POT GROUP WINS LEGAL ROUND

In Rebuff to the Bush Administration, a Judge Lifts a Ban on The
Growing of Medical Cannabis by a Collective, Pending Trial.

A federal court ruling Wednesday will allow the patients of a Santa
Cruz medical marijuana collective to at least temporarily begin
cultivating and using cannabis without fear of raids by drug agents.

U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel granted a preliminary injunction to
the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana and denied a Bush
administration attempt to dismiss a civil case brought by the
collective to halt federal interference in their operations.

Though the decision does little to shield other medical marijuana
dispensaries, Fogel's ruling protects the more than 200 alliance
members as their case winds toward trial.

The group can begin cultivating a pot garden on the Santa Cruz coast
that was shut down 18 months ago in a raid by U.S. drug agents.

The raid prompted outrage in the liberal bastion and drew nationwide
media attention after local officials allowed the alliance to
ceremoniously distribute pot to its patients on the steps of City Hall.

Valerie Corral, the group's founder, called the decision an incredible
victory that lifts a shroud of fear from the collective's patients,
three-quarters of whom are terminally ill.

"It allows us to work with healing and with facing death without fear
of federal government creating more hardship in our lives," said
Corral, noting that 22 patients have died since the case was filed a
year ago.

Judy Appel, director of legal affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance,
said the decision marked the first step by a federal court to provide
a blueprint of how patients and caregivers may be able to join forces
to cultivate medical marijuana.

U.S. officials were taking a cautious approach. Charles Miller, a
Justice Department spokesman, said federal attorneys wanted to review
the ruling before making any comments.

Although the federal government strictly outlaws the use of cannabis,
California and eight other states have passed laws legalizing pot as
medicine with a doctor's recommendation.

In August, Fogel denied an attempt by the alliance to block raids
while it awaits trial.

But the collective approached the judge again earlier this year,
citing as precedent a December 2003 decision by the U.S. 9th Circuit
Court of Appeals in the case of two medical marijuana patients in
Northern California.

In that case, the appeals court ruled that the federal government
lacked jurisdiction over the patients. Because they used medical
marijuana grown in California and donated by sympathetic cultivators,
the court ruled, they had had not engaged in interstate commerce.

The circumstances of the alliance's case are virtually identical, but
the scale is broader. The collective does not sell the marijuana it
cultivates, subsisting instead on donations and labor provided by its
members and volunteers. In addition, all of the pot is grown on the
coast north of Santa Cruz.