In November 2002, 63% of San Francisco voters voted "Yes" on Proposition S, a one-sentence policy question: "Should the city explore the possibility of growing and dispensing medical cannabis?" Two civilian organizers of the task force that promulgated Proposition S, Wayne Justmann and Michael Aldrich had been proprietors at medical marijuana dispensaries. The measure was put on the ballot "in light of the recent DEA crackdown on local medical cannabis clubs," by four city Supervisors: Mark Leno (now a state Assemblyman), Matt Gonzales (now President of the Board), Sophie Maxwell, and Chris Daly. [continues 1854 words]
The Bush administration has attacked medical marijuana on several fronts, but its latest effort to go after doctors has got the outspoken director of a Santa Cruz-based medical marijuana referral service stepping out of the shadows and onto the warpath. He offers an inside look at how medical marijuana works and why the feds have taken on a war they can't win. The Marimed Referral Service on the east side of Santa Cruz exudes the edgy yet laid-back atmosphere you'd expect from an operation that occupies "Suite M for Marijuana," as Marimed director William Malphrus jokes. This is where Malphrus and his associates match doctors willing to do physical evaluations and make medical marijuana recommendations with patients who believe they qualify for the benefits of the Proposition 215-approved green stuff. [continues 2302 words]
The photo of Betty Breadth, beaming and wearing a scarlet feather boa, belies the tale of a middle-aged mom with cancer who had to learn how to roll a joint -- and smoked only outside on her deck -- so she could endure the excruciating final stages of her illness. The Kodak shot of a grinning Jo Daly doesn't tell the story of how she, a former San Francisco police commissioner, found that marijuana was the only drug that could ease intense nausea from chemotherapy treatments that failed to save her life. [continues 546 words]
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The Drug Enforcement Administration's autumn raid on a farm that cultivated pot for sick and dying people was both illegal and immoral, members of a medical marijuana movement argued Monday in federal court. "We are not asserting the right to market marijuana, but to cultivate and use it to prolong life and give comfort to the dying," said Gerald Uelmen, a Santa Clara University law professor who represents about 200 chronically and terminally ill people. "We are asserting the fundamental rights of patients ... so they can meet their death without agony and suffering." [continues 502 words]
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The Drug Enforcement Administration's autumn raid on a farm that cultivated pot for sick and dying people was both illegal and immoral, members of a medical marijuana movement argued Monday in federal court. "We are not asserting the right to market marijuana, but to cultivate and use it to prolong life and give comfort to the dying," said Gerald Uelmen, a Santa Clara University law professor who represents about 200 chronically and terminally ill people. "We are asserting the fundamental rights of patients so they can meet their death without agony and suffering." [continues 531 words]
A federal judge promised Monday to decide "soon" whether to restrain the U.S. government from acting against a medical marijuana users' group in Santa Cruz whose farm it raided in the fall. The decision can't come soon enough for the plaintiffs, who say time is against them. Fourteen members of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana have died since agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration raided the group's co-op in September, said Valerie Corral, alliance co-founder and a plaintiff in the suit. [continues 495 words]
Judge Will Decide 'Soon' On Whether To Block U.S. From Acting Against Santa Cruz Marijuana Group A federal judge promised Monday to decide "soon" whether to restrain the U.S. government from acting against a medicinal marijuana users' group in Santa Cruz whose farm it raided in September. The decision can't come soon enough for the plaintiffs, who say time is against them. Fourteen members of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana have died since agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration raided the group's co-op in September, said Valerie Corral, alliance co-founder and a plaintiff in the suit. [continues 651 words]
Hunting for a Legal 'Hook' for Injunction A San Jose federal judge, expressing sympathy for the suffering of terminally ill patients, asked medical marijuana advocates Monday for a legal "hook" to grant an injunction halting federal raids against a free Santa Cruz pot cooperative. During arguments before U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel, patient advocates said their case was unique among federal-state pot skirmishes. It is the first time local government officials have joined in a legal battle to stop federal drug agents from raiding a medical marijuana operation. [continues 570 words]
Tandy targeted in open letter from drug-reform advocates to senator Drug-reform advocates have used political and personal tactics to pressure U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein to grill President Bush's nominee for Drug Enforcement Administration chief on her medical marijuana stance. Feinstein, D-Calif., sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, scheduled to consider Karen P. Tandy's nomination today. But spokesman Howard Gantman said Feinstein won't be there; she'll be at a simultaneous Intelligence Committee briefing on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. [continues 409 words]
While the Capitola 13 were busy serenading the DA on the second floor of the county building, reps from the city and county of Santa Cruz were assembled outside in the sunshine, along with seven members of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, to announce that they are suing Attorney General John Ashcroft, acting administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration John Brown, drug czar John Walters and 30 DEA agents who raided the WAMM gardens last September. The suit asks the federal court to stop the feds from raiding the WAMM gardens in the future, an act that founder Valerie Corral says was in violation of California's Prop. 215, which she helped author. [continues 349 words]
