POT RAIDS SPUR CALLS TO QUIT WORKING WITH DEA

SACRAMENTO -- Reacting to raids of California medical marijuana
cooperatives by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, several cities
around the state are pushing local police to stop cooperating with federal
agents.

The City Council of Sebastopol became the latest to approve a resolution
supporting California's medical marijuana law and asking that the municipal
police force avoid working with the DEA.

Sebastopol's vote Tuesday night is expected to be followed in a few weeks
by similar action in neighboring Santa Rosa.

Earlier this year, city leaders in Berkeley and San Francisco approved
anti-DEA resolutions.

In San Jose, Police Chief William Lansdowne in October pulled his officers
from a DEA task force, citing a "clear conflict between federal and state
law" and saying methamphetamine was a far greater problem than marijuana.

Santa Cruz council members, meanwhile, in September invited leaders of a
busted medical pot cooperative to distribute marijuana as medicine from the
front steps of City Hall.

Such efforts have been almost entirely symbolic, and each of those cities
was among the most proactive in the state to enact Proposition 215,
California's landmark 1996 medical marijuana measure.

Though it won voter approval, Proposition 215 created a legal quandary for
police and the courts because the medical pot measure conflicts with
federal law declaring marijuana illegal for any purpose.

In addition, the Legislature and Gov. Gray Davis have for several years
balked at attempts by medical marijuana activists to push through bills to
create statewide standards for cannabis patients.

Backed by a 2001 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, federal drug agents have
stepped in during the past year to raid several medical marijuana
dispensaries that enjoyed good working relationships with local political
leaders and police.

Among the busts were the closure of the Los Angeles Cannabis Cooperative
last year and raids of several San Francisco pot clubs as DEA Administrator
Asa Hutchinson visited the Bay Area earlier this year.

The DEA also has started to set its sights lower, arresting a medical
marijuana activist in San Diego who was cultivating 25 plants.
Traditionally, federal agents have focused exclusively on major drug
traffickers.

California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer has called the recent raids "punitive
expeditions" that are an affront to the will of California's electorate.

Sebastopol's move comes a few months after the DEA raided a large medical
marijuana operation in a residential area just outside city limits after it
became a nightmare for neighbors.

Councilman Larry Robinson said that raid and the bust of the respected
Santa Cruz cooperative prodded the City Council to act.

"This is mostly a statement of our support for California's right to set
its own laws instead of having those preempted by the federal government,"
said Robinson, who joined with the majority in the 3-1 vote. "We just want
to add our voice to the opposition."

Robinson said Sebastopol Police Chief Gordon Pitter has vowed that his
officers, who rarely work with the DEA anyway, will uphold the will of the
council.

But some medical marijuana activists warn that there are no guarantees.

Dale Gieringer, state coordinator for the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws, said activists will meet with Lockyer aides soon
to complain about five police officers from Bay Area cities -- including
San Francisco -- who have been "cooperating notoriously" with the DEA.

"When a city passes a resolution, it doesn't mean anything really,"
Gieringer said. "Police do what they damn well please."