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Herb Ninja

Marijuana ruling worries Santa Cruz group

LOCAL MEDICINAL MARIJUANA PROVIDERS, USERS FEAR BEING TARGETED BY FEDERAL LAW AGENTS

6-07-2005 | Ken McLaughlin | Mercury News

Valerie Corral had already been up all night, caring for Wayne Meyer, a 53-year-old man who was dying of AIDS. The longtime member of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana took his last breath about 4 a.m. Monday.

Hours later, Corral got more depressing news -- that the medicinal marijuana cooperative she and her husband, Mike, founded was once again a possible target because of Monday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing federal pot laws to trump state medicinal marijuana laws.

In September 2002, WAMM's medicinal marijuana garden near Davenport was raided, and the Corrals arrested -- triggering outrage in Santa Cruz's famed progressive community. Thumbing its nose at federal drug laws, the Santa Cruz City Council stood by on the steps of City Hall as WAMM members passed out marijuana to sick people.

Corral said Monday that the death of Meyer -- the 155th WAMM member to die in the past 145 months -- was telling in weighing the importance of the issue.

``He died a criminal,'' she said. ``It's the justice system at its worst.''

Ray Miller, a former Baptist pastor who was diagnosed with bladder cancer Sept. 12, 2001, couldn't agree more.

``It's a sad situation when the Supreme Court can overturn the judgment of my doctor when none of the justices has ever examined me,'' said Miller, who used marijuana to combat the nausea caused by chemotherapy.

Hal Margolin, 72, who smokes marijuana for severe nerve and back pain, said he was just plain angry. ``This is my government, my country -- the country I fought in the Army for for two years,'' he said. ``What happened to the democratic process?''

After the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Oakland's Angel McClary Raich in 2003, a judge issued an injunction preventing federal raids on WAMM while the case wound its way to the Supreme Court. With Monday's decision, legal experts say, that injunction will be removed.

Santa Cruz County Supervisor Mardi Wormhoudt said she worried that the raid leaves WAMM ``extremely vulnerable'' to federal agents.

Javier Peña, Drug Enforcement Administration special agent in charge of the San Francisco field division, said he would not comment specifically on WAMM because of litigation stemming from the raid.

But, he added, ``We've investigate the large marijuana traffickers in the past. And that priority will continue.''

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