News
SANTA CRUZ HOSTS MEDICAL MARIJUANA "GIVEAWAY"
Mayor joins protestors at City Hall in opposition to DEA raids.
Wed, Sep 18, 2002 12:00 am
Mark Miller
SANTA CRUZ, CA--On September 17, Santa Cruz Mayor Christopher Krohn and other city leaders joined physicians and activists to support medical-marijuana patients picking up their medicine in the garden courtyard of City Hall.
HIGH TIMES BONUS: Read about the raid that lead to the Santa Cruz protest. "Santa Cruz is a special place, and today we're letting the world know how compassionate we can be," said Krohn. "We're taking a stand." Other elected officials present included Vice Mayor Emily Reilly, City Councilmember Tim Fitzmaurice, and county supervisor Mardi Wormhoudt. Santa Cruz, a city of 50,000 people about 75 miles south of San Francisco, voted by a 3-1 margin to legalize medical marijuana in 1992.
The event was held in response to the Sept. 5 raid by the DEA on the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM) medical-marijuana garden in nearby Davenport. The DEA seized 167 medical-marijuana plants and arrested WAMM cofounders Valerie and Mike Corral at gunpoint. The Corrals were freed the same day and have yet to be charged by the US Attorney's office.
"We are not acting in defiance of the federal government. We are continuing to follow the letter of city, county and state law," said Valerie Corral. "And we are hoping to display the face of Americans who are sick and dying to the rest of America. We hope to awaken legislators in Washington, DC and we ask them to not create more suffering by sending federal agents to the gardens and bedsides of sick and dying people."
The City Hall event was brief, lasting approximately one hour. Contrary to initial reports, it was not a "free marijuana giveaway." With about 1,000 of Santa Cruz's colorful citizenship and a full throng of local, national, and international media in attendance, security was very tight, to ensure that only valid WAMM patients would receive the medicine.
Instead, the medical marijuana was simply placed on tables. Fifteen patients were announced one by one, and wheeled or walked up to take the cannabis. Many of the group's 250 members had volunteered to participate, so Valerie Corral picked the 15 who did by drawing names out of a hat.
"It was erroneously reported that city officials were going to give away marijuana to anyone with a recommendation, which we don't do," she told HIGH TIMES. WAMM verifies all physician recommendations for medical marijuana before allowing a patient to receive medicine, which it supplies free of charge.
Mike Corral also received a large ovation when he spoke and recalled his arrest: "With a gun to my head, the DEA took away medicine from 250 sick and dying people." He told HT that his "wildest hope" was that the event would change federal law so marijuana is taken out of Schedule I.
Santa Clara University Law School Professor Gerald Uelmen, one of the attorneys representing WAMM, said that the central legal issue was whether compassion for the sick should be a federal crime. He confirmed that WAMM would be filing a lawsuit against the DEA, to reclaim the seized cannabis.
Though the Santa Cruz City Council passed a resolution denouncing the DEA raid of WAMM, there was no official city sponsorship of the event. Councilmembers and medical-marijuana advocates simply acted on their own in a public space.
"We're shocked that any city officials would do anything like that," DEA spokesman Richard Meyers told the San Francisco Chronicle. "They're not only flouting the law, they're also sending the message that you only have to obey the laws that you like."
The Feds never made an appearance at the City Hall event, though a helicopter flew above the proceedings. Meyers would neither confirm nor deny that it was a DEA chopper.
The helicopter was often drowned out by chants of "DEA, GO AWAY!"
SANTA CRUZ, CA--On September 17, Santa Cruz Mayor Christopher Krohn and other city leaders joined physicians and activists to support medical-marijuana patients picking up their medicine in the garden courtyard of City Hall. HIGH TIMES BONUS: Read about the raid that lead to the Santa Cruz protest. "Santa Cruz is a special place, and today we're letting the world know how compassionate we can be," said Krohn. "We're taking a stand." Other elected officials present included Vice Mayor Emily Reilly, City Councilmember Tim Fitzmaurice, and county supervisor Mardi Wormhoudt. Santa Cruz, a city of 50,000 people about 75 miles south of San Francisco, voted by a 3-1 margin to legalize medical marijuana in 1992.
The event was held in response to the Sept. 5 raid by the DEA on the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM) medical-marijuana garden in nearby Davenport. The DEA seized 167 medical-marijuana plants and arrested WAMM cofounders Valerie and Mike Corral at gunpoint. The Corrals were freed the same day and have yet to be charged by the US Attorney's office.
"We are not acting in defiance of the federal government. We are continuing to follow the letter of city, county and state law," said Valerie Corral. "And we are hoping to display the face of Americans who are sick and dying to the rest of America. We hope to awaken legislators in Washington, DC and we ask them to not create more suffering by sending federal agents to the gardens and bedsides of sick and dying people."
The City Hall event was brief, lasting approximately one hour. Contrary to initial reports, it was not a "free marijuana giveaway." With about 1,000 of Santa Cruz's colorful citizenship and a full throng of local, national, and international media in attendance, security was very tight, to ensure that only valid WAMM patients would receive the medicine.
Instead, the medical marijuana was simply placed on tables. Fifteen patients were announced one by one, and wheeled or walked up to take the cannabis. Many of the group's 250 members had volunteered to participate, so Valerie Corral picked the 15 who did by drawing names out of a hat.
"It was erroneously reported that city officials were going to give away marijuana to anyone with a recommendation, which we don't do," she told HIGH TIMES. WAMM verifies all physician recommendations for medical marijuana before allowing a patient to receive medicine, which it supplies free of charge.
Mike Corral also received a large ovation when he spoke and recalled his arrest: "With a gun to my head, the DEA took away medicine from 250 sick and dying people." He told HT that his "wildest hope" was that the event would change federal law so marijuana is taken out of Schedule I.
Santa Clara University Law School Professor Gerald Uelmen, one of the attorneys representing WAMM, said that the central legal issue was whether compassion for the sick should be a federal crime. He confirmed that WAMM would be filing a lawsuit against the DEA, to reclaim the seized cannabis.
Though the Santa Cruz City Council passed a resolution denouncing the DEA raid of WAMM, there was no official city sponsorship of the event. Councilmembers and medical-marijuana advocates simply acted on their own in a public space.
"We're shocked that any city officials would do anything like that," DEA spokesman Richard Meyers told the San Francisco Chronicle. "They're not only flouting the law, they're also sending the message that you only have to obey the laws that you like."
The Feds never made an appearance at the City Hall event, though a helicopter flew above the proceedings. Meyers would neither confirm nor deny that it was a DEA chopper.
The helicopter was often drowned out by chants of "DEA, GO AWAY!"
