CALIFORNIA MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Another Bust, Giveaways in Santa Cruz and San Diego, Mass Demo Set for
Sacramento Monday

"It's Armageddon time for medical marijuana in California," said Dale
Gieringer, head of California NORML Thursday evening. "This may take
years to play out, but the battle lines are drawn."

Given the rapidly escalating confrontation between the federal
government and the people of California over medical marijuana in the
last few weeks, Gieringer can be forgiven for resorting to biblical
end-time allusions. Recently, the DEA and the its master, Attorney
General John Ashcroft, have been raiding about one medical marijuana
dispensary or garden a week, despite a state law that allows for the
use of medical marijuana in the state. The latest assault came
Thursday, when a federal agent accosted Steve McWilliams, operator of
the Shelter From the Storm Collective in San Diego, and handed him a
letter notifying him that he faced federal prosecution if he did not
shut down his garden, CANORML reported Thursday evening. Two days
earlier, McWilliams had led a medical marijuana giveaway in San Diego
to protest the escalating series of attacks on the state's medical
marijuana providers.

"No way is this a proper federal case," said Gieringer. "They are
punishing him for exercising his First Amendment freedom of speech and
for telling the truth about what's going on. Once again, the federal
government is targeting a conspicuous leader who tried to be honest
and deal with this openly."

Shelter From the Storm is a small, six-patient collective well
regarded by local authorities and in compliance with state laws. Its
patients include a 73-year-old woman with leukemia and a 70-year-old
man with prostate cancer, Gieringer said. "This is a large scale
federal assault on the right of the people to have access to the
medicine they need. The federal government is literally trying to take
medicine from seriously ill patients. What does this have to do with
the proper exercise of federal power?" he asked. "Nothing. This is an
all-out prohibitionist war against Americans' medical rights."

It is a war that is being increasingly contested. In the wake of the
federal raid on the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana
(http://www.wamm.org) in Santa Cruz two weeks ago and the raid on
Genesis 1:29 in Petaluma last week, the state's emerging medical
marijuana resistance has been energized, with demonstrations at
federal buildings in Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Cruz,
Santa Rosa, Santa Ana, Sacramento, and other cities on Monday and a
widely publicized medical marijuana giveaway at Santa Cruz's City Hall
on Tuesday. Led by Americans for Safe Access (http://www.safeaccessnow.org),
medical marijuana advocates, their supporters, and even some elected
officials are mobilizing for a demonstration Monday in Sacramento that
could mark a new era in the conflict.

The demonstration could be the largest non-smoke-in drug reform
protest ever, said Shawn Heller, national director of Students for
Sensible Drug Policy (http://www.ssdp.org), which has mounted a major
effort to bus large numbers of students to the protest from throughout
the region. Other participating organizations include the Marijuana
Policy Project, NORML, Common Sense for Drug Policy, the Drug Policy
Alliance, the American Medical Marijuana Association, and drug reform
groups from across California, according to the ASA web page.

"This may be the most important event in California medical marijuana
history," said Heller, who has been in the state for the past week.
"This is highly coordinated and organized. We will have buses decked
in banners coming from all over the state, we will have the young
people of California saying 'we voted for this, this is our law, and
we want our elected officials to stand up and protect our rights, we
want them to stand up to the DEA,'" he said.

"The students are energized and pumped, and we have the resources to
make this happen," Heller added. "SSDP laid the foundation, created
the network of students, and now we are calling that network into
action. And look for lots of independent affinity groups, too," he
said.

The protest is building on the energy created by earlier resistance,
including this week's nationally covered medical marijuana giveaway in
Santa Cruz. On Tuesday, Mayor Christopher Krohn, numerous city council
members, and more than a thousand supporters attended the marijuana
giveaway -- limited to certified WAMM patients -- held at City Hall in
defiance of the feds. "Santa Cruz is a special place, and today we're
letting the world know how compassionate we can be," said Krohn.
"Today we're taking a stand."

The DEA's San Francisco spokesman was not amused. "We're dismayed that
the city council and the mayor of Santa Cruz would condone the
distribution of marijuana," said Richard Meyer. "I don't know what
they're thinking, but they're flaunting federal law. And we here at
the DEA take violations of the law seriously." But given some of
Meyer's other comments on the medical marijuana issue, it is hard to
take him seriously. Last Friday, as demonstrators gathered in front of
his San Francisco office, Meyer claimed the agency was only going
after "major dealers." When asked about the patients at the rally,
Meyer said, "we see them as victims of their traffickers."

California elected officials are starting to take the whole thing
seriously, too. Last week, Attorney General Bill Lockyer wrote to
Ashcroft and DEA head Asa Hutchinson asking for a meeting. There has
been no substantive response. On Wednesday, Gov. Gray Davis finally
weighed in, telling a radio interviewer: "I'm going to work with our
Attorney General, Bill Lockyer to see if we can't get on the same page
with the federal government. They're entitled to have a different
scheme at the federal level, but clearly we ought to find some way to
have an accommodation. I mean, both the state and the federal
governments work for the same people, the American people." Davis, who
did not support the passage of Proposition 215, the state's medical
marijuana law, has now changed his tune. "I did not support that
initiative when it was on the ballot; but as governor, it's my job to
enforce the laws that the people pass, and the people passed this law."

"Ah, Gray Davis, a day late and a dollar short," scoffed Gieringer,
conceding that at least Davis now supports that law.

But if medical marijuana advocates are united in their antipathy
toward the federal incursions on California sovereignty, there is some
confusion about where to go from here. While the Monday demonstration
in Sacramento is aimed at state officials, for Gieringer the most
likely avenue of success in the medium term lies in the federal courts.

"This is going to federal court," he predicted. "There are some really
serious issues we can win on appeal. With some luck, we can make real
progress on the legal front. There will be at least three or four
lawsuits filed. An attack on a patient growing for personal use is
ripe for a constitutional challenge," he said.

Another avenue for action could be the Congress. "It depends on the
elections," Gieringer said. "If the Democrats win the House, we're apt
to have hearings next year. But it would probably take several years
to get anything. There is also some talk of an appropriations
amendment to stop the feds from doing medical marijuana raids," he
said.

For national NORML's Allen St. Pierre, Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne
Feinstein are targets. "No one in the Senate has talked about medical
marijuana," he said, "we can't find a word. If Boxer would get up as
senators can and dump something into the record about why we need a
better system and the federal government needs to be more respectful,
that would be an important step," St. Pierre argued. "Another tack is
to get Rep. Nancy Pelosi to step up. She is the second or third most
powerful

Democrat in the House and a cosponsor of the Barney Frank bill. Maybe
she could introduce a bill under her name that incorporates the Frank
bill." Despite the uncertainty, said Gieringer, "people are
energized." And they are angry. "The federal government has gone way
over the line. Every American can see they have no business doing
this. We will show them up for the nasty ignorant prohibitionists they
are. This is Ashcroft and the Bush administration at their absolute
worst, and these petty, twisted prohibitionists are going to pay a
price."

Visit http://www.safeaccess.org for information on Monday's
demonstration.