CALIF. CROWD CRITICIZES BUSH'S MARIJUANA LAW

Some City Officials Opppose Federal Raids On Medicinal Cannabis Clubs

SAN FRANCISCO - "Liar! Liar!" came the voices from the crowd.

Drug Enforcement Administration chief Asa Hutchinson stopped short, caught
midsentence. He had started by saying: "Science has told us so far there is
no medical benefit for smoking marijuana .'.'."

Hutchinson pushed on with his message, reiterating President Bush's newly
aggressive anti-drug policy, which links casual drug use to terrorism and
objects to state laws such as California's that allow the medicinal use of
marijuana.

Just hours before Hutchinson's appearance Feb. 12, federal agents -- with
no help from San Francisco police -- seized more than 600 marijuana plants
from a medicinal cannabis club. They also arrested the group's executive
director and three suppliers, including marijuana guru Ed Rosenthal, author
of "Ask Ed: Marijuana Law. Don't Get Busted."

The federal raids have angered and alarmed local officials in San Francisco.

On the day Hutchinson spoke, a half-dozen city officials joined a
boisterous street protest against the DEA. Even District Attorney Terence
Hallinan grabbed a bullhorn and criticized the raids, as demonstrators,
some in wheelchairs and on crutches, chanted, "DEA, Go away!" and marijuana
smoke wafted through the air.

Opponents of Washington's stand on marijuana said the raids may be a
precursor to showdowns in at least seven other states that have also passed
laws in conflict with the federal ban on marijuana.

"I think the goals here are to stomp out this emerging political movement
once and for all," said Keith Stroup, director of the National Organization
for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "The way they're trying to do that is to
come into San Francisco, at the heart of the legalization movement, and
arrest, prosecute and jail the major players."

DEA spokesman Richard Meyers in San Francisco countered: "You know,
personally, my heart goes out to someone who has cancer or AIDS, and I'm
sure they're just trying to alleviate their pain, but federal law does not
make a distinction between medical marijuana and marijuana, and the DEA has
a commitment and duty to the public to enforce the law."

In recent months, federal agents have raided three other cannabis clubs in
California, seizing a garden of marijuana grown for sick people in
Hollywood and taking away the records of 5,000 medical marijuana users from
a doctor's office near Sacramento.

Federal agents had avoided San Francisco since May when the U.S. Supreme
Court ruled there is no medical exception to the federal law against marijuana.