SANTA CRUZ PASSES ORDINANCE TO ALLOW MEDICINAL MARIJUANA

SANTA CRUZ -- Santa Cruz residents no longer need prescriptions to
medicate themselves with marijuana under a new ordinance approved
unanimously late Tuesday.

``This is the compassionate thing to do,'' said City Councilman Mike
Rotkin, who cosponsored the ordinance, which is expected to take
effect in early May.

The law, modeled on a successfully defended law in Oakland, says that
people who are being treated for cancer, anorexia, AIDS, chronic pain,
spasticity, glaucoma, arthritis, migraine headaches ``or any other
illness for which marijuana provides relief'' will be allowed to grow
and use pot.

The ordinance specifies that the marijuana must be
organic.

Prescriptions are not required, a way to get around federal laws that
ban doctors from prescribing pot. Doctors risk losing their medical
licenses if convicted.

In 1996, state voters -- including 74 percent of those in Santa Cruz
- -- approved an initiative allowing medicinal marijuana.

But medicinal marijuana clubs in Santa Cruz and a handful of
California cities that opened after the 1996 law's passage were soon
shut down by the U.S. Justice Department under federal anti-drug laws.

More than 100 residents -- many with AIDS and cancer -- came to the
city council meeting to offer support and testify. Local Chamber of
Commerce and law enforcement officials also support the law.

Compiled from staff and wire reports by Mercury News Staff Writer Kaye
Ross. Contact her at kross@sjmercury.com or (408) 920-5083.