SANTA CRUZ COUNCIL TO ALLOW MARIJUANA IN CITY HALL

Santa Cruz City Council members will stage their own Boston Tea Party next
week by letting patients receive medical marijuana in a City Hall courtyard.

It is an act of defiance toward the federal government and its Drug
Enforcement Administration, which one week ago raided the Wo/Men's Alliance
for Medical Marijuana (WAMM), just north of Santa Cruz and about 60 miles
south of San Francisco.

Riot-gear-clad agents toting assault rifles seized 167 marijuana plants and
took WAMM co-founders Val and Mike Corral -- who helped write California's
medical marijuana law -- into custody, but released them later the same day
after federal prosecutors declined to file charges.

The federal government still deems all marijuana growth, possession or use
illegal, even though California voters approved medical use in 1996.
Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Oregon and Washington have
similar laws.

The Corrals will dispense free marijuana to some of WAMM's 250
physician-screened patients at 3 p.m. Tuesday outside Santa Cruz's City
Hall; council members will stand with them in solidarity.

"I'm shocked that the City Council would allow that to happen on their
steps," Special Agent Richard Meyer, spokesman for the DEA's San Francisco
office, said Wednesday. "I wonder what kind of message they want to send to
our youth. Are they trying to tell youths and the rest of the U.S. that in
Santa Cruz, you only have to obey the laws you like?"

Santa Cruz Mayor Christopher Krohn scoffed.

"Do they really think that medical marijuana is about the youth of America?
I'm a teacher, and in my mind, it certainly isn't," he said.

It's about California voters' will that seriously ill patients have access
to medicine that alleviates their symptoms and keeps them alive, Krohn
said. That's why the City Council voted 6-0 for a resolution supporting
WAMM this week, he said.

Meyer insisted the DEA will keep enforcing federal law. Asked whether it
will act on Tuesday's event, he replied, "I won't be able to answer that
question."

U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-NY, wants to amend the Justice Department's
funding bill to bar the DEA from conducting raids against medical marijuana
facilities operating under state laws' protection. U.S. Rep. Sam Farr,
D-Santa Cruz, and House Minority Whip Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, have
indicated their support.

And U.S. Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose, on Monday became the 38th co-sponsor
of a bill to move marijuana off the federal government's list of
most-restricted drugs. Of the Bay Area's representatives, only Ellen
Tauscher, D-Alamo, and Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, have not become co-sponsors.