DEMONSTRATORS PROTEST FEDERAL MARIJUANA CRACKDOWN

Peaceable Protest Calls for Feds to Stay Out of Santa Barbara's Dispensaries

About 100 demonstrators showed up at Santa Barbara's landmark dolphin
fountain at the end of Stearns Wharf today to show solidarity in the
face of the federal government's recent threats to shut down the
numerous medical marijuana dispensaries in town. Although the march
began an hour behind schedule at 1 p.m., those involved gradually
picked up intensity and fervor as they moved up State Street. Proudly
sporting T-shirts reading "I Am Not a Criminal," and "No Access Is
Not a Solution," the protesters chanted "Protect our rights! All of
our rights!" as they made their way from the waterfront to the heart
of downtown.

From the beginning, protest organizers stressed sticking together
and obeying traffic laws to avoid injury. No police officers were
present, but members of the group were peaceably assembled on both
sides of State Street. Participants in the protest ranged from
medicinal cannabis users to patients rights advocates to one or two
people who claimed merely to like "smoking bud," and were generally
supportive of the cannabis club concept.

"It's not right that the federal government is trying to control
peoples' lives," said a man named Seamus. Along with national medical
marijuana activist Elvy Musikka - who is one of the few people in the
country provided cannabis by the federal government for medical
reasons - Seamus carried a sign at the head of the march that read:
"CANNABIS. The Most Efficient. The Most Reliable. The Safest Part of
My Treatment."

The march was the latest public battle in the ongoing weed war
between the federal government and California, where voters approved
using cannabis for medical purposes in 1996. The City of Santa
Barbara recently approved an ordinance to standardize the cannabis
dispensaries, which had grown rapidly for such a small city over the
past two years.

Wednesday's action was specifically to protest a move by the federal
government earlier this month, when representatives from the
Department of Justice and Drug Enforcement Administration met with
the owners of buildings that house cannabis dispensaries. The agents
threatened to use federal racketeering laws to confiscate the
properties if the cannabis dealers were not evicted. Since then, most
if not all of the dispensaries in Santa Barbara have received
eviction letters and some are already clearing out.