cannabisnews.com: Wolf Blitzer Reports Transcripts: WAMM Raid





Wolf Blitzer Reports Transcripts: WAMM Raid
Posted by CN Staff on September 16, 2002 at 18:13:03 PT
Wolf Blitzer Reports - September 16, 2002
Source: CNN.com
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)O'BRIEN: In Santa Cruz, California, a battle over medical marijuana heating up. City leaders plan to join medical marijuana users at city hall tomorrow. It's a response to the Drug Enforcement Administration's raid on a local marijuana farm and the arrests of its owners. 
CNN national correspondent, Frank Buckley, is in Santa Cruz with the latest -- hello, Frank.FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Miles. At city hall here in Santa Cruz, it'll be a sanctuary for medical users of marijuana. Tomorrow during a demonstration, 10 to 15 users of marijuana will be given their monthly allotment from a local cooperative as city officials and law enforcement officials look on in support. This follows a raid that took place on the local cooperative that was involved in distributing the medically prescribed marijuana, the cooperative run by Valerie and Michael Coral, very prominent leaders in this area of medically prescribed marijuana. They were arrested by the DEA for allegedly violating federal drug laws.City leaders here say this demonstration is not a condoning of drug use, but they say it is a -- support for the Corals and for patients who use marijuana.(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)MAYOR CHRISTOPHER KROHN, SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA: There's no condoning of smoking marijuana without a prescription. There's nothing -- it's not a smoke-in, it's not -- whatever people might conceive of it as, it isn't. It is a community that cares about community members who are very vulnerable and are suffering from terminal illness and they're medically -- using medically prescribed marijuana to relieve that suffering.(END VIDEO CLIP)BUCKLEY: DEA officials say they are simply following the federal law that marijuana is not allowed. There is no exception, according to the U.S. Supreme Court, for medically allowed marijuana. And they are simply following the law. They haven't said if they will be in attendance tomorrow or if they will making any arrests tomorrow here at city hall --Miles.O'BRIEN: CNN's Frank Buckley in Santa Cruz. We're not done with this subject. When we return, should the feds leave California's medical marijuana growers alone? We'll have a little debate for you when we come back.(COMMERCIAL BREAK) O'BRIEN: We're talking more about this issue of medical marijuana. Ben Rice is with us from Santa Cruz. He is the attorney for the two medicinal pot farmers who were arrested and in Washington, Robert Maginnis with the Family Research Council.Mr. Rice, let me begin with you. If you could just give me a sense of what the purpose of this pot giveaway is? It seems as if it's a bit provocative.BEN RICE, DEFENDANTS ATTORNEY: Well, we're not looking at it as an attempt to provoke the government here. We're hoping that by showing the kind of support that Valerie and Michael have and the WHAM community has here in Santa Cruz County, to show what kind of an operation they have, if you will, that this is a patient-based hospice-type organization, where no money changes hands, that these are people who are -- many of whom are terminally ill, who have nowhere else to turn, that this will be a form of education for the state and also show just that we do have this kind of support.O'BRIEN: Colonel Maginnis, what's the matter with that? The idea here is that for medicinal purposes, for people who are terminally ill; let's provide some relief? How do you respond to that?ROBERT MAGINNIS, FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL: Well, Miles, we certainly want to give sick people medicine, but the fact is that, you know, we don't smoke medicine in order -- at least most people say it's not a very healthy way in which we ingest.But I think the bottom line, Miles, is that in America, we provide pure properly dosed medicines, not crude substances that are filled with poisons that can suppress the immune system and -- which is like marijuana, you know. We have a problem, obviously, I think, with turning this on its head. You know the compassion ought to be directed at the hundreds and thousands of, especially young Americans today, who, you know, by the time they are at high school, about 50 percent are using -- that can't really