get the law passed. The Burbank City Attorney's office dismissed a citation against Valerie Corral for allegedly not having proper identification that allowed her to carry marijuana under the state's Compassionate Use Act. Corral, of Santa Cruz, was cited July 27 when she was found with 5 grams of marijuana at Bob Hope Airport. [continues 81 words]
BURBANK - The Burbank City Attorney's Office on Thursday dropped a misdemeanor drug possession charge against a Santa Cruz medical marijuana patient who was cited in July at the Bob Hope Airport, the ACLU said Thursday. The charge against Valerie Corral, who was detained when screeners allegedly spotted marijuana in her carry-on bag, was dismissed. She was cited by police even though she had a Santa Cruz County-issued medical marijuana card, authorized under the state's Compassionate Use Act, said her attorney, Christina Alvarez, with the American Civil Liberties Union Drug Law Reform Project. [continues 304 words]
Misdemeanor pot possession charges against local medical marijuana advocate Valerie Corral were dropped Thursday, but the fight isn't completely over. Aided by the American Civil Liberties Union, Corral said she will battle to get back the confiscated pot and seek a change in how the city of Burbank addresses medical marijuana laws. Corral was charged July 27 for possessing a small amount, about 5 grams, of pot while passing through security at the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank. She along with husband Mike are co-founders of the Santa Cruz-based Wo/mens Alliance for Medical Marijuana. [continues 239 words]
SANTA CRUZ - The pungent odor of marijuana wafted through the office Wednesday as the city's first medical marijuana dispensary opened. "Finally," sighed owner Lisa Molyneux, a Boulder Creek resident who was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 1997. Molyneux has worked 14 months for the necessary city permits and approvals to start Greenway Compassionate Relief Inc. The City Council, faced with almost no public opposition, gave Molyneux its unanimous approval in July. Molyneux said she's spent about $100,000 to start the business, including monthly rent for the 5,000-square-foot office and arranging security. [continues 473 words]
