cannabisnews.com: Marijuana Showdown Looms in Santa Cruz
Marijuana Showdown Looms in Santa Cruz
Posted by CN Staff on September 12, 2002 at 19:31:31 PT
By Matthew B. Stannard, Chronicle Staff Writer
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Santa Cruz city leaders will join medicinal marijuana supporters at a pot giveaway at City Hall next week as a signal to federal law enforcement officers who broke up a medical marijuana club in the city, officials said today. "We want to call attention to this issue," Mayor Christopher Krohn said. "There was an injustice here being done and I think it's incumbent of the elected representatives to stand up for their constituents and make a statement."
Krohn said he assumes a majority of the City Council -- which he said is unified in support of medicinal marijuana -- will be there at the Tuesday giveaway, along with marijuana advocates and doctors. Federal law enforcement officials said they have received the message from Santa Cruz, but not necessarily the one the council meant to send. "We're shocked that any city officials would do anything like that," said Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Richard Meyer. "They're not only flaunting the law, they're also sending the message that you only have to obey the laws that you like." Krohn said he plans to be at the event and that only patients with recognized medical-marijuana cards would get pot. He said he is simply backing a policy his community overwhelmingly supports. "I do not feel like I'm committing a crime," he said. "I am standing in solidarity with these folks." The verbal salvos are the latest in a battle of words between Santa Cruz and the federal government. That fight heated up Sept. 5, when agents raided the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana and arrested founders Mike and Valerie Corral, who helped draft Proposition 215, California's 1996 medical marijuana initiative. The Corrals were freed and driven back to Santa Cruz the same day, Meyer said. The U.S. attorney's office has not filed charges in the case, a spokeswoman said. More than 160 plants were seized in the raid, Meyer said, one of several the agency has recently conducted in California. The raid infuriated local officials, who for six years had cooperated closely with the Corrals to craft a system to define medical users, issue identification and provide organically grown pot free of charge. Snipped: Complete Article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/09/12/MN138458.DTL Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)Author: Matthew B. Stannard, Chronicle Staff WriterPublished: Thursday, September 12, 2002 Copyright: 2002 San Francisco Chronicle - Page A - 1 Contact: letters sfchronicle.comWebsite: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/Related Articles & Web Sites:WAMMhttp://www.wamm.org/News Articles on WAMM Raidhttp://freedomtoexhale.com/valc.htmWAMM Bam--Thanks, Uncle Sam! http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14087.shtmlCity Leaders Back Medical Pot Giveawayhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14085.shtmlSanta Cruz Council to Allow Marijuana in City Hallhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14083.shtml
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Comment #13 posted by FoM on September 15, 2002 at 19:45:02 PT
Jose
That is a beautifully done chart. Thanks. I wanted to say that before now but got busy and just forgot. Very nice.
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Comment #12 posted by Jose Melendez on September 13, 2002 at 04:58:43 PT
expose wod as fraud
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Comment #11 posted by BGreen on September 13, 2002 at 01:06:41 PT
Lindy, I appreciate your pain
but your anger at the cannabis user is both misplaced and based upon stereotypes created by the same evil people who have locked up your sons. Increased penalties will just hurt more innocent non-violent people like your boys.We need to legalize and expunge the records of every person ever convicted of a cannabis offense, not increase the penalties and fill more prisons.
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Comment #10 posted by Lindy on September 13, 2002 at 00:59:20 PT:
--------3,000 to 5,400 Plants!!!!!!
I feel for these guys. Both of my sons (ages 34 and 36)have just started to do their year sentence at Sheridan Oregon Federal Prison for ONE hundred plants. Growing for Green Cross in Seattle did not protect them. They each got an "escape clause" for never having been in trouble before. My oldest son has never even had a parking ticket!! Otherwise they would be doing a mandatory 5 years. Their lawyers advised them to play down their involvement with the voter approved Cannibus Club, least they anger the federal judge and take the chance of being used as an example to other would-be growers. They had property siezed and their rights violated in a dozen ways. While visiting them one weekend, I met several wonderful and decent people
that are doing a tremendous amount of time. Some who have been in so long family and friends eventually forget about them. It is incredibly heartbreaking. If the Feds have their way Mr. Schmidt in Petaluma could get 20 years or more!!! The Bureau of Prisons just gets richer as they snare another inmate to perform their slave labor, actually making products to sell back to the government--like those $5,000 dollar coffee tables you hear about. BIG BUSINESS WAREHOUSING NON-VIOLENT HUMAN BEINGS. I think this whole campaign should be turned around! I think all those hipocritical closet smokers should get in just as much trouble smoking one joint! Why is the grower always the bad guy? Pot is worth more than GOLD. The grower would be out of business if there weren't so many (less culpable} buyers
sitting on their stoned asses acting like they are better than all those people in prison. Make one joint punishable by five years!!! I bet we'd see some real action then!!
