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Protesters provided medical marijuana
SANTA CRUZ, California (CNN) -- At least seven patients accepted small plastic bags containing medical-marijuana-filled muffins on the steps of Santa Cruz city hall Tuesday, nearly two weeks after federal agents tore down 167 marijuana plants on a local farm legally allowed to grow the herb. The symbolic protest was meant to highlight what marijuana supporters say is the Bush administration's crackdown on legal marijuana cooperatives and on patients who smoke the herb to combat symptoms of various illnesses, including cancer and AIDS. The protesters, some of them in wheelchairs, held signs calling for the national legalization of marijuana.
As the names of the seven randomly selected patients were read and their medical condition noted, they came forward for a doctor-recommended dose of marijuana, baked into muffins packed in small, clear plastic bags. The active ingredients of the plant were also distributed in pills and syrups. Demonstrators were asked not to smoke the herb during the protest. "Medical marijuana is meant to help people," said Ron Sampson, 48, a pancreatic cancer patient, as he picked up his marijuana. "People should be able to get the medicine they need for their relief." Santa Cruz city officials also spoke out in support of the patients, including Mayor Christopher Krohn and several members of the city council. Federal agents on September 5 raided the local cooperative that legally grew the marijuana under Californian law, and arrested its owners, Mike and Valerie Corral. Local police had been consulted when the cooperative was created to assure them that the operation was legal, but the federal raid took place without local authorities' knowledge. The Corrals were released from custody and have not yet been charged. Ben Rice, the attorney for the Corrals and for WAMM, the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, said the arrest was a "method of intimidation." "Our garden was raided by the federal government," Valerie Corral said at Tuesday's rally. "I want to thank WAMM from the bottom of my heart for the courageous members who stopped the DEA at our gate, who faced the DEA, and then who allowed Mike and I to be released in what Mike called a 'hostage exchange.'" An official from the Drug Enforcement Administration said the agency is responsible for enforcing laws against marijuana, but California Attorney General Bill Lockyer questioned the agency's zeal. Marijuana "represents little danger to the public," Lockyer wrote to the agency in a letter dated September 6, "and is certainly not a concern which would warrant diverting scarce federal resources away from the fight against domestic methamphetamine production, heroin distribution or international terrorism, to cite just a few far more worthy priorities." Hours before the rally in Santa Cruz, the director of national drug control policy and the U.S. surgeon general kicked off a new media campaign in Washington aimed at curbing marijuana use, especially by teenagers. Director John Walters said marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug among America's youth, and that "twice as many eighth-graders have tried marijuana today than a decade ago." (Full story) The new campaign comes just two weeks after a Canadian Senate committee took an opposite course, recommending that marijuana be legalized in that country. It based its decision on a study it said showed that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol, and smoking it does not lead to use of harder drugs.
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