cannabisnews.com: Vigil Held for Cannabis Club Vigil Held for Cannabis Club Posted by FoM on November 16, 2001 at 07:45:05 PT By Malaika Costello-Dougherty Source: Los Angeles Independent With waves of tears washing his face, Kirk Wilson described how he hadn't been able to eat in three days and needed medical marijuana."I don't know now where to go to get anything. I feel sick all the time, it is really unfair," Wilson said through sobs. "Especially with all the expletive that is going on. It is the one stable thing. I knew I could come here. God, what more do they want from my psyche at this point?" Wilson, who was diagnosed with AIDS in 1985, has been a member of the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center for three years. He started going to the LACRC after his doctor recommended that medical marijuana could help him gain weight and said it was the first place he found help."It is closed, I don't eat, I don't know where to go," Wilson said. "It is lost. We can gather, we can cry, but it's the whole Supreme Court."Wilson stood near last Tuesday's candlelight vigil for the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center that was raided by the Drug Enforcement Agency on Oct. 25. The raid followed a May decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled marijuana does not have medical value and that it is against federal law.The Nov. 6 vigil also coincided with the five-year anniversary of the passage by California voters of Proposition 215, or the Compassionate Use Act, which legalized medical marijuana at the state level. The state and federal laws are in conflict, but federal law trumps state law."We voted," read one protest sign.Moments later, LACRC President Scott Imler took the stage and announced that "until legal issues are resolved, the LACRC co-op, garden and its program are closed."The crowd of more than 275 booed and hissed. Imler said they would do the best they could to resuscitate the center, if possible. "We are sorry," he added, "but you need to understand that the LACRC as it existed is no more."On the gloomy and cold night, LACRC members wept openly over the closure of the center.The LACRC was a nonprofit patient collective that grew and distributed marijuana to its 960 members, who had doctor's recommendations. Court documents establish that the LACRC is under investigation for the "manufacturing and distribution of controlled substances and related money-laundering offenses." No arrest warrants have yet been issued.Imler said that they are being treated like criminals and he is very worried about arrests. He called the DEA raid a major escalation in tactics and the first time that a patient's group has been raided.The LACRC raid is part of a larger crackdown in Los Angeles: Imler said the Santa Monica police busted the Santa Monica cannabis club a few weeks before the LACRC raid. A sickle cell anemia self-help group in South-Central Los Angeles was closed by the Los Angeles Police Department on Oct. 5. An Inglewood club opted to shut itself down. Imler says the 13 clubs in San Francisco are worried that federal agents are on their way."They took the medical records. That's a no-no," a member of the crowd yelled about the DEA's seizure of doctor's names and members' medical records. The DEA also seized the marijuana plants, growing equipment, computers and other paperwork.Craig Harshbarger stood on the street corner holding a sign that read, "DEA the other terrorist." Harshbarger is an LACRC member who uses medical marijuana for Tourette's syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder. He said that marijuana helps minimize his vocal tics and twitching as well as allows him to relax. Harshbarger said that since the DEA raid he can't get his medicine and has been using tranquilizers."We voted, we made our decision, they are not respecting that. Bush is a hypocrite. It makes me mad," Harshbarger said. They might "come knock my door down for growing my own."Capt. Lynda Castro, commanding officer of the West Hollywood Sheriff's Station, spoke to the crowd and assured them that, for now at least, the Sheriff's Department would not be knocking down medical marijuana users' doors. Castro said that the local law and the federal law were not in sync and that sheriff's deputies would continue to do "the right thing."Castro noted that recently two patients who cultivated marijuana plants had come in contact with sheriff's deputies and the situations were treated as a patient issue, with no arrests and no seizures.Castro said that until the conflict between the laws is clarified, sheriff's deputies would honor patients' rights and would act "based on compassion as well as what the law calls for," the law being California's Proposition 215.Wendy Stone openly cried as she described that she has a 10-year-old child and can't take the risk of getting medical marijuana illegally. Stone uses medical