POT POWER

In the wake of marijuana being legalized for medical use in California by
Proposition 215 in 1996, Michael Riggs founded FloraCare, a group dedicated
to helping bona fide patients get their medicine.

Riggs says he has long taken marijuana for chronic pain and other ailments
related to a heart defect that required open-heart surgery as a child and
from a 1988 accident that broke several vertebrae in his neck. Along with
fellow patients, Riggs began operating a "cannabis club" out of his Citrus
Heights home and growing marijuana for club members in a Carmichael warehouse.

Yet on June 28, 2000, the home and warehouse were raided by Sacramento
County Sheriff's deputies. Police and prosecutors accuse Riggs and his
partner, Michael Reitmeier, of running a commercial growing operation, and
they have charged the pair with felony cultivation, transportation and
distribution of marijuana. Their trial begins Feb. 8 in Sacramento County
Superior Court.

Undeterred by the legal heat, Riggs continues to operate his cannabis club,
growing marijuana in his backyard for himself and other members, who
regularly come by the house to medicate themselves and learn about the
power of pot.

How did the club start?

We got tired of going to [the] Oakland [Cannabis Buyer's Club]. We got
tired of driving 100 miles and paying street prices, and wondering where we
were going to get our medication next. We were really scared of who we had
to deal with. These patients are disabled, and they're having to go to
lowlifes on the corner.

So we decided to start growing it, and I asked everybody if each patient
was willing to accept the consequences. Everybody was, so we got all the
paperwork together, and we started it.

Did you know that you'd get busted?

We knew they were going to show up. The crucial point was when, where, how
and who was going to go to jail. That's the reality of 215 right now, that
there is this big risk.

Why did you accept that kind of risk?

Because I'm a patient. I've been a patient my whole life. My life depends
on this plant. I'm not going to go back and take Vicodin and all these
other medications when I can do it all right here and make my own
medication available to me at any time. That was the spirit behind 215. It
makes me able to function as a normal human again.

We need to get people off the couch and aware of the abuse of power and
misappropriation of tax money to jail medical patients.

How many members do you have?

About 200, mostly [from the Sacramento area]. But we have members as far
away as Redding and Chico. There's no place where they can go. We're the
closest one, unless they want to go to the Bay Area. That's a long way to
have to go just to get this.

It's supposed to be provided for you. That's the point I want to get
across. These are medical patients, often severely disabled medical
patients, and we need to help them.

Is it a social environment when your members gather here?

It's really not a social environment. I would say 80 percent of the people
who come here are severely disabled. There are no parties here. People are
more than welcome to stay here all day, but this is a learning environment.
People come here to be educated on the reality, and the bullshit, of Prop. 215.

So it's a fairly serious-minded environment?

It's a very serious-minded environment. This is only for people who want to
sit and relax and medicate themselves, or to come learn.

The mood here is like if you go to a church or classroom environment,
because people who have information to share come in and tell stories about
their experiences.

What does membership give you?

If you have your own medication or you want to learn about growing, I want
people to come here to learn, and not just about the plant itself and about
the law, but this is like a religion. FloraCare is a mission of the
Northern Lights Church.

What's that?

We are Unitarians who believe that this (touching a marijuana plant) is
from God. We believe that cannabis is a physical and spiritual healing
sacrament. It provides spiritual guidance and aid for the sick.

We don't base our religion on cannabis, but we do believe in the power of
cannabis, and we take that directly from the Bible. It's in Psalms 104:14
and Genesis 129, which said that God created all the plants for our use.
God didn't create any garbage. Only man creates garbage.

If you weren't being hassled by the police, what do you see this club
becoming in, say, a year from now?

I would have people come in here and learn from the best people I could
find, so they could go home and be able to grow it themselves. I would like
to have the resources to where I could have a facility where I could get
the best medication--and not only the bud, but oils and tinctures--to the
people who can't grow.

Some people just can't grow their own medication. There's people in
wheelchairs or people who can barely stand up on their own, and you're
going to say to them, "OK, you can grow your own medication, but you can't
get it from anybody else."

The way they have it written, if you are a patient and I simply hand you
this plant, we have committed a felony.

Why are we still fighting a war that was supposed to end four years ago? We
the people passed a law that said we have a right to grow and use medical
marijuana if the doctors deem us eligible. So why are we being persecuted?