MEDICINAL POT USERS JOIN LAWSUIT OVER RAID

Accusing drug enforcement agents of being "uninvited guests" at the
bedsides of the dying, a group a medicinal marijuana users joined the city
and county of Santa Cruz on Wednesday in suing top federal officials.

The lawsuit, filed at 10 a.m. in U.S. District Court in San Jose and
announced at a press conference on the steps of the Santa Cruz County
Courthouse, asks for an injunction against raids on medicinal marijuana
collectives and a declaration of their right to serve their members.

The suit arises out of the Sept. 5, 2002, raid on what attorney Ben Rice
called "a community garden" operated by the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical
Marijuana, or WAMM. It names as defendants Attorney General John Ashcroft
and other top drug enforcement officials.