Pubdate: Sun, 08 Sep 2002
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 2002 The Seattle Times Company
Contact:  http://www.seattletimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409
Author: Howard Mintz, Knight Ridder Newspapers

FEDS TARGET MEDICINAL MARIJUANA

SAN JOSE, Calif. - By raiding a nationally known medicinal marijuana farm 
in Santa Cruz last week, federal law-enforcement officials served notice 
that they are escalating their legal assault on California's medical-pot 
movement.

While the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has launched similar raids 
throughout the state over the past year, the Santa Cruz operation marked 
the most aggressive crackdown on a major medical- marijuana outfit in or 
near the Bay Area. And it appeared to cement a policy change for area 
federal law-enforcement officials, who for the most part have relied on 
civil-court orders to stop medical-pot distributors since California 
enacted Proposition 215 six years ago.

Medicinal-pot advocates reacted angrily Friday to the raid on the 
cooperative owned by Valerie and Michael Corral, both of whom were involved 
in drafting the state initiative that legalized supplying marijuana to the 
sick and dying. The Corrals had been operating with the support of local 
law-enforcement officials and political leaders.

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, a strong backer of Prop. 215, 
fired off a letter Friday to Attorney General John Ashcroft, asking for a 
meeting and criticizing "punitive expeditions" against "locally authorized 
medical marijuana operations."

The raid also sparked protests Friday against the DEA in San Jose, San 
Francisco and Oakland.

"Where are the federal government's priorities?" asked Jeff Jones, 
executive director of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative, which has 
been battling the Justice Department for four years. "At the anniversary of 
9/11, you would think the federal government and its agencies would have 
more important things to do than raid someone who has not caused harm."

Federal prosecutors said Friday that they are mulling whether to file 
criminal charges against the Corrals, who were arrested and released 
Wednesday. Agents seized more than 100 marijuana plants, a shotgun and 
three rifles.

Richard Meyer, DEA spokesman in San Francisco, said the Corrals have been 
"flouting the law."

Indeed, the raid on the Corrals' farm is the latest example of the 
seemingly irreconcilable tension between Prop. 215 and federal drug laws. 
The U.S. Supreme Court this year dealt a major blow to the movement when it 
ruled that there is no medical exception to federal drug laws.

The ruling ensured that medicinal-pot distributors, even with the support 
of local and state officials, could only survive if the federal government 
chose to leave them alone - and that is not happening.
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