DEA FIGHTING THE WRONG WAR

The Santa Cruz rally for medical marijuana shows how strongly Californians
feel about using cannabis products to relieve human suffering.

Hundreds came to Tuesday's City Hall pot giveaway -- even the mayor,
council members and a county supervisor. As did most of the participants,
the public officials came to support the dozen or so gravely ill residents
who rely on marijuana to ease the effects of chemotherapy, cancer and other
diseases.

But the rally went beyond a mere demonstration of compassion. It was an act
of defiance in the biggest skirmish yet between California voters and the
federal government over medical marijuana. Two weeks ago, the Drug
Enforcement Agency raided Santa Cruz's Wo/Mens Alliance for Medical
Marijuana, which opened in 1996 after voters overwhelming passed
Proposition 215, the medical marijuana initiative. The raid curtailed pot
distribution to the cooperative's 230 members.

But the alliance is precisely what voters had in mind - a tightly regulated
program that mandates identification before giving away organically grown
pot. It's a program for very sick people with a doctor's prescription. The
DEA should wisely direct its drug war efforts elsewhere.