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Comment #9 posted by Dan B on September 12, 2002 at 23:11:36 PT:
Good Work, Rainbow!
It sounds to me like maybe the guy you spoke to was ready to ask himself the same questions you asked him, and all he needed was your voice on the other end of the phone to tell him his conscious was not lying to him. I applaud you for having the guts to call and talk with the guy, and I think you handled it very well. Thank you. I believe you just made a slam dunk for the good guys.Dan B
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on September 12, 2002 at 21:16:14 PT
Update On Newest Raid
DEA RAID IN PETALUMA... PROTEST ON MONDAY, SEPT. 16
Please forward this message to your friends.
For the second time in one week the DEA has raided a medical cannabis (marijuana) dispensary in California. This morning, DEA agents raided the Genesis 1:29 dispensary in Petaluma, CA. Agents also raided a medical garden associated with the dispensary.
Patients and loved ones are outraged by this escalation in the federal anti-medical cannabis campaign. Just last week, the DEA raided a similar dispensary in Santa Cruz. The DEA has targeted 6 medical dispensaries in the last year.
We are calling on all medical cannabis supporters to join Americans for Safe Access (www.SafeAccessNow.org) and its national coalition in protesting the latest raid. There will be demonstrations at federal buildings in cities all over the country at 12:00 PM on Monday, September 16.
Your participation is crucial. We must keep the pressure on the federal government in this time of crisis. I know many of you demonstrated last week for this same issue. We need you -- plus many others --again. I urge you to take sick days or vacation time if possible.
In Oakland, the demonstration will be at the downtown federal building at 1301 Clay St. at 14th. Use the 12th St./City Center BART. Arrive by 12:00 PM with signs, banners, pictures of patients, etc.
In San Francisco, the demonstration will be at the downtown federal building at 450 Golden Gate. Use the Civic Center BART. Arrive by 12:00 PM with signs, banners, pictures of patients, etc.
For locations in other cities, please contact our office (below).
Thank you for your continued support and vigilance. Let's keep up the pressure and force them to stop this outrageous behavior. See you Monday!
-- Don Duncan
Americans for Safe Access
www.SafeAccessNow.org
Toll Free Hotline (888) 929-4367
Tel. (510) 486-8083
Fax (510) 486-8090
Steph Sherer
Executive Director
Cannabis Action Network -- http://www.cannabisaction.net
and Americans for Safe Access -- http://www.safeaccessnow.org
1678 Shattuck Ave. #317
Berkeley, CA 94709
phone: 510-486-8083
fax: 510-486-8090
Press Democrat:
DEA raids Sebastopol pot farm
Federal agents descended on a ranch on the outskirts of Sebastopol this morning in a raid that netted thousands of mature marijuana plants.
Through the morning and into the afternoon, more than a dozen armed men worked their way through a gently sloping hillside taking chainsaws to a marijuana crop estimated at between 3,000 and 5,400 plants.
Robert Schmidt, operator of a medical marijuana club in Petaluma, was arrested for allegedly assaulting a federal Drug Enforcement Administration agent during the 6:20 a.m. raid and trying to take the agent’s firearm, said an official.
He likely will be arraigned Friday in federal court in San Francisco, officials said.
Schmidt is a tenant on the ranch at 854 Martin Lane, just west of Sebastopol. He and supporters said the marijuana was being grown to supply Genesis, the Petaluma medical pot club, and other such clubs in the Bay Area.
Many of the clubs were opened after voters in 1996 approved Proposition 215, an initiative that allowed marijuana use for medical purposes with a doctor's recommendation.
All marijuana use is illegal under federal law, which supersedes state law.
Jeremy Hay
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Comment #7 posted by VitaminT on September 12, 2002 at 20:30:32 PT
OK Folks, time to hit the streets!
My voice is well rested and I'm ready to let the people hear it!
