FEDERAL CANNABIS PATIENT TO LEAD MEDICAL MARIJUANA MARCH

Elvy Musikka Arrives for Wednesday March to Protest Federal
Government's Threat to Close Santa Barbara Dispensaries

At noon on Wednesday, August 27, dozens of medical marijuana patients
and proponents are expected to gather at the dolphin statue near
Stearns Wharf and walk up State Street toward the County Courthouse.
They'll be protesting the recent threats by the federal government to
punish Santa Barbara landlords who rent to state- and city-sanctioned
cannabis dispensaries. The federal crackdown in Santa Barbara is the
latest battle in the long-simmering war over medical marijuana, a
state's rights showdown in which voters and lawmakers from California
and other states have deemed the drug legal for patients but the feds
continue to consider an illicit, medically useless substance. A
month's supply of marijuana cigarettes (approximately 300) provided
by the federal government.

Leading the charge on Wednesday will be Oregon's Elvy Musikka, one of
the few Americans provided marijuana by the federal government for
medical reasons. Musikka, who's used the ancient herbal remedy to
treat glaucoma for more than 25 years, is one of the most compelling
cases cited by cannabis-as-cure advocates to show how the drug helps
sick people. And, explained march organizer, dispensary founder, and
t-shirt manufacturer Mark Russell on Tuesday, Musikka and her tins
full of government-grown marijuana cigarettes are also the best
examples to show why the feds' crackdown on medical marijuana
dispensaries is unwarranted, hypocritical, and harmful to patients.
Musikka brought one such tin -- which held 230.74 grams of low-grade
marijuana grown by the University of Mississippi and rolled into 300
or so joints -- by The Independent's offices on Tuesday, and argued
that locally operating dispensaries are the best way for any patient
to obtain medical marijuana.

The march comes at a crucial time for dispensaries in Santa Barbara.
Earlier this year, the City of Santa Barbara -- whose citizens
overwhelmingly voted in 2006 to make all marijuana enforcement the
lowest police priority -- followed the lead of other California
cities in passing an ordinance to accommodate and regulate the
numerous medical marijuana distributors that began setting up shop in
town a couple years ago. The shops are deemed legal by California
law, because in 1996 voters passed Proposition 215 to allow for sales
of medical marijuana, a move that was further explained and
strengthened by the State Assembly's passage of bill 420 in 2003.

But earlier this month, the representatives from the federal
Department of Justice and Drug Enforcement Administration met with
the owners of buildings that house cannabis dispensaries, and
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.

Then on Monday, August 25, the state's Attorney General Jerry Brown
issued an 11-page legal opinion on the statewide matter, giving
guidelines to help California law enforcement and local governments
determine which are legal cannabis dispensaries and which are not.
Brown said that he hoped these guidelines would also stop the federal
government from their crackdowns, telling the L.A. Times, "Hopefully
the feds will back off in instances where people are really following
these guidelines." But Brown's "road map" also explained that those
dispensaries only in the business solely for profit -- and not
properly registered as caregiving collectives -- are likely breaking
the law. It's unclear how that distinction would play out on the
streets of Santa Barbara.

Wednesday's march takes place amid this ongoing state versus fed
battle, and organizer Russell said he sent out a press release to
more than 20 different media outlets. He was hoping for as many as
500 marchers when he announced the march last week, but more
realistically expects a number between 50 and 100.