POT GIVEAWAY IN SANTA CRUZ DRAWS 1,100

Rally Condemns Marijuana Raids

Thumbing their noses at federal drug laws, members of a Santa Cruz County
medicinal marijuana organization on Tuesday staged their own version of the
Boston Tea Party.

Only they didn't dump tea in the harbor. They passed out pot -- right in
front of Santa Cruz City Hall and with the support of local officials and
several hundred other people.

Their message: The federal government needs to acknowledge that states like
California should be able to decide for themselves whether marijuana can be
used as medicine.

The pot giveaway and rally attracted nearly 1,100 people, including about
200 journalists from around the world who came to witness the latest -- and
most serious challenge yet -- to stepped-up federal efforts to confiscate
the drug from medicinal marijuana clubs and the farms that produce it.

No arrests were made, although a mysterious helicopter hovered overhead.
While it circled, politicians, prominent attorneys, physicians and numerous
AIDS and cancer patients vowed to prod Washington lawmakers to preserve
medicinal marijuana laws.

Six of seven city council members and three former Santa Cruz mayors
attended, but while the officials supported the rally, they did not handle
the marijuana.

The event was triggered by an early-morning Sept. 5 raid on a one-acre pot
farm in the hills north of Davenport run by the Wo/Men's Alliance for
Medical Marijuana, better known as WAMM. About 30 U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration agents carrying M-16s cut down 167 plants and took them away
in U-Hauls, arresting WAMM founders Valerie and Michael Corral.

The Corrals, who helped write a 1996 California measure aimed at legalizing
medicinal marijuana, were arrested on federal charges of intent to
distribute marijuana and conspiracy. But the U.S. Attorney's Office has not
yet filed charges against them -- and officials have refused to say if they
will.

In July, the state Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the 1996 measure,
Proposition 215, protects Californians who have a doctor's approval to
smoke marijuana from conviction for violating state drug laws. The ruling
came two months after the U.S. Supreme Court said that "medical necessity"
should not exempt marijuana users from federal drug laws.

"I think it's outrageous that the federal government is ignoring the will
of the huge majority of people in the county and the state who want to see
medicinal marijuana legal," said Councilman Scott Kennedy. "Given the
developments around the world, you'd think federal agents would have better
things to do."

A DEA spokesman, however, defended the crackdown and decried elected
officials who took part in the event.

"If I were a teenager in Santa Cruz and heard that the mayor and city
council were at this event, I'd be confused," said DEA special agent
Richard Meyer. "Anyone who thinks that marijuana is not a dangerous drug is
in denial."

Meyer acknowledged that the agency was "monitoring" the event.

"Go away, DEA! Go away, DEA!" a crowd of several hundred people shouted as
they gazed skyward at the helicopter.

One Santa Cruz protester dressed in camouflage and wielding a toy machine
gun pretended he was a DEA agent. Others held up signs reading "God Gave Us
Herbs," "My Medicine Is Not a Crime," "States Rights" and "Federalism Now."

Notwithstanding the "Legalize Pot" signs, speakers at the rally were
careful to draw the distinction between medicinal marijuana and pot used to
get high.

"Even our children can understand the difference between the recreational
use of drugs -- which we condemn -- and giving marijuana to sick and dying
people," said Santa Clara University law Professor Gerald Uelmen, a noted
constitutional expert.

Only a "twisted and perverted bureaucrat" could approve sending in agents
with automatic weapons to wipe out WAMM's tiny farm, he said.

California's chief law enforcement officer, Attorney General Bill Lockyer,
a strong backer of Proposition 215, has also condemned the DEA's latest
efforts. In a letter to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft sent a day
after the raid, Lockyer said federal officials were acting like bullies.

Eight states besides California -- Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii,
Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington -- also allow marijuana to be grown
and distributed to people with a doctor's prescription. But the DEA has
focused its raids on California, where medicinal pot clubs have been
routinely raided this year.

The Santa Cruz raid was the most dramatic because WAMM has been so
high-profile and has earned the respect of Sheriff Mark Tracy and other law
enforcement officials.

"This is grass-roots Santa Cruz compassion," said Uelmen, who was a member
of O.J. Simpson's legal defense team and plans to put a team of legal
experts together to fight the federal government on the issue.

Other city council members attending the rally and watching some of WAMM's
238 patients getting marijuana in small bags, muffins and tincture were
Mayor Christopher Krohn, Vice Mayor Emily Reilly and Councilmen Tim
Fitzmaurice, Mark Primack and Ed Porter. Former mayors Mike Rotkin, Jane
Weed and Celia Scott also were on hand, as was county Supervisor Mardi
Wormhoudt.

Councilman Keith Sugar said he chose not to attend the event because, even
though he supports WAMM, he wanted to work with the DEA to re-focus its
efforts in Santa Cruz on heroin traffic.

"We have cops getting shot over heroin," he said, referring to Aug. 1
incident in which an officer was seriously wounded in the Beach Flats area
near the boardwalk.

Police had returned fire and killed a Mexican national, who family members
said was a heroin addict.

Phil Baer, a city council candidate, has made the growing heroin problem in
Santa Cruz his main campaign issue. He did not attend the rally and does
not support its cause.

"It hurts our city to be known for lax drug law enforcement," he said.
"Santa Cruz has a reputation as a pot town."