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Comment #6 posted by Rainbow on September 12, 2002 at 20:17:22 PT
DEAth
I spoke with a DEA person in DC asking why they had not posted a news article about the WAMM raid on the DEA website. I was directed to Richard Meyer the PIO in san Fran. When I said he was not returning calls to anyone I was given a general number in San Fran.I then asked for Mr Meyer again and was directed to a phone number that switched over to an apparent secretary who was out till who knows when. I could not understand her and really thought I was given a number of a foreign embassy.So then I was directed to the Duty agent on call. I mentioned to him that I got an answering machine that sounded like a non-American speaking and it could not have been a government employee. We had a laugh about that one :-) (disarm and then plead the case). I spoke with him and asked for pictrures of the WAMM bust. I wanted to see the pictures of handcuffed wheelchair bound folks. he said no one was handcuffed in a wheelchair. I said Oh that darn media is lying afgain. he was quiet.Then I asked him from the bottom of my heart how people could aim 5 guns at a person who was parapelgic. He said we gotta get those drug dealers on the street. I reminded him that WAMM was high on a mountain top. I said I just do not understand why people have to go around hurting people and that went for drug dealers and people pointing guns at sick and dying people. I long quiet on his part.I asked him how he could do this type of thing and why he would do it to people. He was very very quiet. Then said well marijuana is not the answer. I said it is for those people as the pharmicos do not have anything better.I just left it with him to search his soul and try to figure out for himself if hurting people is the best thing to do.I suggest others try calling and ask simple questions like this. I came across as one who wanted to see the proof of the raid and then caught him in his own sickenning position.Simply how can you hurt people.He did not have a good answer and said he would have Richard Meyer call me tomorrow. That will not happen. Part of my strategy is to get to the people who are doing the harm and maybe they will start to have second thoughts about what their evil leaders are asking them to do.They justify these kinds of actions by rhetoric and not on the basic treat people as you would want to be treated. They are not taught to think consequences only action. They need to learn the pain and evil.yes I know it was for naught but maybe just maybe I put some doubt this this young man's mind and he will think differently next time.I had fun but was careful not to be too pushy forward or on a crusade. I did not come across as a person who is an mmj supporter just as a supporter of moral beliefs. He was caught off guard and had no response.Try it you might like it. Mutiny is possible if we get enough to start recognizing that their actions are really against people and not some bad guys.cheers,
Rainbow
P.S. the phone numbers can be found at www.dea.gov I was looking for the minnesota numbers.
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on September 12, 2002 at 20:11:06 PT
Another Raid!
EMERGENCY RESPONSE! DISPENSARY RAIDED 9/12!
September 12 - Emergency response alert from Americans for Safe Access - ANOTHER RAID!
Monday 16th, noon - Please go to your closest federal building and protest the war on patients!
The Genesis medical cannabis dispensary in Petaluma was raided, and Robert Schmidt, the owner, was arrrested by the DEA today. They also raided a garden in Sebastopol in connection with Genesis. We will post the details as we get them, but it's time to kick our response into gear. Please, call your lists, your friends, local, state, and FEDERAL officials...and come out in force on Monday!
All the more reason for all to come to Sacramento to protest on the 23rd!!
There will be Emergency Response Demos at you local Federal Building at noon on Monday, September 16th.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org
http://www.cannabisaction.net/index.php
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Comment #4 posted by BGreen on September 12, 2002 at 19:55:57 PT
I borrowed the format from Dr. Russo
I hope he doesn't mind.
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Comment #3 posted by p4me on September 12, 2002 at 19:50:12 PT
The federal position is a joke
The only reason California has a problem with anything federal over MMJ is the misclassification of cannabis. This is another article pushed towards worthless because it does not bring up the Schedule One Lie. I think I could name one doctor that would have to be considered an authority on the subject of MMJ and I say he would not only say that marijuana has no place on either a schedule 1 or schedule 2 classification. I just wish someone would hit the nail on the head and quote some real experts so the public at large will see the sadness of this joke.1,2
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on September 12, 2002 at 19:49:49 PT
Thanks BGreen
I appreciate your post.
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Comment #1 posted by BGreen on September 12, 2002 at 19:43:56 PT
The rest of the article and my comment
It also led state Attorney General Bill Lockyer to fire off a letter to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft asking for a meeting to "discuss the federal government's unprecedented attacks on locally authorized medical marijuana operations.""A medicinal marijuana provider such as the Santa Cruz collective represents little danger to the public, 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," Lockyer wrote.Nevertheless, marijuana distribution remains a violation of federal law, Meyer said."Regardless of who distributes it, marijuana is an illegal substance under federal law. Whoever does it would be breaking federal law," he said. He declined to say whether the council members would be subject to arrest, but said, "We're studying the situation."Santa Cruz resident and City Council candidate Phil Baer, however, said the current council should face arrest if they help distribute the pot next week."I think it's wrong," Baer said. "If they wanted to say, 'I'm not doing this as a City Council member, I'm doing this as a private citizen' . . . I could perhaps accept it. But they are doing it as a council."I don't think it is representative of what most people feel, even in this kind of left-leaning city," Baer said.But City Attorney John Barisone said the only thing the council members have done officially is endorse a "very strongly worded" condemnation of the DEA raid."They have not officially sanctioned any event or demonstration. The courtyard where this event is going to take place next Tuesday is an open forum," he said. "Getting elected to the city council, you don't leave your own First Amendment rights to participate in the political process at the doorstep."***********************************************************If the DEAth doesn't arrest the council members then how can they justify arresting anybody?"Regardless of who distributes it, marijuana is an illegal substance under federal law. Whoever does it would be breaking federal law," he said. He declined to say whether the council members would be subject to arrest, but said, "We're studying the situation."
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