POT CLUB ADVOCATES ASSAIL SILENCE ON DEA TACTICS

Medical cannabis advocates are stepping up pressure on San Francisco
officials to denounce the federal Drug Enforcement Administration's
latest tactic of targeting landlords who rent to pot clubs in their
long-running dispute with California over the use of marijuana to
treat health ailments.

"We are calling for people to stand up for safe access," said Shona
Gochenaur, executive director of the local patient advocacy group
Axis of Love and chair of the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club's
Cannabis Caucus. "This is a safe access emergency."

Frustrated by the lack of response, medicinal marijuana supporters
convinced local Democratic Party leaders to pass a resolution last
week calling on Mayor Gavin Newsom and the Board of Supervisors to
speak out against the DEA's decision to threaten property owners with
asset forfeiture and imprisonment for leasing space to medical
cannabis dispensaries.

At its meeting Wednesday, January 23 the Democratic County Central
Committee overwhelmingly adopted the resolution which called the
DEA's tactics "aggressive, hard and unfair" and called on Congress to
investigate the DEA's conduct. At its meeting the night before the
Milk Club, which has 60 members who use medical marijuana, voted to
endorse the resolution.

"I do not want to go out to 16th and Mission to get my medical
marijuana. I urge you to do whatever you can to get the feds off our
backs," said Karen Kircher, a Milk Club member and co-chair of the
Women's Health Collective at Axis of Love.

DCCC member Holli Their, who added her name as a co-sponsor of the
resolution, said "to have Bush and the DEA and the feds come in to
San Francisco we all know why they are doing it. They want to shut
down the most progressive city in the nation and it is just disgusting."

The resolution singled out Newsom and the Board of Supervisors, in
particular, in asking them to follow the lead of Oakland Mayor Ron
Dellums, who already has spoken out publicly against the DEA and its
harassment of landlords. The resolution also requests that the city's
state and federal representatives also take a public stance against
the DEA. Activists held a rally at City Hall Tuesday urging the mayor
and board members to take a stand against the DEA's "scare tactics."

State Senator Carole Migden (D-San Francisco) introduced a resolution
in Sacramento January 10 that asks Congress to enact legislation
requiring the DEA and other federal agencies to respect the
compassionate use laws of California and 11 other states.

Medical cannabis activists argued last week that it is time for other
San Francisco electeds to follow suit.

"We cannot make the DEA in San Francisco feel welcome and shut down
our collectives. That is unacceptable," said Gochenaur. "We are going
backwards in time by 30 years. And I don't want to go back 30 years."

A spokesman for Newsom did not respond to a request for comment this week.

Last December, Gochenaur said a group of 20 activists called on
Newsom to recommit his support for San Francisco being a sanctuary
city for medical cannabis and to include landlords under the
sanctuary policy. Their pleas have gone unanswered, she said.

"He needs to protect the citizens of his city who have voted
overwhelmingly over the last 30 years in support of medical cannabis.
He needs to stand up for it just like he stood up for gay marriage
and for illegal immigration," said Gochenaur. "My people are going to
be pushed out onto the black market by their own government. That is
unacceptable."

As for the supervisors, Gochenaur said activists have been waiting
for Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi to introduce a resolution similar to
the one Migden put forth in the state Senate and the DCCC passed last
week. She said it was unclear why the resolution had yet to be brought forward.

Mirkarimi told the Bay Area Reporter this week that while the DEA's
targeting of landlords "is reprehensible," the DCCC's action was "a
serious misfire," since the board's passing a resolution would have
little impact on changing DEA policies.

"We pass resolutions by the boat load. It is not as effective to pass
another meaningless law unless the mayor is brought into line to
compel our federal reps to represent our interests," he said.
"Otherwise, it is just another resolution that nobody will take seriously."

He suggested activists approach other supervisors and ask them to
submit the resolution, which he said he would nonetheless support
even though it would only be "symbolic."

"If it comes before the board I am sure it will pass," he said. "It
is a bet I will make. But we are dealing with a lot of other issues, too."