POT GARDEN UPROOTED IN RAID

Federal Warrant Used to Search Home of Marijuana Activists

One week after Steve McWilliams handed out medical marijuana outside San
Diego City Hall, drug enforcement agents uprooted his Normal Heights pot
garden and said he may face cultivation charges in federal court.

The first of its kind ever in San Diego, the raid began at around 11:20
a.m. yesterday when about 10 members of a regional drug enforcement task
force used a federal warrant to search the property.

They confiscated 26 maturing plants - some as tall as 8 feet - and about 10
pounds of loose marijuana cultivated by McWilliams under a state law that
permits medicinal use of the drug. Officers also carted away irrigation
equipment, fans and other marijuana-growing tools.

No arrests were made. Agents said the decision to bring charges against
McWilliams or his partner, Barbara MacKenzie, would be made by the U.S.
Attorney's Office.

"He claims this is medicine," said Donald Thornhill Jr. of the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration, which sought the warrant. "From our
perspective, there's no medical use for this."

U.S. Attorney Carol Lam said her office is reviewing the case to decide
whether to pursue charges. She declined to comment further.

Medical-marijuana activists across the state contend that the federal
government is cracking down on activists such as McWilliams so that more
people do not attempt to grow marijuana under California's Proposition 215.

Thornhill said the seizure had nothing to do with McWilliams' protest
outside City Hall last Tuesday. "This has been on the agenda for a while,"
he said. "It's the politics of the time."

McWilliams had staged his protest to support a similar demonstration in
Santa Cruz, where elected officials joined 1,000 or more people criticizing
the DEA for an earlier raid on a marijuana cooperative there.

Neither McWilliams nor MacKenzie was home when the narcotics team went to
the Wilson Avenue residence. Agents climbed through an open window before
taking an inventory of the home's contents.

Television news crews taped the raid as it unfolded, while neighbors came
out of their homes to watch.

McWilliams arrived about 10 minutes later and was told that if he entered
the property he would be detained. He left soon afterward but not before
sharply criticizing the government's action.

"I don't know why this is happening," he said. "I've had police officers
out here, probation officers out here, even the city attorney's office out
here I don't know how many times."

The search warrant was executed at the height of the annual harvest.
McWilliams said most of the marijuana seized was not yet useable.

"It might have been 10 pounds with the branches and leaves, but it was
totally unmanicured," he said.

The action was not entirely a surprise.

McWilliams was hand-delivered a letter from Lam last week warning him that
his plants violated federal drug laws - even though they are allowed by
city and state officials under Proposition 215.

MacKenzie and McWilliams said that over the weekend they trimmed their
plants and delivered marijuana to patients. They said several of the
patients returned the marijuana Monday because they feared reprisals from
the government.

Both marijuana activists have been working closely with local officials to
abide by guidelines being drafted by a city task force. Those
recommendations are scheduled to be debated by a City Council committee
next month.

"I trusted the political process," said MacKenzie, who was angry after
arriving home to find federal agents searching her home. "They don't want
to prosecute. They just want to take the medicine."

San Diego Councilwoman Toni Atkins, who helped organize the city task
force, called the seizure "unfortunate."

"It's a tragedy that the will of the voters of the state of California, who
overwhelmingly passed Proposition 215 in an effort to help sick people,
continues to be subverted," she said.

The city will push ahead with plans to issue identification cards to
medical-marijuana patients, Atkins said.

San Diego attorney Patrick Dudley is representing McWilliams and MacKenzie
for free. Outside the home yesterday, he said there was little he could do
but wait to see whether his clients are charged.

"I've never seen a case with such a small amount (of marijuana)," he said.
"It's getting ludicrous. They're being targeted because they're speaking out."

The question now is whether McWilliams will be charged with any crime. In
Santa Cruz, federal prosecutors declined to charge several activists who
were arrested by federal agents earlier this month.

Peter Nunez, San Diego's U.S. attorney under President Reagan, predicted
that the Justice Department would pursue criminal charges, especially
because McWilliams has refused to back down.

"This guy is begging to be prosecuted," Nunez said. "I'm sure there are
people who are quietly growing 10 plants in their back yards but they won't
be prosecuted because they aren't publicizing the fact."

Stephen G. Nelson, a former assistant U.S. attorney of 25 years who headed
the office's drug division, agreed that a prosecution is likely but said he
hoped the U.S. attorney would turn down the case.

"If it's a small number of plants and they are being grown consistent with
California law, it's obviously a waste of federal resources to prosecute
this guy," he said.

McWilliams said medical-marijuana activists are rallying to help him and
are planning protests for today at federal buildings around the state.

"Everyone knows what kind of place we ran," he said. "There was no large
amount of patients and no large amount of plants. People are very upset."