SMALL-TOWN AMERICA VS. THE D.E.A.

How did I, a mayor of a small town in California, wind up in a tug of
war with the Drug Enforcement Agency?

This week, I stood in front of Santa Cruz's city hall as a local group
that provides medical marijuana went about its weekly task of
distributing the drug to the sick and dying.

My story begins on the morning of Sept. 5 when approximately 30 men,
dressed in military fatigues and carrying automatic weapons, descended
on a small cooperative farm run by the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical
Marijuana in northern Santa Cruz County, about 65 miles south of San
Francisco. They were pulling up organically grown marijuana plants.

When the Santa Cruz County sheriff's office learned what was going on,
it was at a loss to explain who the intruders were or what type of
response was in order. I didn't hear about the raid until 10 a.m.,
when I was called by members of the collective. I then telephoned the
Santa Cruz police chief and other local officials. The chief hadn't
heard anything either.

Later it became clear that the D.E.A. was making a raid. Agents
collected more than 130 plants and arrested the founders of the
medical marijuana collective, Valerie and Mike Corral. The Corrals
were taken to a federal detention center in San Jose, but no charges
were filed and they were subsequently released.

The D.E.A. was right to release them. But the Corrals shouldn't have
been there in the first place. They had not been breaking the law.
They were growing marijuana specifically for people who had been
legally prescribed the substance to help them with chronic pain
brought on by cancer, diabetes and other illnesses.

These weren't new laws, either. Residents in Santa Cruz County had
voted in 1992 to legalize the use of medical marijuana. In 1996,
Californians approved Proposition 215, a statewide measure to allow
the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. Two years ago our city
council passed an ordinance to make it easier to grow and distribute
medical marijuana under the new law.

Before the morning raid, Santa Cruz had a good relationship with drug
enforcement officials. Santa Cruz, like many communities, has a
problem with illegal drugs, most notably heroin and methamphetamine.

In the last 15 months, the D.E.A. has conducted two operations here;
working with the sheriff's office and the Santa Cruz Police
Department, the agency has caught hundreds of drug dealers and users.
According to our police chief, "the D.E.A. did an excellent job" in
these operations.

That was not the case on Sept. 5. The D.E.A. came to town
unannounced and under cover of darkness.

I'm worried that the agency is going to be coming to other towns, too.
Since 1996, eight other states - Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Nevada,
Arizona, Hawaii, Colorado and Maine - have passed laws allowing for
the use of medical marijuana. At the same time, the Department of
Justice has made it clear that it opposes the use of marijuana under
any circumstances.

Clearly, state law and federal law are on a collision course. I would
not be surprised if there are more raids.

And if there are more raids, more mayors and elected officials will
find themselves doing what we did here this week: standing with people
like the Corrals as they deliver medical marijuana to patients who are
using the drug on the advice of a physician.

The government is fighting a losing battle. In the states where
medical marijuana has been on the ballot, it has received overwhelming
approval from voters. Canada and Great Britain recently approved the
medical use of marijuana and plan to have the government grow and
distribute it.

As medical costs skyrocket, medical marijuana is a cost-effective way
to treat people with chronic pain. Most of all, making medical
marijuana available is an act of common sense and compassion. The
Corrals' collective lost 40 members this year; many of them left this
world with Ms. Corral holding their hand.

I'm hopeful that this week's events will prompt the federal government
to begin working with state and local governments to determine how far
it can go in regulating activity that has been approved by the states
and that has negligible effects on interstate commerce. There's
legislation in Congress, supported by a bipartisan coalition, that
would allow all states to approve medical marijuana, thus eliminating
any conflict with federal law. To me, that makes sense. But until it
passes, I'm standing with the Corrals.

*Christopher Krohn, a Democrat, is mayor of Santa Cruz,
Calif*