SETBACK DEALT TO MEDICINAL POT FARM

Judge Rules U.S. Laws Prevail Over State's

In a blow to champions of medicinal marijuana and a key victory for
U.S. government regulators, a federal court in San Jose ruled Thursday
against restraining U.S. drug agents from raiding a Santa Cruz
cannabis co-operative that helps the ill and dying.

U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel obliquely acknowledged that medicinal
marijuana could alleviate pain but asserted that federal drug laws
prevailed over the state's 1996 medicinal marijuana initiative.

``Although plaintiffs have made a significant showing of irreparable
injury, the Court has no alternative but to conclude that under
existing law they cannot succeed on the merits of their claims,''
Fogel wrote.

Since voters passed the Compassionate Use Act seven years ago, bitter
legal battles have pitted federal drug officials against those
advocating states' rights.

Thursday's court opinion was a loss for the Wo/Men's Alliance for
Medical Marijuana in Santa Cruz County, a group that has won extensive
support from local government officials in the county.

In July of last year, the state Supreme Court ruled that Californians
who have a doctor's approval to smoke marijuana are protected from
conviction for violating state drug laws. But in 2001, the U.S.
Supreme Court issued a ruling that made it impossible for third
parties to provide medicinal marijuana to seriously ill patients
without running afoul of federal drug laws. As a result, several Bay
Area medicinal pot clubs were shuttered.

But the Wo/Men's Alliance continued to operate, dispensing marijuana
to the terminally ill. Then Drug Enforcement Administration agents
raided the property along Santa Cruz County's north coast on Sept. 5,
arresting co-founders Valerie and Michael Corral, seizing membership
lists and photo albums and ripping out 167 marijuana plants. The
lawsuit stemmed from that incident. Since the raid, the Corrals say,
16 of their clients have died.

The defendants in the case were Attorney General John Ashcroft,
National Drug Control Policy Director John P. Walters and William B.
Simpkins, acting administrator of the DEA.

News of Fogel's decision reached Valerie Corral Thursday evening at
her Davenport-area home, where, she said, the group will continue
their work while seeking justice.

She declined to discuss whether the organization is growing
marijuana.

``It feels like a blow at this moment, but it will strengthen us,''
she said. ``I guess we're considered criminals by our governments.
It's difficult to fathom why anyone would want to stand in the way of
alleviating suffering.''

Corral, a plaintiff in the suit along with the city and county of
Santa Cruz, said she hopes to appeal the decision.

``I think Judge Fogel is a good and thoughtful man who did not see how
to do things differently,'' Corral said. ``Maybe the 9th Circuit
(federal appeals court) will, or the Supreme Court.''

Neither attorneys for the defendants nor the plaintiff's high-profile
attorney, Gerald Uelmen, could be reached Thursday night.

The Corrals still have not been charged in the nearly year-old
case.