COUNTY, CITY SUE DEA OVER POT RAID

SANTA CRUZ -- 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 sheriff's deputies 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.