POT BACKERS RALLY IN SANTA CRUZ

S.C. Mayor Declares July 16 Medical Marijuana Day

SANTA CRUZ -- It was short on floats and balloons. But Saturday's
downtown procession of medical marijuana users and their supporters
was long on clarity.

Several hundred members and friends of the Wo/Men's Alliance for
Medical Marijuana rode in wheelchairs or walked slowly up Pacific
Avenue, most of them holding signs with headshot photos of deceased
loved ones who had counted on relief from medical marijuana during
their final months or years.

Some held or wore cannabis plants.

In the wake of a June 6 Supreme Court ruling that has called into
question the authority of individual states to employ their own
medical marijuana laws, advocates for the beleaguered Santa Cruz
cooperative have redoubled efforts to differentiate themselves from
recreational drug users, and to promote legal access to what they
feel is a medically useful, and in some cases, necessary drug.

Rick Steeb of San Jose joined the throngs Saturday in their march
toward Santa Cruz City Hall. Steeb said he has been using medical
marijuana for the last four years. The drug, he said, does much to
mitigate pressure and pain in his eyes, and to alleviate his insomnia.

"I'm concerned about the providers," he said of Valerie and Michael
Corral -- founders of WAMM -- and other cooperative marijuana growers.

"They have so many terminally ill patients who absolutely depend on
the relief these drugs provide," Steeb said.t If the Supreme Court
ruling were to result in federal crackdowns on growers, "I would have
to seek the drug out on the street," he said.

Stephanie Sakasai's sign bore a black-and-white shot of her best
friend Chelene Cook, who died in 1996 of brain cancer. Cook had been
supplied with drugs from WAMM in the months before her death, and,
according to Sakasai, had benefited a great deal from them.

"I know it was because of it that she lived as long as she did," said Sakasai.

Participants in the noon hour's quiet, somber parade settled in the
courtyard of City Hall to hear from elected officials, and local and
regional medical marijuana advocates.

Cheers rang out in the City Hall courtyard when City Councilmember
Cynthia Matthews read aloud from a proclamation signed by Santa Cruz
Mayor Mike Rotkin, who was not present Saturday. The statement
declared July 16th "Medical Marijuana Day."

Allen Hopper, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties
Union's drug law reform division, compared acts of civil disobedience
on behalf of medical marijuana with acts that led to the 1954 U.S.
Supreme Court ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education.

The ACLU drug law reform division headquarters is in Santa Cruz.

"People have stood up and said, 'we're not going to take this
anymore,'" Hopper said of Saturday's parade and rally.

The 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision, which rendered
segregated schools unconstitutional, wouldn't have stood a chance
politically, he said, except for the social movement behind it.

Several blocks away from the rhetoric, Santa Cruz Police Lt. Mark
Sanders spoke by telephone about medical versus recreational use of
marijuana as a practical, law enforcement matter.

"We have guidelines, but they get evaluated on a case-by-case basis,"
he said. The difference between what is currently considered legal
and illegal possession, he said, "is frequently very blurry and very
difficult to judge."