MEDICAL POT ACTIVISTS CALL FOR KINDER APPROACH

Marijuana plants were on display Saturday at the Center for the Arts in
Grass Valley for attendees of the Medical Marijuana School to examine and
smell. Ben Furtado Maruschka Schipanski, hunched over and shuffling behind
a walker, eased through Saturday's packed crowd at the Center for the Arts.

The 69-year-old Grass Valley woman has a degenerative spinal condition and
takes marijuana for pain relief. She used to take "lots of heavy
medications that were just tearing up my body."

She received a doctor's recommendation for marijuana, but she often has a
hard time finding the drug.

"I'm glad they have it. It's so much more natural, and I think we need to
get moving on people getting what they need," she said.

Politically, she appeared to be on the same page with many of the 1,000
people who organizers say visited the one-day Medical Marijuana School, put
on by the American Medical Marijuana Association.

The school included discussions for doctors, prospective patients, would-be
growers and activists. Some rallied for better access to medical marijuana
without law enforcement interference, and for preservation of the
Compassionate Use Act of 1996.

"I think this is great - revolutionary," said Lance Brown of Nevada City,
one of the AMMA organizers. "People are taking notes just like in a regular
class."

Visitors could also take a test, which included such questions as: George
Washington grew hemp - true or false? The answer is true.

Many test-takers, according to event volunteer Debbie Dean of North
Columbia, didn't realize another factoid - the federal government grows its
own marijuana.

It also provides the drug to eight patients through a program that's being
phased out. The first woman patient, Elvy Mussika of Orangevale, attended
Saturday. Born with cataracts and blind in one eye, she said marijuana
relieves her glaucoma.

"Marijuana is medicine, and we will have the medicine no matter what -
whether it's illegal or not," she said.

Dr. Mollie Fry of Cool is a breast cancer survivor and a marijuana patient
who has met with thousands of other such patients. She urged people to join
the Million Marijuana March on May 6 in Sacramento.

Several patients puffed on joints outside the rear exit, and the pungent
smell of marijuana stewing in a crock pot permeated the entrance. How-to
books on cooking and baking with marijuana were for sale.

Brown said law enforcement from Nevada, Placer and El Dorado counties were
invited, but as far as he knew, only Nevada County District Attorney Mike
Ferguson and Placer County Assistant DA Chris Cattran appeared.

Brown said Grass Valley police stayed away, and three pot plants on display
remained on display.

To a standing-room-only crowd of about 80, Martin Webb of Penn Valley used
the plants to discuss growing techniques - from identifying the female
plant, which produces the active ingredient - tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC
- - to the proper harvest time.

Webb figures teaching patients to grow their own marijuana can save them
nearly $4,000 a year.

John Cassatt is a San Juan Ridge resident facing marijuana cultivation
charges after narcotics agents seized 386 immature plants - beyond the
county's 10-plant limit - at his home last summer.

He said he needs that many plants to produce two pounds of marijuana,
because some plants succumb to deer and pests, and others are male and do
not produce the active ingredient. He accused agents of busting him to gain
federal dollars. His trial is scheduled for July.

"This is very energizing to me personally," he said of the gathering. "I
think the government is going to respond."

Brown said the AMMA is considering holding a similar event next year. Other
schools will be held in different counties.

DA, ACTIVIST SPEAK BLUNTLY TO SCHOOL-GOERS

Nevada County's top prosecutor and a leading medical marijuana activist
didn't exactly share a peace pipe Saturday. But they cleared the air on a
few key issues during a gathering of about 1,000 people in Grass Valley.

District Attorney Mike Ferguson and Steve Kubby were among several Medical
Marijuana School panelists, and both left agreeing that many patients pay
too much for the drug and some of it winds up on the black market.

Ferguson, noting he was asked to take part only a day earlier, told a
packed crowd, "I felt kind of like Daniel being invited into the lion's den."

That drew laughter, but he was also heckled when he compared Nevada
County's guidelines - which allow patients two pounds of processed
marijuana and 10 plants that can yield two pounds - with other counties.

Guidelines vary, Ferguson said, and many counties permit less marijuana.

"What's your point?" a crowd member asked.

"My point is, we're all over the place on this," he said.

Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act passed by voters in 1996, never
addressed how much pot a patient can grow, and that's led to excess
marijuana getting sold illegally, Ferguson said.

But his perspective has changed, he said, from discussions with patients,
including Kubby and a cancer-stricken friend in the Bay Area. He said he
was also taken aback by the drug's street price.

"Right on!" one crowd member said.

"That's what we want to hear!" said another.

"I'm hear to learn," Ferguson said before gaining applause, "so bear with
me, because there are two sides to an issue."

Later, Kubby, puffing on a joint behind the Center for the Arts, praised
Ferguson.

"He's one of the very few DAs who wants to listen to patients instead of
conspiring with their law enforcement buddies," he said.

A cancer patient and former Libertarian gubernatorial candidate, Kubby
helped put Proposition 215 on the ballot. In 1999 he and his wife were
arrested at their Squaw Valley home as narcotics agents seized 250 plants.

A Placer County jury acquitted him last month of all marijuana charges
after a lengthy trial that became a rallying point for activists. He was
found guilty of having psilocybin mushrooms and hallucinogenic cactus buds,
but those felonies were reduced to misdemeanors.

Kubby has since helped launch a recall petition against Placer County DA
Bradford Fenoccio.

"The only people who have trouble understanding medical marijuana are those
who have jobs that depend on their not understanding it," he said. "Medical
marijuana is not difficult for voters to understand. ... Medical marijuana
is not difficult for juries to understand."

Among several people smoking marijuana behind the arts center, Kubby said
his plans include attending more schools, working with activists in Canada,
where he now resides, and opening a medical marijuana museum - possibly in
Grass Valley or Auburn.

Such a museum, he said, would "allow the public, law enforcement and
legislators to see medical marijuana growing behind glass."