marijuana to help stop cramping related to an ulcerative colitis."It's awful. I have no medicine, I have to take larger doses of narcotics for the pain, and there is a greater risk of becoming dependent. It's all I can do," Stone said.Councilman and LACRC legal counsel John Duran roused the crowd with a speech about civil rights movements and their necessary struggles."We will know we have won when marijuana is rescheduled. That is the goal," Duran said. He listed the other states with medical marijuana legislation -- Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, Alaska, Nevada, Colorado, Arizona and Maine. "We do not stand alone."Until their unjust principles crumble, and they will, we are not leaving this corner," he said. "Stay close, we're going to need one another, some may be arrested, some may spend some time in jail...."You stood up to the federal government and joined a long list of activists," Duran said to applause.LACRC Vice President Jeffrey Farrington, a glaucoma patient, who supervised the plants and is named in the court documents, said that he is "more concerned with going blind than going to jail," and added that if he goes to jail he will also go blind.Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg said that the Republican party touted itself as the party of states' rights but that with the raid they have shown they don't mean it. "What they are about is power," she said.Goldberg questioned how, when they can't fix the safety at the airports, they "can worry about 960 people getting the medicine they need to stay alive and out of pain."Councilman Steve Martin said that he would "invite George Bush to come to West Hollywood and meet the people here and see if he has the courage or the cojones to stand by the decision that's been made by the DEA.""No cojones," yelled a member of the audience.Assemblyman Paul Koretz spoke to the crowd about how the fifth anniversary of the passage of Proposition 215 turned out to be a sad day. He said he hoped for the day that "marijuana was available in the pharmacy and not through the street, which is unfortunately the only choice you have now."Harry Scheiver is in a wheelchair because of spastic paraplegia related to AIDS. He said that without medical marijuana his spasms get so bad that it is unbearable. Now, he said his life partner will have to go to the streets for marijuana, which they did five years ago, and were robbed.Congressman Henry Waxman wrote a letter describing his outrage and that he is a co-sponsor of House Bill 1344, which would let states decide the issue of medical marijuana for themselves.Ronald Reagan's former speechwriter, Lyn Nofziger, also wrote a letter saying that though he was a conservative Republican he supported the legalization of medical marijuana because his daughter died of cancer and medical marijuana helped her before her death.During the night, the LACRC members responded to a gong and then proceeded in a single line from the empty center across the street to the vigil."Amazing Grace" was sung, sheriff's deputies stopped traffic, the media cameras flashed and patient after patient walked solemnly across the street -- some being pushed in wheelchairs, others with canes. The flag in front of the LACRC hung upside down, a symbol of being under siege.Fifty-six flags were carried to represent the 56 percent of Californians who voted for Proposition 215. After the members reassembled, a fire truck and an ambulance drove by and they raised their candles and cheered."La lucha continua," promised Marlene Rasnick, a ovarian cancer patient -- the struggle continues.Source: Los Angeles Independent (CA)Author: Malaika Costello-DoughertyPublished: November 16, 2001Contact: editor laindependent.comWebsite: http://indep.townnews.com/news/Related Articles & Web Sites:Los Angeles County Research Centerhttp://www.lacbc.org/Medicinal Cannabis Research Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/research.htm DEA Raids West Hollywood Cannabis Club http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11343.shtmlCannabis Club Raided by DEAhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11253.shtmlThe Other War - LA Weekly http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11233.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #2 posted by QcStrt on November 17, 2001 at 07:24:56 PT <<Radio Station>> Is there a National Radio Station that we can interact with on Hemp and Cannabis in the USA, like the Art Bell on UFO's. If not can someone get one started for all of US that are into a better live. let the people put it on other boards and see if we can get one, there should be some Cooperate or individuals out here that well Help the CAUSE. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by E_Johnson on November 16, 2001 at 10:31:28 PT Here's the vigil - a slide show with audio http://superstringtheory.com/vigil/vigil.html [ Post Comment ] Post Comment