MEDICAL POT CLUB PRESSES ONWARD

A month after the Supreme Court confirmed the federal government can
prosecute marijuana users, medicinal marijuana activists in Merced say they
will keep on smoking.

Activists say the court's ruling doesn't take away their right to use
marijuana under California's Compassionate Use Act.

But word of Thursday's 1,600-plant pot bust wasn't the worst news for some
area medicinal marijuana users.

A Winton man who smokes marijuana to relieve pain associated with a
workplace back injury said some illicit pot growers, particularly in remote
areas, can pose a threat to people enjoying the outdoors.

"When I'm in the mountains, I'm more intimidated running into growers with
AK-47s protecting their crops," said the man who requested anonymity
because he's afraid of being targeted by law enforcement. "But I'm also
intimidated by police officers busting medicinal growers."

The Winton man said he thinks illicit marijuana often is associated with
organized crime and hard-core drug trafficking.

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, a staunch supporter of the
state's medical marijuana laws, highlighted some of the dangers of illegal
pot gardens last week.

Besides water contamination and destruction of public land, he said illegal
gardens also "increased risk for innocent hikers that may inadvertently
stumble across one of these gardens that are guarded by armed men."

Dustin Costa, who goes by the nickname "DC Greenhouse" and serves as
president of the Merced Patients Group, said keeping marijuana illegal only
increases danger as its trade is driven further underground.

Like the Mafia, which benefited from its monopoly on bootlegging during
prohibition, he said criminals are now taking advantage of marijuana's
prohibition.

"People that do the for-profit grows aren't helping us any," he said.

Costa said his group has 230 card-carrying members who share pot. To join
the private club, members also pledged to become politically active and be
named in a lawsuit.

In recent weeks, a few members of the group have showed up at public
meetings in Merced, Modesto and Stockton to advance their cause.

To increase their visibility, the members have taken to wearing black
T-shirts with a fluorescent green marijuana leaf on both sides, with the
message "safer than aspirin/more effective then Ritalin."

The group also has taken up community building activities, such as cleaning
up graffiti and joining an anti-violence task force.

The High Court's ruling last month has had a chilling effect on membership,
Costa said, but he continues to arrange doctors' recommendations for 3 to 5
people per week.

Costa himself faces charges from a February 2002 drug raid that netted
close to 1,000 plants at his Winton home. He claims the plants were for
medicinal purposes.

Costa said legal drugs, such as alcohol and tobacco, pose a greater threat
to public health than marijuana.

"Basically, we have to wake up and smell the pot," he said.