Pubdate: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 Source: Chicago Tribune (IL) Copyright: 2002 Chicago Tribune Company Contact: http://www.chicagotribune.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82 Author: Los Angeles Times DEFIANT GROUP GIVES MARIJUANA TO PATIENTS SAN FRANCISCO -- Officials in the liberal seaside town of Santa Cruz may not be marijuana smokers, but on Tuesday they became pot purveyors with a political cause. In a display of defiance triggered by a recent federal bust of a local medical marijuana club, Mayor Christopher Krohn and six City Council members met outside City Hall to watch as workers from the Women's Alliance for Medical Marijuana dispensed the drug to sick people. Several hundred residents filled City Hall plaza to cheer speakers and throw an old-fashioned anti-government rally. Workers handed out small bags of marijuana to a dozen patients who would have normally picked up their medication in private Tuesday. Each time the drug was dispensed, the crowd cheered loudly, said Santa Cruz Vice Mayor Emily Reilly. Richard Meyer, a Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman in San Francisco, was not amused. "We're dismayed that the City Council and the mayor of Santa Cruz would condone the distribution of marijuana," he said. "I don't know what they're thinking, but they're flouting federal law. And we here at the DEA take violations of the law very seriously." Marijuana--medical or otherwise--is illegal under federal law. But under California law, the drug is legal if it is recommended by a doctor. On Sept. 5, federal agents raided a Santa Cruz medical marijuana collective, arrested three people and confiscated 130 plants. The move was met with outrage by residents of this surfers' haven and college town. Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington also have passed laws allowing marijuana to be grown and distributed to patients with a prescription. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that the 1996 California voter initiative legalizing medical marijuana doesn't provide a defense against federal prosecution. Since then, the state has become the target of Bush administration efforts to crack down on the drug's use. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth