WORLD WATCHES POT HANDOUT

Medical-Marijuana Advocates Hope To Send Message

Santa Cruz - The medical-marijuana debate was thrust back onto the national
stage Tuesday in Santa Cruz. Two weeks after federal agents raided the
Davenport pot garden of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, about
a dozen of the cooperative's members picked up their weekly pot allotment
on the steps of City Hall. The alliance always doles out its marijuana on
Tuesdays, but this week had added significance. The group did so in front
of about 1,000 supporters, a handful of opponents and a string of elected
officials. And the world. There were at least a dozen TV crews, from
national outlets including NBC News and CNN to local and regional stations.

Reporters from The New York Times, Reuters and dozens of other publications
were on hand, as were more than a dozen photojournalists. The handout event
was part rally, part publicity stunt, organized by WAMM to put a face on
medical-marijuana users. "Were we able to touch our legislators? Were we
able to reach out to our leaders?" alliance co-founder Valerie Corral asked
after the event. "I hope so." While a DEA official said earlier this week
that he was "shocked" by the planned giveaway, no confrontation
materialized. An unmarked helicopter chattered hundreds of feet above, at
times drowning out the speakers, but it was unclear if it was a DEA
chopper. DEA spokesman Richard Meyer would neither confirm nor deny if DEA
agents were present. "But we were monitoring the situation," Meyer said.
The Santa Cruz Police Department, which has worked cooperatively with WAMM,
had about a dozen plainclothes detectives at the event just to keep the
peace, said Sgt. Steve Clark. Clark said other law enforcement agencies
were present, but said he wasn't at liberty to say which. WAMM co-founder
Mike Corral said the group wasn't seeking a confrontation. "It's to show
the people of America the truth about medical marijuana," he said. However,
the DEA has a different version of that truth.

While California and seven other states allow the sick to possess, grow and
use pot for medical reasons, the federal government maintains it has no
medical value. That increasingly has pitted medical cooperatives and clubs
in California against the federal government. Medical-pot clubs took a blow
in May 2001 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled medical necessity is not a
defense against distributing pot in a case involving an Oakland group. To
the federal agency, marijuana is an illegal drug, and the clubs are
high-volume dealers. "Marijuana is illegal," Meyer said recently. "Our job
is to enforce the law, and we will. We have no choice." Since the court
decision, enforcement has increased.

While the alliance and similar operations in California frequently work
with local authorities, DEA agents have increasingly cracked down on
high-profile medical-marijuana advocates and distribution clubs. That led
to the raid earlier this month in which the Corrals were arrested and their
crop pulled up. No charges have been filed. Speakers Tuesday said the
federal policy was wrong-headed. Santa Cruz physician Arnold Leff, a deputy
director of drug policy in the Nixon administration, said marijuana has
medical benefits, including easing nausea and increasing appetite. While
homemade protest signs dotted the crowd, contributing to a near-circus
atmosphere in the City Hall courtyard, there was a more somber mood on the
front steps, where about a dozen cooperative members picked up their weekly
allowance of muffins and other forms of medical pot. "I just wanted to show
my support for Valerie and Mike and for WAMM," said Levi Castro, who was
left a quadriplegic in 1999 after a surfing injury. He has been a
cooperative member for about two years. Patients with AIDS, cancer and
other ailments came before and after Castro.A few were in wheelchairs. All
had a similar message for the federal government. "I am not the enemy,"
said Suzanne Pfeil, a Santa Cruz resident who suffers post-polio syndrome
and uses a wheelchair. "I am a person who happens to have a serious
illness." Supporters from around the region joined the local group. Kay
Mitchell, 82, drove with her son from Sebastopol to show support.

The cancer patient said she takes seven different kinds of medicine and
uses marijuana to bolster her appetite and decrease nausea. "It's not
psychological, it's a fact," she said from her wheelchair, with a faux
marijuana-plant lei in her hands. "I don't know why I should be deprived of
it." With the Sept. 5 raid taking 167 plants, some WAMM members said they
were worried about the future. Santa Cruz attorney Ben Rice and Santa Clara
University law professor Gerald Uelman said they plan to file motions,
possibly this week, seeking return of the pot. "I'm absolutely convinced it
has been destroyed, but we will bring that motion," Rice said. No charges
have been filed in connection with the raid. With a few exceptions, the
crowd was decidedly pro-medical marijuana.

Santa Cruz resident and City Council candidate Phil Baer was one of a
handful of people protesting it. He was not sympathetic to the plight of
people using it. "I think it would be noble of them if they felt the pain a
little bit and did something for the higher good," Baer said. He held up a
sign decrying connections he sees between marijuana use and heroin problems
in the city's Beach Flats neighborhood. Another woman held a sign reading,
"City officials, stop teaching my kids that illegal is OK." Leff, the
physician, said, "There's a difference between recreational use and medical
use of a lot of drugs.

That doesn't mean we're sending the wrong message." The local politicians
certainly agreed.

The list of leaders who came to offer support for WAMM read like a Who's
Who of Santa Cruz County - County Supervisor Mardi Wormhoudt, Santa Cruz
Mayor Christopher Krohn, and council members Tim Fitzmaurice, Ed Porter,
Scott Kennedy, Mark Primack and Emily Reilly. Also introduced to the crowd
were former mayors Mike Rotkin, Celia Scott and Jane Weed.

"As an elected official, I am committed to changing social policy and bad
law through the legislative process," Wormhoudt said. "But when our
government becomes the aggressor against powerless people, I feel I have a
moral obligation to stand with the powerless." Few elected officials seemed
worried about any negative publicity. "I'm glad the spotlight is on
something as positive as this," Primack said.