cannabisnews.com: Pot Club To Fight Court Decision





Pot Club To Fight Court Decision
Posted by CN Staff on August 30, 2003 at 07:52:30 PT
By Dan White, Sentinel Staff Writer
Source: Santa Cruz Sentinel 
Santa Cruz — Medical-pot advocates say Thursday’s U.S. District Court ruling against a local marijuana co-op leaves ailing members vulnerable to more federal raids and prosecution. But lawyers representing the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana say they will appeal the decision.On Thursday, the district court rebuffed the collective’s attempt to bar federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents from carrying on more raids like the one last September when 160 plants in WAMM’s Davenport pot garden were uprooted and its founders arrested at gunpoint.
Charges were never filed against Valerie and Michael Corral. On Friday, Valerie Corral and WAMM’s lawyers said such court decisions won’t kill pot clubs, but could eventually drive them and their chronically and terminally ill clients underground.They contended such rulings make members more dependent on and vulnerable to the black market, rather than giving them freedom to grow and donate pot. "The federal government is going after a select number of clubs and co-ops in California," said Daniel Abrahamson of the Drug Policy Alliance, the advocacy group that has been part of WAMM’s legal defense team. "But more co-ops are still springing up underground even after these raids," he said. "The government is succeeding in pushing the movement even further underground — and making it more difficult to regulate it." Corral — who noted that 16 of the group’s 250 members have died since the raid — said that if WAMM had prevailed Thursday, the group would have jump-started its garden.She said the group is waiting to see if the federal government will use the ruling "to move against us," though she said WAMM has "absolutely no plans to be shut down." Wary of federal prosecution, she wouldn’t detail WAMM’s survival game plan.But Corral also said WAMM is going ahead with its plans for a celebration and fund-raiser 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 14 at San Lorenzo Park.She emphasized the event is "not a smoke-out. There will be a place where people can medicate, but it will be very regulated. You can’t get in there if you’re not a WAMM member and you have to show your card. There is always somebody at the door." DEA agent Richard Meyer said the court decision was merely a confirmation of "business as usual.""I’m not allowed to talk about pending operations but we never deviated from our mission, which is to enforce the Controlled Substances Act, even when Prop. 215 (the medical marijuana initiative) was passed." He said the DEA already "did everything we were supposed to do" with the Corrals and WAMM, though "anyone distributing drugs shouldn’t be surprised at all if we knock on the door with a search warrant." This week’s decision provoked an immediate response from medical-pot advocates such as the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative, which boasts an active member base of about 9,000. Jeff Jones of the Oakland co-op said he finds it striking that the federal government continues to crack down on medical marijuana even as sympathy toward this issue advances in California — including Republican gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger’s recent statement that he would legalize medical marijuana and supports the notion of patients getting the drug with a prescription."In the debate about the recall, it has a lot of support, or you wouldn’t have such a high profile candidate coming out for legal access," Jones said.But Jones said it would be inaccurate to call Thursday’s court decision a "reversal" for medical marijuana when the decision actually preserves the status quo, which is that the pot clubs remain vulnerable to prosecution in spite of a state initiative that makes medical marijuana legal. WAMM and the Oakland club both face appellate court hearings next month. WAMM is trying to get the federal government to return seized property, while the buyers club is appealing a decision barring it from operating a medical marijuana dispensary.Jones said he was optimistic, given the track record of the appellate court’s panel of judges, that both WAMM and his group "will get a good day in court" in September. "I can’t read judges’ minds but this particular panel has given hope to patients (who use medical marijuana) that they won’t have to go through the criminal justice system." But, he cautioned, "it is a high probability that if we have a win, the Supreme Court could overturn it." Source: Santa Cruz Sentinel (CA)Author: Dan White, Sentinel Staff WriterPublished: August 30, 2003 Copyright: 2003 Santa Cruz SentinelContact: editorial santa-cruz.comWebsite: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:WAMMhttp://www.wamm.org/WAMM Raided - September 5, 2002 http://freedomtoexhale.com/valc.htmJudge Deals Blow To Pot Farm http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17176.shtmlJudge Refuses To Block Raids of Marijuana Farm http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17175.shtmlWAMM Plans Family Dayhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17153.shtml
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