Court Action Aims To Prevent Further Raids On Marijuana Cooperative The city and county of Santa Cruz, a medical marijuana cooperative and seven patients sued federal officials Wednesday to prevent further raids like the one conducted upon the cooperative last year. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose, claims the plaintiffs' civil rights were violated by the Drug Enforcement Administration's raid of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana. Attorney General John Ashcroft, acting DEA administrator John B. Brown III and White House drug czar John Walters should be barred from ordering any more such raids and should have to pay compensatory and punitive damages for the Sept. 5 WAMM raid, the lawsuit says. [continues 655 words]
SANTA CRUZ - A county supervisor wants to protect county residents who use marijuana as medicine by issuing them ID cards that would let sheriff's deputies know they are an approved user. Supervisor Mardi Wormhoudt on Tuesday will ask her colleagues to give a conceptual OK to the program, which would mirror one pioneered by San Francisco County three years ago. Alameda, Marin and Mendocino counties also offer the cards. Under the program, ill residents would be issued photo ID cards after presenting a signed statement from a doctor saying they need marijuana for medical reasons. The cards would legitimize medicinal pot use to sheriff's deputies challenging someone's possession, Wormhoudt said. [continues 402 words]
ALAN BRADY of Santa Cruz carried a flag emblazoned with a snake that read "'Don't tread on me." He was part of a double-digit size crowd that turned out to support a lawsuit filed by the Santa Cruz Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM) against the federal government. Brady wasn't a member of WAMM, he said, but he took medical marijuana for an injured knee. (Well, that's what he said.) The group announcing the lawsuit in front of the Santa Cruz County Courthouse Wednesday had its share of gray-haired, pony-tailed and wool-sock- and-sandal clad participants. But it wasn't a smoke-filled celebration of recreational users claiming dubious illnesses. There was no contact high. [continues 622 words]
Federal authorities overstepped their constitutional powers in September when they raided an area medical marijuana cooperative's garden and should be prohibited from doing so again, a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court contends. As expected, the Santa Cruz-based Wo/men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, along with the county and city of Santa Cruz, sued the U.S. government, seeking an injunction against similar raids. Six WAMM members are also plaintiffs. The suit targets Attorney General John Ashcroft, federal drug czar John Brown and acting Drug Enforcement Administration chief John Walters. [continues 366 words]
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. - The city and county of Santa Cruz has sued Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Drug Enforcement Administration, demanding that federal agents stay away from a farm that grows marijuana for sick and dying people. "This is an opportunity for us to stand behind the people in our community who are the most needy," said Santa Cruz Mayor Emily Reilly. "This is what we do well in Santa Cruz." The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court in San Jose, comes in response to a DEA raid last September at a small pot farm located on a quiet coastal road about 15 miles north of town. Agents uprooted about 165 plants and arrested the owners, Valerie and Michael Corral. [continues 552 words]
Santa Cruz officials filed a lawsuit demanding that federal agents stay away from a farm growing marijuana for sick and dying people. The suit, against Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Drug Enforcement Administration, follows a D.E.A. raid in September on the small pot farm about 15 miles north of Santa Cruz. Agents uprooted about 165 plants and arrested the owners, Valerie and Michael Corral. Marijuana is illegal under federal law but a California law allows it to be grown and distributed to people with a doctor's prescription. YY (AP) [end]
The lawsuit filed this week over medical marijuana growing in Santa Cruz contains some fascinating legal arguments. The issue is far more than the one often cited - states' rights. That argument has never seemed powerful to us. Perhaps it's because of memories of the civil rights battles of the late '50s and early '60s. Back then, segregationists argued that state law should trump federal law - and that segregation should be allowed because individual states wanted it. Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy didn't agree, and two generations later we praise both men for working to extend federal protection to people of all races. [continues 464 words]
City Again Wants To Freely Give Marijuana To The Critically Ill. SANTA CRUZ -- Seven months after hosting a medical marijuana giveaway outside City Hall, Santa Cruz officials took another unusual step Wednesday: They joined patients to sue the federal government for interfering with the local supply of legal pot. Agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration can make better use of their resources "than to chase ill people around the county of Santa Cruz," Supervisor Mardi Wormhoudt said at a press conference to announce the filing of the suit in San Jose federal court. The suit requests an injunction against further raids on a city-sanctioned pot farm. [continues 488 words]
SANTA CRUZ (AP)- Local officials filed a lawsuit yesterday demanding that federal agents stay away from a farm growing marijuana for sick and dying people. The suit follows a Drug Enforcement Administration raid in September on a small marijuana farm about 15 miles north of Santa Cruz. Agents uprooted about 165 plants and arrested the owners, Valerie and Michael Corral. The raid outraged residents of Santa Cruz, where police work closely with medical marijuana users and growers. (AP) [end]
SANTA CRUZ -- The city and county of Santa Cruz has sued Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Drug Enforcement Administration, demanding that federal agents stay away from a farm that grows marijuana for sick and dying people. "This is an opportunity for us to stand behind the people in our community who are the most needy," said Santa Cruz Mayor Emily Reilly. "This is what we do well in Santa Cruz." The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court in San Jose, comes in response to a DEA raid last September at a small pot farm located on a quiet coastal road about 15 miles north of town. Agents uprooted about 165 plants and arrested the owners, Valerie and Michael Corral. [continues 305 words]