FEDS TARGET MEDICINAL MARIJUANA

SAN JOSE, Calif. - By raiding a nationally known medicinal marijuana farm
in Santa Cruz last week, federal law-enforcement officials served notice
that they are escalating their legal assault on California's medical-pot
movement.

While the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has launched similar raids
throughout the state over the past year, the Santa Cruz operation marked
the most aggressive crackdown on a major medical- marijuana outfit in or
near the Bay Area. And it appeared to cement a policy change for area
federal law-enforcement officials, who for the most part have relied on
civil-court orders to stop medical-pot distributors since California
enacted Proposition 215 six years ago.

Medicinal-pot advocates reacted angrily Friday to the raid on the
cooperative owned by Valerie and Michael Corral, both of whom were involved
in drafting the state initiative that legalized supplying marijuana to the
sick and dying. The Corrals had been operating with the support of local
law-enforcement officials and political leaders.

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, a strong backer of Prop. 215,
fired off a letter Friday to Attorney General John Ashcroft, asking for a
meeting and criticizing "punitive expeditions" against "locally authorized
medical marijuana operations."

The raid also sparked protests Friday against the DEA in San Jose, San
Francisco and Oakland.

"Where are the federal government's priorities?" asked Jeff Jones,
executive director of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative, which has
been battling the Justice Department for four years. "At the anniversary of
9/11, you would think the federal government and its agencies would have
more important things to do than raid someone who has not caused harm."

Federal prosecutors said Friday that they are mulling whether to file
criminal charges against the Corrals, who were arrested and released
Wednesday. Agents seized more than 100 marijuana plants, a shotgun and
three rifles.

Richard Meyer, DEA spokesman in San Francisco, said the Corrals have been
"flouting the law."

Indeed, the raid on the Corrals' farm is the latest example of the
seemingly irreconcilable tension between Prop. 215 and federal drug laws.
The U.S. Supreme Court this year dealt a major blow to the movement when it
ruled that there is no medical exception to federal drug laws.

The ruling ensured that medicinal-pot distributors, even with the support
of local and state officials, could only survive if the federal government
chose to leave them alone - and that is not happening.