think straight, that are driving while, you know, using this substance, and are really having some terrible medical consequences. Some parents, quite frankly, can't find the treatment for them. So let's make sure compassion is appropriately applied her and not just to the few that are alleged to be suffering.O'BRIEN: All right, Colonel Maginnis, you put a lot on the plate. Let's go back to Mr. Rice here. The argument here is that this is a bad example for children who we don't want to encourage to use marijuana after all. How do you respond to that, Mr. Rice?RICE: Well, this is -- well, this is -- this is not about whether marijuana should be legalized or decriminalized. This is just about whether or not these patients should be allowed, as they are, under California law, to follow their doctor's advice and use medical marijuana.O'BRIEN: But it is a violation of federal law -- wait, it is a violation of federal law and isn't that a message...RICE: It is.O'BRIEN: ... a rather overt message to young people?RICE: Well, I think that the voters of the state of California have overwhelmingly declared that medical marijuana is something that should be available to doctors and patients. And it's unfortunate that the feds haven't, as of yet, removed medical marijuana off the schedule one. I mean doctors prescribe every day; really serious medicines to people that are much more -- they have a lot more side effects and have a lot more deleterious effects than marijuana. We should make this a doctor-patient decision.O'BRIEN: Colonel Maginnis, you know, I began by asking Mr. Rice if what is being planned for tomorrow is provocative. You could make a case of what the federal government did was provocative in this case. And your point is well taken, that you don't want to send the wrong message to children, but by making the arrest, drawing attention, hasn't the federal government unwittingly drawn more attention to the whole idea?MAGINNIS: Well, no doubt, Miles, it's drawn attention to it, but keep in mind, we're a system of federalism and what happened in Santa Cruz is an example of how federalism works. You know you can protest...O'BRIEN: Well, what about state rights? What about state rights?MAGINNIS: Well, you can protest against a federal law and try to change it, but don't pause at the ridiculous notion that a state can decriminalize something that the federal government has criminalized, you know. We need a -- to go through a legitimate process of getting the federal government -- there are representatives and senators in California who can vote in the Congress and say, "We don't like the Controlled Substance Act. We want to get it changed and removed."Now, recently that was -- the process was executed and the DEA and the HHS delivered a decision that said basically, "No, we disagree that this should not be changed." And the Supreme Court said, you know, last year, frankly, that, you know, marijuana is not to be delivered legally to sick people in California.O'BRIEN: All right, we're going to have to leave it there, unfortunately. Time does not permit a little more of a debate on this, although we could go on undoubtedly. Ben Rice, Robert Maginnis, we appreciate your time here on CNN.And here's your chance to weigh in on this story. Our "Web Question of The Day" -- should the feds learn to leave California's medical marijuana growers alone? Vote at: http://www.cnn.com/wolf While you're there, send us your comments. We'll do our best to ready some of them on the air each day, time permitting, also, read our daily on-line column at: http://www.cnn.com/wolfSnipped: Complete Transcripts: http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0209/16/wbr.00.htmlSource: CNN (US Web) Show: Wolf Blitzer ReportsShow Date: September 16, 2002Copyright: 2002 Cable News Network, Inc. Website: http://www.cnn.com/ Contact: cnn.feedback cnn.comRelated Articles & Web Sites:WAMMhttp://www.wamm.org/News Articles on WAMM Raidhttp://freedomtoexhale.com/valc.htmOdd Twists Leave Couple in Center of Pot Debatehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14122.shtmlUS Ignoring Marijuana Research http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14120.shtmlConflict Heightens in California Marijuana Battlehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14102.shtml
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Comment #7 posted by DdC on September 16, 2002 at 20:59:07 PT
FRCn McGinnis' 15 minutes are up!!!
The assassins of youth...DARE the FRCn PDFA!!!
