SANTA CRUZ OFFICIALS PLAN POT GIVEAWAY

SANTA CRUZ -- City leaders plan to join medical marijuana users at a
pot giveaway at City Hall next week. Their goal is to send a message
to federal authorities that, in this town, medical marijuana is welcome.

The invitation comes one week after agents from the Drug Enforcement
Administration arrested the high-profile owners of a pot farm and
confiscated 130 plants that had been grown to be used as medicine.

"It's just absolutely loathsome to me that federal money, energy and
staff time would be used to harass people like this," said Vice Mayor
Emily Reilly, who with several colleagues on the City Council plans to
help pass out medical marijuana to sick people from the garden-like
courtyard at City Hall on Tuesday.

City Atty. John Barisone said that although the City Council passed a
resolution denouncing the raid, there is no official city sponsorship
of the event. He added that council members and medical marijuana
advocates are acting on their own accord in a public space.

DEA spokesman Richard Meyer was surprised at the plan.

"Are you serious? That's illegal. It's like they're flouting federal
law," he said. "I'm shocked that city leaders would promote the use of
marijuana that way. What is that saying to our youth?"

Last Thursday, federal agents--acting without support from state and
local law enforcement--raided a small pot farm on a quiet coastal road
about 55 miles south of San Francisco, arresting the owners, Valerie
and Michael Corral.

The couple, leading activists for medical marijuana, have not been
indicted. Their attorney, Ben Rice, said he was informed by the DEA
that the U.S. attorney has declined to prosecute the case. A
spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office said she could not comment
on the case, and Meyer said his agency isn't involved in decisions on
whether to prosecute.

State law in California, as well as Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine,
Nevada, Oregon and Washington, allows marijuana to be grown and
distributed to people with a doctor's prescription. Federal law, on
the other hand, prohibits marijuana use under any circumstances.

California medical marijuana growers and distributors work closely
with local law enforcement, and are quite open about their programs.
In fact, the farm raided last Thursday morning by DEA agents had been
featured in the national media, and the program is listed in the local
telephone book.

But in recent months, federal agents, working strictly without local
support, have been busting pot clubs and farms in Northern California.