cannabisnews.com: Medical Marijuana Backed in Santa Cruz Medical Marijuana Backed in Santa Cruz Posted by CN Staff on September 17, 2002 at 23:40:27 PT By Joe Grossman, UPI Science News Source: United Press International Quadriplegic people in wheelchairs and other people walking haltingly with serious terminal diseases came to the red brick courtyard of city hall under a cloudless sky Tuesday to receive marijuana preparations in defiance of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration policy. City and county officials participated in the event, which was organized by medical marijuana users despite a recent DEA raid on a local garden. Six of the seven Santa Cruz city council members and two former mayors expressed their support for medical marijuana for the ill. "We're putting patients first," Santa Cruz mayor Christopher Krohn told United Press International. "These are community members, some of the most vulnerable in our community, many who are terminally ill." The distribution is legal under California law but not federal law, and the DEA seems unlikely to support any change in enforcement policy. "The cultivation, distribution or possession of marijuana is illegal under federal law," agency spokesman Tom Hinojosa told UPI. "If there was evidence based on scientific study, demonstrating benefit, that might influence the DEA's thinking about whether or not physicians should be permitted to prescribe marijuana under federal law."Members of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana placed muffins with marijuana leaves as an ingredient as well as a liquid extraction of marijuana and a marijuana preparation in a milk base, on a table. Ten members of WAMM, who had drawn lots out of a hat to participate, came forward in front of a crowd of about 600 to obtain their weekly doses. Those who are able to pay for the marijuana from WAMM do so, others do not. The drug is smoked by some patients, a WAMM member told UPI.Medical marijuana users suffer from a variety of ailments such as cancer, chronic pain from muscle spasms in quadriplegia, HIV infection, AIDS, and post-polio syndrome. "It decreases my involuntary muscle spasms a lot and helps tremendously with nerve pain," WAMM member Levi Castro, who is paralyzed from the neck down, told UPI. "I don't need to take a lot of the medications I used to be on, so it's a lot less harmful on my liver and kidneys." Hal Margolin said it helps his chronic peripheral neuropathy, which gives him 24-hour pain. Patients with AIDS, post-polio syndrome, prostate cancer and brittle diabetes also told UPI the medical marijuana helps reduce pain. At least 12 of WAMM's 250 members have died over the past nine months, said WAMM spokesman Denis Berry.Valerie Corral, who is the director of WAMM, and her husband Mike, own the land with the marijuana garden raided by the DEA. For more than five years, the Corrals have provided marijuana to people who have a recommendation from their physicians. The local sheriff, who routinely confiscates large amounts of marijuana annually from commercial marijuana operations, has not confiscated any marijuana from the Corrals.At the event, Valerie Corral said there are legal medical marijuana users under federal law and introduced Elvy Musikka, who has glaucoma and is one of eight people approved by the federal government to smoke marijuana. "She always carries her legal medical marijuana, rolled by the federal government, grown in the federal government's garden, one that they do not go into with guns," Corral told the crowd. Musikka displayed a large tin box and held up a handful of marijuana cigarettes."This isn't about recreational pot use," Emily Reilly, the vice-mayor of Santa Cruz told UPI. "What the city council is trying to do here is show support for Mike and Val Corral."Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington State have passed voter initiatives permitting marijuana use under a physician's supervision. Hawaii enacted such a law in its legislature.From the Science & Technology DeskSource: United Press InternationalAuthor: Joe Grossman, UPI Science NewsPublished: September 17, 2002Copyright 2002 United Press InternationalWebsite: http://www.upi.com/ Contact: http://www.upi.com/about/contact.cfmRelated Articles & Web Sites:WAMMhttp://www.wamm.org/Americans For Safe Accesshttp://www.safeaccessnow.org/Pictures From WAMM Protesthttp://freedomtoexhale.com/eventpics.htmDefiant California City Hands Out Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14151.shtmlSanta Cruz City Council Distributes Medpot http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14150.shtmlCalifornians Get Pot in Medical Marijuana Protest http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14149.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #4 posted by p4me on September 18, 2002 at 08:12:40 PT Why question my propaganda? Maybe you have detected an anti-propaganda message in my predictions. I assure you that I have 5 crystal balls, time-tested Tarrot cards, and 3 of the best astrologers in the world backing up my claim that Busch will not be elected. There is no scientific evidence that these instruments of prediction are not reliable. I am getting ready to pose some questions to my best crystal ball to see if my personal opinions are correct. I think the voting scandal of 2000 and the recent voting problems that Jebby said he solved after he improved Al Bore's internet, along with Noelle's being awarded a prize for gaming the system, and the problems with losing children under state care, along with being the brother of an embarassing president will doom his governorship. Busch the Dunce will not carry Florida in 2004 and will retire with selling the millions of bags of pretzels sent to him before the election. I do not want to overwork my best crystal ball, so I will not even bother to verify that California will vote against Busch.The accounting scandals of Enron and kind are pale according to the scandals of the accounting of the government especially in the Defense budget. In all seriousness, this problem cannot be overstated. Busch is too stupid to address the problem even in light of the contempt of court rulings coming out against the Department of Interior in regards to the money that they have stolen from the American Indians.Remember the National Debt Clock the man in New York was going to restore because of the grave problem the