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=105.topic
FRCn Idiots
http://www.cannabinoid.com/boards/politics/media/35/35117.gif
FRCn Online Shopping
http://www.cannabinoid.com/boards/politics/media/35/35099.gif
Maginnis McFRCn
http://www.cannabinoid.com/boards/politics/media/35/35129.gif
Welcome to Reality
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Comment #6 posted by The GCW on September 16, 2002 at 20:20:03 PT
This is the trail that Robert L. Maginnis 
uses that helps lay the golden egg of prohbition.US NY' OPED: Canadian Marijuana Madness Could Infect The United
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1484/a06.html
Newshawk: http://www.reconsider.org/
Pubdate: Sat, 11 Aug 2001 
Source: Watertown Daily Times (NY) 
Contact: letters wdt.net 
Website: http://www.wdt.net 
 
Author: Robert L. Maginnis 
Note: Maginnis is Policy Vice President for the Family Research Council 
http://www.frc.org/ CANADIAN MARIJUANA MADNESS COULD INFECT THE UNITED STATES =-=-=-=-=-=-=(this is more of the crap that spews from the mouth and pen of Robert L. Maginnis that lays the trail that helps lay the golden egg of prohbition.)At the MAP index / search engine, I noticed Rob has left a trail.1 US OK: OPED: Drug Terrorism Sun, 07 Oct 2001 105 
2 CN MB: OPED: U.S. Sliding Down The Drug Slope Mon, 13 Aug 2001 114 
3    US CA: OPED: Some In US Huff While Canadians Puff Marijuana Sat, 11 Aug 2001 Excerpt 
4 US NY' OPED: Canadian Marijuana Madness Could Infect The United Sat, 11 Aug 2001 119 
5 US SC: OPED: Homicide And Drug Habits - Pregant Women Beware Thu, 21 Jun 2001 98 
6 US MN: OPED: The Damage Done Thu, 11 Jan 2001 106 
7 US MO: OPED: 'Traffic' Provides Wake-Up Call For Bush Tue, 09 Jan 2001 108 
8 US DC: OPED: MMJ: DC's Trojan Horse Initiative Mon, 26 Oct 1998 31 
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Comment #5 posted by p4me on September 16, 2002 at 19:40:24 PT
I plea for the loan of your heart
We have all the tools we need to defeat our prohibitionist enemy. It is the point at the end of the Wizard of Oz where Dorothy is told she has had the key to her heart's desire all along. My friends, we have had the means to end the nasty world prohibition that the US has subjected upon the countries of the world for the last 40 years all along. The answer is in the cannabis bible that Jack Herer wrote for us that we have neglected.In his book The Emperor Wears No Clothes we are told the true story of cannabis. We all post links trying to spread information and swap words that may make the world a better place to live. I offer my link to the key to freedom and it is the first page of our bible that Jack Herer wrote when imprisoned. It is free and only a click away. If I were to nominate one and only one link for the spreading of our message it would be this one: http://www.jackherer.com/book/ch01.htmlThat link will lead to 15 more chapters that can inform us all. It is the one link that I would humbly ask you bookmark and spread to the reaches of the internet. But now I would like to address the above article with some information from our Emperor of Hemp.First I would say that the original Tax Act prohibition was led by the paper industry and submit Mr. Herer's words from Chapter 4:Coincidentally, in 1937, DuPont had just patented processes for making plastics from oil and coal, as well as a new sulfate/sulfite process for making paper from wood pulp. According to DuPont's own corporate records and historians,* these processes accounted for over 80 percent of all the company's railroad carloadings over the next 60 years into the 1990s.*Author's research and communications with DuPont, 1985-1996. If hemp had not been made illegal, 80 percent of DuPont's business would never have materialized and the great majority of the pollution which has poisoned our Northwestern and Southeastern rivers would not have occurred.Having said that we must address the subject of medicine and with bold letters I copy the following from Chapter 5:he Bush/Quayle/Lilly Pharmaceutical SelloutIn America, marijuana's most outspoken opponents are none other than former First Lady Nancy Reagan (1981-1989) and former President George Bush (1989-1993), the former Director of the CIA under Gerald Ford (1975-1977) and past director of President Reagan's "Drug Task Force" (1981-1988).After leaving the CIA in 1977, Bush was made director of Eli Lily to none other than Dan Quayle's father and family, who owned controlling interest in the Lilly company and the Indianapolis Star. Dan Quayle later acted as go-between for drug kingpins, gun runners and government officials in the Iran-Contra scandals.The entire Bush family was large stockholders in Lilly, Abbott, Bristol and Pfizer, etc. After Bush's disclosure of assets in 1979, it became public that Bush's family still has a large interest in Pfizer and substantial amounts of stock in the other aforementioned drug companies.In fact, Bush actively lobbied illegally both within and without the administration as Vice President in 1981 to permit drug companies to dump more unwanted, obsolete or especially domestically-banned substances on unsuspecting Third World countries.While Vice President, Bush continued to illegally act on behalf of pharmaceutical companies by personally going to the IRS for special tax breaks for certain drug companies (e.g. Lilly) manufacturing in Puerto Rico. In 1982, Vice President Bush was personally ordered to stop lobbying the IRS on behalf of the drug companies by the U.S. Supreme Court itself. (See Appendix.)He did - but they (the pharmaceuticals) still received a 23% additional tax break for their companies in Puerto Rico who make these American outlawed drugs for sale to Third World countries.From Chapter 6:Protecting Pharmaceutical Companies' ProfitsNORML, High Times, and Omni (September 1982) indicate that Eli Lilly, Abbott Labs, Pfizer, Smith, Kline & French, and others would lose hundreds of millions, to billions of dollars annually, and lose even more billions in Third World countries, if marijuana were legal in the U.S.*And to address the bullshit about the pill companies want safety from Chapter 6:Some of these drugs have been forbidden by the FDA for sale or use in the U.S. or its counterparts in Europe because they are known to cause malnutrition, deformities and cancer. Yet they are sold over-the- counter to unsuspecting illiterates!The World Health Organization backs up this story with a conservative estimate: they say that some 500,000 people are poisoned each year in Third World countries by items (drugs, pesticides, etc.) sold by American companies but which are banned from sale in the U.S.*1,2
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Comment #4 posted by The GCW on September 16, 2002 at 19:16:37 PT
Oh, how things haven't changed,
for almost exactly 2,000 years.Have You adjusted Your calender, yet?"...the ordinary form of criminal trial, such as the one Jesus was subjected to before Pilate......This is quite literally the originary legal precedent upon which contemporary American Prohibition is based..." cont. Shamanism and the Drug Propaganda: Idolatry http://www.drugwar.com/idolatry.shtm by Dan Russell We are not pissed, alone!Believe Me when I tell You, Our Father is pissed.The Green Collar Worker, in all of Us.Christ God would rather that We love one another and He said so.walters, asa, bush and dick... 
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Comment #3 posted by The GCW on September 16, 2002 at 19:05:38 PT
We allow children to listen to prohibitionists.
How does that effect children?Does that message say We don't care about Our kids, or what?We allow prohibitionists to brainwash Our children.We should be ashamed.And where did this start?Shamanism and the Drug Propaganda: Idolatry http://www.drugwar.com/idolatry.shtm by Dan Russell http://www.drugwar.com/index.shtm "...This was a cognitio extra ordinem, which, despite its name, became the ordinary form of criminal trial, such as the one Jesus was subjected to before Pilate. The likes of Domitian could then promulgate a prohibitio and instruct his magistrates to institute inquisitions on their own initiative, operating under the Emperor's legis vigorem. It was these seminal legal thinkers who institutionalized the concept of sacrilegium ('stealing of sacred things') as maiestas, treason, in Western law, via Justinian's Code, the violation of a prohibitio being a sacrilege. This is quite literally the originary legal precedent upon which contemporary American Prohibition is based..." cont. 
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on September 16, 2002 at 18:37:15 PT
JR Lou Dobbs
Na I like you're name!Unless of course he owes you money and that name then sounds just fine! LOL!
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Comment #1 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on September 16, 2002 at 18:31:02 PT
The rest + my two cents
Now, here's how you're weighing in on our "Web Question of The Day." Earlier we asked -- should the feds leave California's medical marijuana growers alone? Eight-three percent of you said, yes, 17 percent said, no. Remember, nothing scientific about that poll.That's all the time we have today. Wolf Blitzer will be back tomorrow at 5:00 Eastern. Until then, I'm Miles O'Brien. Thanks very much for watching. "LOU DOBBS MONEYLINE" begins right now. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-I claim no relation to Lou Dobbs - unless, of course, someone can prove he owes me money.Sent to wolf cnn.com : How does arresting sick people send the right message to children? We allow medical access to cocaine and heroin, does that send the wrong message?Send email to Wolf - he's bound to read some of it in the next day or so!
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