JOINT EFFORT: ACTIVISTS, DOCTORS, OFFICIALS PLAN FOR MEDICAL POT CLASS

There's a "giant sucking sound" sweeping across Nevada County, according to
Martin Webb, and it's not coming from hundreds of gurgling marijuana bongs.

He says it's legitimate medical marijuana users getting ripped off by the
black market, diverting money that could be going into the local economy.

The Penn Valley man teaches people, including AIDS patients, how to grow
marijuana for their own medical use. On Saturday, he will be among several
medical marijuana authorities at the one-day Medical Marijuana School in
Grass Valley.

"I'd like to empower folks," Webb said. "I think one of the gems about this
issue is that people can save a lot of money making their own medicine."

He estimated a patient who uses an ounce of marijuana per month can spend
as much as $4,000 a year buying from a dealer.

"If I can teach one person (to grow marijuana), I've basically sent $4,000
back into the local economy and have given a sick person a better income to
work with," he said.

Webb, himself a medical marijuana user, will teach a cultivation class.
There will also be classes on how to cook with marijuana and presentations
on Proposition 215 - the 1996 measure that legalized marijuana for medical
purposes in California.

Organizer Lance Brown of Nevada City expects as many as 1,000 people to
show up.

"As far as I know, there's never been an event like this in America -
except for maybe in the '60s," said Brown, a member of the American Medical
Marijuana Association.

There will be a conference for doctors and another for prospective
patients, and Nevada City Mayor Kerry Arnett will moderate one of the
discussions. Another panelist will be Elvy Musikka, one of eight Americans
still receiving medical marijuana from the federal government.

Authorized growers will show live plants - both female plants, which
provide the drug people smoke, and male plants.

"We're not going to have a big farm trucked in or anything," Brown said.

The District Attorney's Office authorizes patients to have up to 2 pounds
of processed marijuana and up to 10 plants at any given time.

Brown said the DA's guidelines allow growers little room for error, so they
need to be efficient.

"For a lot of people trying to grow their own medicine, it's hard when
you're getting started. There's a lot to learn," he said.

Brown said he's talked with Grass Valley police about the event. He's also
asked law enforcement authorities from Nevada, Placer and El Dorado
counties to participate in the discussions. He didn't know how many will show.

Grass Valley Police Lt. Greg Hart said the department doesn't plan to
patrol the city any differently Saturday.

Know and Go

WHAT: Medical Marijuana School

WHEN: Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

WHERE: Center for the Arts, 314 W. Main St., Grass Valley

ADMISSION: Free, but donations are encouraged