MARCHERS PROTEST ARREST, ASK CITY TO BACK MEDICINAL USE

Members of the Santa Clara County Medical Cannabis Center on Tuesday
protested criminal charges against the agency's executive director and
petitioned San Jose officials for renewed
cooperation.

About 30 people marched outside San Jose City Hall, attacked police and
prosecutors and supported center co-founder Peter Baez, who faces six
felony counts of selling marijuana. A short while later, patients suffering
from a range of diseases from AIDS to asthma spoke before the city council.

At times, speakers angrily accused the city of snubbing Proposition 215,
which legalized medical marijuana in 1996; at other times, they pleaded for
compromise.

``Here we are today fighting for something that I thought 215 had granted
us, that we are not criminals,'' said Don Altier, a sufferer of Lou
Gehrig's disease, who addressed city council members from his motorized
wheelchair.

Mayor Susan Hammer, both during and after the meeting, said that she and
other policy makers had almost no sway in how the charges against Baez
would be handled because they could not intervene in law enforcement
decisions.

``Neither I, nor any member of the council, nor the city manager, nor the
city attorney has anything to do with law enforcement,'' Hammer said.
``This is a law enforcement matter. We're not going to interfere with the
work of law enforcement or the district attorney.''

Police and prosecutors reiterated Tuesday that they remained committed to
Proposition 215, but that they had to investigate Baez once they suspected
potential wrongdoing.

At issue is the arrest of Baez, a 34-year-old Gilroy man who helped create
the center little more than a year ago.

Baez was arrested after prosecutors asked police to determine if a suspect
in a marijuana-possession case was a member of the center and had obtained
a recommendation for the drug from a doctor, as the proposition requires.
Although Baez said a doctor authorized that patient to use marijuana,
police said they found none of the patient's three doctors had recommended
it.

In interviews, Baez, free on $5,000 bail, has insisted that he will be
vindicated and has implied that one of the doctors felt uncomfortable
confirming to police that he gave his OK.

That led police to serve a search warrant on the center, at 265 Meridian
Ave. They arrested Baez, froze about $30,000 in club assets and seized
patient files, a sampling of marijuana and club records. The charges
against Baez could result in as much as nine years in prison.

Invasion claim

Many of the center's 270 clients have been outraged, saying the police have
invaded their privacy by seizing files. They view the move as a troublesome
shift away from local officials' liberal attitudes toward medical
marijuana.

Tuesday, some vented those frustrations.

About 1 p.m., patients and medical-marijuana advocates gathered in front of
City Hall and began to march. Some carried signs reading, ``A bit of Judas
in the arrest of Peter'' and ``Baez should be heralded, not handcuffed.''
Others carried signs threatening to vote Santa Clara County District
Attorney George Kennedy out of office.

``What about the will of the people?'' asked one protester. ``You thwart
the will of the people by arresting Baez. End reefer madness now!''

Baez, who suffers from colon cancer, was not present, saying later his
health kept him from attending.

Cash infusion

On hand at the protest was Jesse Garcia, the center's other co-founder. He
said the dispensary was still not accepting additional patients. And
despite earlier statements from Baez that center might close by the end of
the month, Garcia said the operation has received an infusion of cash to
allow it to keeping running.

But Baez also said later he was uncertain how long the center could last on
that $1,600 in donations.

``It's hard to stay open when we don't hear from the city, when we don't
know what their intentions are,'' Garcia said outside City Hall.

He and others carried their message inside city council chambers. At the
end of the meeting, people talked about why they needed marijuana and
questioned the council's commitment to it.