cannabisnews.com: Santa Cruz Officials Fume Over Pot Club Bust





Santa Cruz Officials Fume Over Pot Club Bust
Posted by CN Staff on September 06, 2002 at 08:24:13 PT
By Maria Alicia Gaura, Chronicle Staff Writer
Source: San Francisco Chronicle 
Federal agents who raided a Santa Cruz medical marijuana collective Thursday didn't encounter any resistance as they kicked in the door, arrested three people and cut down 150 cannabis plants. But the chain-saw-toting agents provoked a furious reaction from high and low in Santa Cruz, where voters have enthusiastically endorsed two measures legalizing medical pot. 
While medical marijuana clubs in some jurisdictions have operated with a nod and a wink from local authorities, Santa Cruz officials have made their support public. For six years, city, county and law enforcement officials have cooperated closely with the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana to craft a system that defines who qualifies as a medical user, issues identification and provides organically grown pot free of charge. WAMM founders Mike and Valerie Corral, who helped draft Proposition 215, California's successful 1996 medical marijuana initiative, were arrested on suspicion of possessing marijuana with the intent to distribute and suspicion of conspiracy. The Corrals and collective member Suzanne Pfeil, who also was taken into custody, were released Thursday afternoon. "This is an outrageous thing for the federal government to target this wonderful group of people," said Ben Rice, an attorney representing the Corrals. "Our sheriff here has even intervened when state enforcement wanted to come in and eradicate the WAMM garden last year." CAN'T IGNORE THE LAW, DEA SAYS Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Richard Meyer acknowledged that WAMM had operated openly for years with the cooperation of local officials, but he noted that marijuana remained illegal under federal law no matter what local law enforcement tolerated. "They operated illegally for all these years, and finally the law caught up with them," Meyer said. Agents seized more than 150 pot plants, a small amount of hashish, three rifles and a shotgun in the raid, he said. The first obstacle for the DEA in Thursday's raid came when two dozen medical marijuana users blocked a driveway with a gate and a car, demanding that the departing agents hand over the cannabis they had seized. The plants were a year's supply for more than 200 members of WAMM. The federal agents, who had not warned the Santa Cruz Sheriff's Department of the raid, had to call in local deputies to clear the road for them. Deputies complied with the request, making no arrests as they dispersed the angry crowd. But local authorities were left steaming -- and considering their options. "The people of California and the County of Santa Cruz have overwhelmingly supported the provision of medical marijuana for people who have serious illnesses," said county Supervisor Mardi Wormhoudt. "These people (blocking the road) are people with AIDS and cancer and other grave illnesses. To attack these people, who work collectively and have never taken money for their work, is outrageous." Snipped:  Complete Title: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2002/09/06/MN212302.DTLSource: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)Author: Maria Alicia Gaura, Chronicle Staff WriterPublished: Friday, September 6, 2002 Copyright: 2002 San Francisco Chronicle -  Page A - 1 Contact: letters sfchronicle.comWebsite: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/Related Articles & Web Site:WAMMhttp://www.wamm.org/DEA Continues to Dismantle Democracy http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14013.shtmlDrug Agents Raid Calif. Medicinal Marijuana Farm http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14011.shtmlDEA Raids California Medical Marijuana Farm http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14005.shtml
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help




Comment #6 posted by WolfgangWylde on September 06, 2002 at 11:59:55 PT
Well, duh! :)
But I reckon my idea will happen before yours.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #5 posted by p4me on September 06, 2002 at 11:50:09 PT
Writing while not high might show some attitude
We are all familiar with the white is black and jail is freedom logic of the prohibitionist. There was a Op-ed piece listed at BuzzFlash from todays NY Times about the double think and other mind-altering tactics of Carl Rove and Company: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/06/opinion/06KRUG.htmlMaybe it would be best to say that the news at http://www.buzzflash.com/ is awesome today. As Mayan might say, here are some unrelated links.Dim Son's job approval falls to 60% in Pew Research poll- America is catching on- http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020905/ap_to_po/bush_poll_1Rebecca Knight is a journalist from around Nashville that shares about the same view as me on Dim Son and she wrote a concise but wonderful piece that ends with the words, "Throw the bums out.": http://www.buzzflash.com/southern/2002/09/06_southern.html100 planes began bombing Iraq: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/09/06/wirq06.xml&sSheet=/news/2002/09/06/ixnewstop.html&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=32726I do not think this completely unrelated from the AP- Strange News section at Yahoo because it relates to elections. In Nevada they have a "None of these candidates" option on every race so that people can show their displeasure with the actual candidates running. For a VAAI hardcore this is a desirable thing to eliminate the problem of voting against an incumbent when he is running unopposed and a similar personal dilema for when the only opposing candidate is a Republican. AP calls has it in strange news but it seems like a great idea to me: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=816&ncid=816&e=10&u=/ap/20020904/ap_on_el_gu/candidate_nobody1,2
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #4 posted by VitaminT on September 06, 2002 at 11:48:26 PT
No No Wolfgang
the only thing that will solve it, will be PULLING THE DEA UP BY THE ROOTS!toss it out in the barren sand until it dries - then set it alight! On that day we celebrate!
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #3 posted by VitaminT on September 06, 2002 at 11:44:19 PT
I tend to think that . . . .
this is a message to Nevada. DEA has bypassed all local and state authorities in the conduct of these terrorist raids.The silence in Sacramento is deafening! It would seem that Davis and Lockyer had been told to sit tight and shut your mouth or your jobs will be federalized.Or maybe they're just a couple of turncoats who couldn't care less about the people who elected them and who freed the Herb for the sick and dying!
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #2 posted by WolfgangWylde on September 06, 2002 at 11:32:30 PT
The only thing that will solve...
...the problem is to get rid of the easily identifiable targets. Local authorities should just stop bothering anybody growing marijuana for any purpose. California's big mistake was trying to engender a more centralized supply that can be easily tracked down by the Feds.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #1 posted by p4me on September 06, 2002 at 08:52:57 PT
The DEA says, Walters says, Busch doesn't say
CAN'T IGNORE THE LAW, DEA SAYSIt is like DEAth is always talking but never listening. Here is an agency espousing public policy, lying, propagandizing if that is a word, regulating a schedule they enforce, that makes laws on hempfood that shock any rational and informed person and this is all they can say.Opinion is 3 to 1 against their lie that defies all reason that marijuana is not medicine and they do not say that. They do not say they cannot quote last years figures of marijuana arrest because the FBI lacks the competence to publish the Uniform Crime Report for a year that ended 250 days ago. They do not say that the speech writers that command Dim Son's words changed the script on supporting state's laws on MMJ and that he is to remain silent as the Civil War continues. And no article ever talks of the economic interest that want the lies and insanity to continue in spite of all the commissions and common sense that call for legalization of marijuana. No one talks about the media ban on anything cannabis by the powers that be or offer a new term for what in the past might have been called a free press.There is the iceburg and they tell us about the part we are all familiar with- the laws that suck outloud and need changing badly along with any politician stupid enough to support such oppressive and freedom-robbing laws.1,2
[ Post Comment ]


Post Comment