ADVOCATES, OFFICIALS HAND OUT MARIJUANA IN SANTA CRUZ

Openly defying the federal government, a host of Santa Cruz officials stood
witness Tuesday as medical marijuana advocates distributed cannabis
products in the courtyard of Santa Cruz City Hall.

As street musicians performed in the background and an unmarked green
helicopter hovered persistently overhead, the mayor and five of six City
Council members, three former mayors and the city's representative on the
county Board of Supervisors joined with an estimated 1,000 citizens to show
support for medical pot.

The crowd, alert for signs that federal agents might stage a raid, shook
their fists at the helicopter and chanted, "DEA, go away!"

Rich Meyer, spokesman for the federal anti-drug agency, wouldn't say
whether the helicopter belonged to the DEA or whether plainclothes agents
were in the crowd.

The rally was in response to the Sept. 5 bust of the Wo/Men's Alliance for
Medical Marijuana, a Santa Cruz-based collective of more than 230 members
whose doctors have recommended they use marijuana to relieve symptoms of
illness. DEA agents chopped down the group's 2002 marijuana crop and
arrested founders Valerie and Mike Corral. The Corrals were released that
day and have not been charged with any crime. More than a dozen seriously
ill patients came forward at Tuesday's rally -- in wheelchairs, with canes
or on emaciated legs -- to stock up on cannabis tincture, cannabis-laced
milk, buds for smoking and bright green marijuana muffins. Despite fears of
a bust, no arrests were made.

"I think (the federal government) will find that going after Mike and
Valerie was a big mistake," said Dale Gieringer, spokesman for NORML, the
National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws. "This case could be their
Waterloo."

DEA spokesman Meyer was dismissive of such claims and hinted that city
officials may be criminally liable for their stance.

"We take violations of the law seriously, and today the federal drug laws
were broken in Santa Cruz, in the presence of the mayor and City Council,"
Meyer said. "The message I got was that officials there have not upheld
their oath to uphold and enforce the law."

A SHARP BACKLASH The DEA raid infuriated local officials, who had worked
with WAMM for years to create a verification and distribution system that
would conform to California's Proposition 215 -- which legalized medical
marijuana use -- and prevent ailing people from being forced to rely on
black-market marijuana.

WAMM's members grow their own organic pot for distribution within the
group. The collective has operated openly in Santa Cruz since 1996, when
Proposition 215 passed. The federal government has always asserted that
marijuana use for any reason is illegal, however, and has recently raided a
string of medical marijuana clubs across the state.

But the WAMM raid provoked a sharp backlash. Even state Attorney General
Bill Lockyer has challenged the federal government's authority in the case.

The Corrals' legal representatives, led by Santa Clara University law
professor Gerald Uelmen, hope the facts in WAMM's case will allow for a
successful challenge of federal authority. Since the U.S. attorney seems
reluctant to file criminal charges, Uelmen plans to sue the DEA, demanding
return of seized property and a reassessment of the law.

'A HIGHER LAW' Since WAMM grows its own pot for personal use, Uelmen
questions whether the federal government's right to regulate interstate
commerce should apply.

And since the DEA has shown a pattern of busting medical marijuana
providers but then failing to prosecute them, he argues that the raids are
illegal "punitive expeditions," which are illegal under the Fourth
Amendment to the Constitution.

"When you boil it down, one issue in the case of the U.S. vs. Valerie and
Mike Corral, and 238 sick and dying people, is: Has compassion for the sick
and dying become a federal crime?" Uelmen said Tuesday, to deafening
cheers. "WAMM is a collective hospice, where giving comfort and love to
those afflicted with AIDS and other serious illness is the only priority.
This is recognition of a higher law that commands us to love one another."

County Supervisor Mardi Wormhoudt said that local officials have few
options in confronting an unfair federal system and asserted that Santa
Cruz residents are solidly behind her and her colleagues.

"There is little we can do except standing by the people who are so
courageously defying the law," she said.

'NOT ABOUT DEFIANCE' Few communities have been as fervent in their support
of medical marijuana as has Santa Cruz, where 77 percent of voters approved
a local ordinance in 1992 and 81 percent approved Proposition 215.

Still, there were a few brave dissidents in Tuesday's crowd, one of whom
held a sign reading: "Someone has to be the grown-up around here."

But Valerie Corral thanked Santa Cruz for its unstinting support of her
group and her cause, and urged the rowdier members of the crowd to behave.

"Thank you for offering this sanctuary that Santa Cruz is for so many
people," Corral said. "Please, don't smoke or drink here, please don't
confuse our message. Our message is not about defiance. It is about
peaceful assembly, a coalition of humanity that pleads for the same respect
from our government."