SANTA CRUZ SUES FEDS OVER MEDICAL MARIJUANA RAIDS

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. - The city and county of Santa Cruz has sued Attorney
General John Ashcroft and the Drug Enforcement Administration, demanding
that federal agents stay away from a farm that grows marijuana for sick and
dying people.

"This is an opportunity for us to stand behind the people in our community
who are the most needy," said Santa Cruz Mayor Emily Reilly. "This is what
we do well in Santa Cruz."

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court in San Jose, comes in
response to a DEA raid last September at a small pot farm located on a
quiet coastal road about 15 miles north of town. Agents uprooted about 165
plants and arrested the owners, Valerie and Michael Corral.

The raid outraged local officials and many community members in this
coastal town where police and sheriffs work closely with medical marijuana
users and growers, and the Compassion Flower Inn - a bed and breakfast inn
for medical marijuana users - operates openly just a few blocks from downtown.

After the raid, the Santa Cruz City Council sponsored a medical marijuana
giveaway from the steps of City Hall. They also deputized the Corrals, who
are the founders of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, allowing
them to cultivate, distribute and possess medical marijuana under a city
ordinance.

"We can only offer peaceful resistance against DEA attacks. Our hope is
that the courts will act as guardians of the law and protect us against
such injustice," said Valerie Corral.

The lawsuit claims that seven patient plaintiffs have had their medicine
substantially decreased since the raid, and that WAMM has been unable to
provide its patients with necessary medicine. This has caused an
"insurmountable" level of pain and suffering and hastened the deaths of the
most vulnerable WAMM members, lawyers said.

DEA spokesman Richard Meyer in San Francisco said he could not comment on
pending litigation, but that his agency's mission is very clear: "To
enforce the Controlled Substances Act."

Marijuana is an illegal drug under federal law. State law in California -
as well as Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and
Washington - allows marijuana to be grown and distributed to people with a
doctor's prescription.

Meyer said that raiding medical marijuana clubs and farms is the DEA's duty.

"Our goal is to seize illegal drugs and arrest the perpetrators and bring
them to justice," he said.

But Judy Appel, a Drug Policy Alliance attorney who helped write the
lawsuit, said the federal laws are misguided.

"We cannot just stand by and watch the harassment of people who are sick
and dying," she said. "We hope the court will see the injustice and
inhumanity of the federal government's actions, and restore these patients'
rights to treat their severe pain with the medicine that works best for them."

Santa Clara University law professor Gerald Uelmen, one of several
attorneys representing the medical marijuana users, has said this case
could be an important step toward ending the legal conflict between state
and federal laws.

"Becoming a plaintiff in a lawsuit is not a goal that most people would
have who are preparing to meet their death," said Uelmen. "But these
patients want to leave a legacy, and that legacy is that when we prepare to
meet our deaths, the uninvited guests will not include agents of the DEA."

Last May, the Supreme Court ruled that people charged with violating
federal drug laws cannot use medical necessity as their defense. But Uelmen
said the justices left open whether states could legalize medical marijuana
under the 10th Amendment, which grants states powers not exercised by the
federal government, or under the 14th Amendment's right to due process.

In 1992, 77 percent of Santa Cruz voters approved a measure ending the
prohibition of medical marijuana. Four years later, state voters approved
Proposition 215, which allows marijuana for medicinal purposes. And in
2000, the City Council approved an ordinance allowing medical marijuana to
be grown and used without a prescription.