national debt presents? If it is up and running it is telling everyone in Time Square the national debt has reached $6.212 trillion. The number at the website- http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/ -that used to say the national debt has increased $1.111 billion a day now says it is increased an average of $1.140 billion a day. That extra $29 million a day is about $10 billion that snuck up on everyone and translates into voters jumping the ship.Interest rates are at record lows and any increase of rates the government pays on interest makes the problem worse. Plus having the media try to represent the debt at $160 billion is going to show manipulation of the media to control voter minds as we all know is done with cannabis although we do not let it contol our minds and we spread the word of corruption and whoredom of the Fourth Mistake, I mean Estate. Hollings said in his speech on the Senate floor as the Fast track for free trade passed that using Republican figures the deficit was predicted to be $412 billion with things being more gloomy now than last month.Al Gore has always wanted to be president and will exploit any thing he can to once again be the Democratic nominee. If you read buzzflash.com you can see that the situation of the media is the central theme of his current campaign and rightly so. The media influence got Busch elected and the media biases is and will be a subject of increased scrutiny by everyone from Dan Rather and Bill Moyers and many others.Busches balloon is filled with hot air from people like Rush Dimbaugh and his dittobrainless followers that are going to scatter as they find out that all things Dimbaugh are not gospel when someone pokes the balloon with a sharp accounting needle.The defense budget will soak up all the money from the social programs and the reserves the states did have before the financial hardships fell on them will be wiped out this year presenting an even harder challenge of providing services for the public and more pressure for tax increases. The people's pain will be magnified by the increasing greed of the pill companies to demand life savings for life and the tales of their 600 Washington lobbyist will draw the scorn of the nothing-to-do-better than vote elderly that want to stay alive.The media had painted the recession as mild compared to the 91-92 recession which is now being blasted as false with the added problem there is no end in sight and foreclosures on homes are at record highs as record numbers of people exhaust their protective benefits with decreasing hope of finding a job. The percentage of people with insurance is falling as health care cost are rising 15% a year and all the Busch administration can do is offer them bullets.I recently came across all of this in a crashed space ship and feel certain the aliens had come to some pretty sound conclusions. I some want to run it through my crystal ball, but all my prediction equipment says Busch will lose in a big way in part due to the defection of Catholics that have come to a new reality.Sales of new computers to people that want the DVD burners and the HDTV burners and the new graphics cards, higher processing speeds, better operating systems, better chipset design, lower power consumption on notebooks, and so on will put millions of worthy computers like my 466MHz system on the market for almost nothing and bring more people to the internet to also come to a new reality as newspaper subscriptions fall as their credibity falls.The Busch balloon will burst because of too much hot air or someone will stick it. His balloon is not that pretty no matter how big it is.Do you see what a person without a job, me, can learn from the internet and what do you think I tell my friends. I say if you would read the internet you would come to a new reality. If you are new to cannabisnews.com you will soon see things in a different way and this is just one website.I might add that things, when illustrated with a cannabis view, is damming to both parties but will be a powerful force in sending Busch home. And let us here work to bring hemp back to America so that we do not look so backwards and to right a wrong that has stood for 65 years.Anyone seen Ashcroft lately. 1,2 [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on September 18, 2002 at 07:00:07 PT Elected? p4me, your comments are quite astute, except the part about Bush not having a chance to be elected. He didn't get elected in 2000! And now there's rumor Al Bore - err, Gore - is going to run again in '04. Oh great. Reruns. Vote Libertarian! [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by p4me on September 18, 2002 at 05:57:29 PT Congratutions, burn one in celebration The stats section at Cnews says that there were 94,128 files served yesterday, 9/17/02. I think eclipses the old record by about 12,000. Yesterday's record will soon fall and the bar chart will have to be expanded or modified so it can properly be displayed. If the present format is kept, next years chart might say number of files served over 100,000. Maybe with the demonstration on Monday Cnews will break that 100,000 barrier.1,2 [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by p4me on September 18, 2002 at 05:34:49 PT A lie of DEAth Tom Hinojosa told UPI. "If there was evidence based on scientific study, demonstrating benefit, that might influence the DEA's thinking about whether or not physicians should be permitted to prescribe marijuana under federal law."That is one big and enduring lie told by the DEA over and over. It is an offshoot of the Schedule One Lie.I will refer everyone to Chapter 6 of Jack Herer's online edition of "The Emperor Wears No Clothes": http://www.jackherer.com/book/ch06.htmlWait until the financial interest of GW Pharma. meets the lies of the DEA. What happens when the position of the DEA is openly laughed at by the press and politicians and the DEA is forced to retreat because the political fascist that support the stonewall and lies are removed from office? Hutchinson and Walters have only a little more than two years to spread their lies, because no matter what the polls might suggest, Dim Son does not have a chance of being elected after showing the people what religious fundamentalist can do when they hijack a government.Where can Walters speak in public without being called a liar? Only in church, I would say.1,2 [ Post Comment ] Post Comment